Israel October 17, 2011 Day 7 Jerusalem and Bethlehem

Today was the day that we were to go to the Temple Mount but because of the prisoner exchange it was closed to all visitors. I knew Pastor James had made an extra trip up there in Sept. to pray so that softened the disappointment a little. The Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange  followed an agreement between Israel and Hamas to release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for 1,027 prisoners – mainly Palestinians and Arab-Israelis.

 View of Jerusalem and Temple Mount or Mount Moriah from the Mount of Olives.
The Mount of Olives was covered with olive trees but the Romans cut most of them down to build the rampart of the siege of Jerusalem during the Great Revolt of the Jews in 70 A.D.

Close up of the Mosque on the Temple Mount

Me at the top of the Mount of Olives.

 We walked down to the Garden of Gethsemane through these thousands of sarcophagi.

 Close up of some of the sarcophagi.  The stones are put there by the family when they come to visit the grave.

Entrance to the Garden of Gethsemane

Garden of Gethsemane.
Olive trees do not have rings and so their age can not be precisely determined, but scholars estimate their age to anywhere between one and two thousand years old.  It is unlikely that these trees were here in the time of Christ because of the report that the Romans cut down all the trees in the area in their siege of Jerusalem in AD 70. (Bibleplaces.com)

The Basilica of the Agony also known as The Church of All Nations overlooks the Garden

These three pictures were taken inside The Basilica

Next we went to the Hebrew University where there is an excavation of a tomb.  People prepared burial before sundown. They put the  body on a weeping (chamber table).
In one year they would measure the femur and put in an ossuary box the length of the femur to preserve space.
Jesus needed a new tomb so they could not claim someone else was resurrected.

 

 Our next stop was the Israel Museum. Among the highlights of the Museum’s original campus is the Shrine of the Book, designed by Armand Bartos and Frederick Kiesler, which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest biblical manuscripts in the world, as well as rare early medieval biblical manuscripts. Adjacent to the Shrine is the Model of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period,which reconstructs the topography and architectural character of the city as it was prior to its destruction by the Romans in 66 AD, and provides historical context  to the Shrine’s presentation of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  We were unable to take pictures in the Shrine of the Book but here is an interactive tour.
http://www.imj.org.il/panavision/shrine_index.html

 Such a busy day!  Our next stop was Bethlehem but it is in Palestine territory.  This wall is to protect Israelis from sniper fire.
At the border we had to changes buses, drivers and tour guide.  

This mural was in the restaurant where we ate but no felafel :-(

This is the basement of the gift shop that we visited.

Two of the wood carvers

Shepherds' Field Church

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people." (Luke 2:8-10)

The fertile fields of Beit Sahour are believed to be where this biblical scene took place. There are two rival locations for the exact site, one run by the Greek Orthodox and the other by the Franciscans. Both sites have This area is also believed to be where the Hebrew matriarchs Ruth and Naomi gleaned in the fields behind the harvesters on their way to Bethlehem from Moab (Ruth 2-4).been excavated, and there have been churches and monasteries on both sites since the 4th century or earlier.

The ceiling is to represent the star that shown over the shepherds.
The acoustics in here were amazing.  One of our group started singing and the rest of the group joined in singing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing"  The next group was from Norway and as soon as we were finished they began singing a song in Norwegian.  It was lovely!

Around the edges of this church were several beautiful inset murals.

We were told this is what a stable would have looked like in Biblical days.  It would be a carved out cave.

Some interesting signs that we passed.  The streets were very narrow and it was hilly as our bus slowly snaked around.

Our next stop was The Church of the Nativity.
The Door of Humility, a small rectangular entrance to the church, was created in Ottoman times to prevent carts being driven in by looters, and to force even the most important visitor to dismount from his horse as he entered the holy place. The doorway was reduced from an earlier Crusader doorway, the pointed arch of which can still be seen above the current door. The outline of the Justinian square entrance can also be seen above the door.

Thirty of the nave's 44 columns carry Crusader paintings of saints and the Virgin and Child, although age and lighting conditions make them hard to see.
The columns are made of pink, polished limestone, most of them dating from the original 4th-century Constantinian basilica.

 Fragments of high-quality wall mosaics dating from the 1160s decorate both sides of the nave.

 Trap doors in the present floor reveal sections of floor mosaics surviving from the original basilica.

The Grotto of the Nativity, a rectangular cavern beneath the church, is the Church of the Nativity's focal point. Entered by a flight of steps by the church altar, this is the cave that has been honored as the site of Christ's birth since at least the 2nd century.
A silver star in the floor marks the very spot where Christ is believed to have been born. The star's Latin inscription reads, "Here of the Virgin Mary Jesus Christ was born — 1717." The floor is paved in marble, and 15 lamps hang above the star.

Back through the checkpoint from Bethlehem to Jerusalem.  A young female soldier went through the bus.  Every policeman and soldier that we saw carried a machine gun.

Israel October 16, 2011 Day 6 Dead Sea, Masada, Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls, Abraham's Tent.

View of the Dead Sea from Marsha's hotel room.  The area here was desolate except for 3 hotels. The hotel provided very large bottles of water because the tap water wasn't potable.

This was in the spa area of our motel.

And this is where you soak your feet so the little fishes will remove your dead skin.  EEEEWWWW!!!

Some of our group floating in the Dead Sea.  It was strange swimming around.  Anyone can float :-)  I loved how soft my skin felt after swimming in the Dead Sea.  At a gift shop I received some free Dead Sea items with my purchase. The Ahava Mineral Hand Cream feels wonderful!!


Masada was "rebuilt by Herod, making it virtually impregnable.  Massive fortifications, palaces and storehouses were designed to protect Herod in case of protracted wars and he built hanging gardens, a swimming pool, an elaborate bath-house, vast stores, a synagogue and ritual baths, protecting the whole by sentry towers set at intervals along an encircling wall.  Approach was difficult.  The only way seems to have been by the narrow Snake Path, tortuously winding up the eastern slope of the mountain, from where can be seen the threatening outlines of the Roman camp at the base of the hill.  After the fall of Jerusalem in  70 A.D., a group of 960 Jewish zealots-men, women and children, barricaded themselves on Masada and held it for three years.  When conquest seemed imminent and the Romans were ready to burst in, Josephus tells us that the commander, Eleazar ben Yair, spoke to the defenders enjoining each man to kill his family.  Then they 'chose ten men by lot to slay all the rest...and when these ten had slain them all, they made the same rule for casting lots for themselves;' (Wars of the Jews, Book VII:9:1).  When the Romans eventually entered the fortress, they found ample stores to show that it was not lack of provisions that caused the surrender; otherwise they found nothing but piles of corpses and a deathly silence."  from The Holy Land pp. 114-115

Ibex (goat) at the base of Masada.

Cable car to the top of Masada.  I was dreading this trip.  I don't like heights but...I had prayed about it and never felt any fear!!

Looking down from the top
of Masada.

 Some people walked up to the top of Masada but none from our group.

View of the Dead Sea from the top of Masada.

Part of the floor in the Western Palace.
Another intricate mosaic.

Fifteen long storerooms kept essential provisions for time of siege.  Herod filled with them with food and weapons. Each storeroom held a different commodity.  This was attested by different storage jars and inscriptions on jars in rooms.  Wine bottles sent to Herod from Italy were found.

Below the black line is the original wall and above is the rebuilt wall from the stones found in this area.

The rampart the Romans built to scale Masada.  It is hard for me to imagine that Masada was built and this rampart was built without the use of modern day machinery.

Rocks of this size were used to ward off intruders.










This is the area where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.  It is said that the scrolls were found by two Bedouin shepherd boys looking for a stray.  They found seven earthenware jars containing priceless biblical manuscripts.  So far 11 caves have been found. The cave you can see is cave 4. More than 15,000 fragments from over 200 books were found in this cave.  From all 11 Qumran caves, every Old Testament book is represented except Esther.  No New Testament books or fragments have been found at these sites.  Info from Bibleplaces.com and "The Holy Land".

At the base of the Qumran was a monastic brotherhood called the Essenes, which devoted itself to asceticism.  This is one of the cisterns.  They probably lived in tents and were celibate.  They believed they were the Chosen.  There have been many excavations at this site.

This was a scary day for me in the morning.  Afraid of the cable car and of riding on a camel.  Chicken has always been my middle name :-)  This was really fun and not scary at all.  My riding companion was from FL and did not speak English.  I'm not sure if she was visiting FL from Africa.

This was the most fun next to swimming in the Dead Sea.

Marsha and her sister, Judy.  We started out on the ground.

We were told to hang on and lean back as far as we could and then the camel stood up on it's back legs.

Finally standing up!!
Going down was front feet first and then back feet.

We sat on the floor on cushions to eat at Abraham's tent.  It was quite uncomfortable!!

"Abraham and his nephew, Lot" sharing with us what God had said to them and their life in this area.  We were then served foods from this area.  Nothing was very outstanding to me :-)

View out the front door of
"Abraham's tent"








After dinner at the camel ranch, we had about a 45 min. ride to Jerusalem.  As we drove into the outskirts of Jerusalem someone began singing the song "Jerusalem"  We all joined in and it sounded like a beautiful choir-my arms had goose bumps.  I looked out the window and car had 222 on it's license plate and I thanked God for this experience.  222 is my special number from the Lord-it is too long of a story to explain the significance and how I got this number in this blog.