Today we started by going to Tabgha, this is where the feeding of the multitude is believed to have happened. From the time of the 7th century AD this was the traditional place of the feeding of the 5000, though it probably isn't where it actually happened. The first basilica built here was in the 4th century and then a byzantine church was built in the 5th century. The current church is a reconstruction from the 80s overtop the 5th century church, this is one of the best reconstructions of a byzantine church anywhere.
The inside of the reconstructed Byzantine church.
An interesting thing I noticed today and this week is that many of the tour groups here are more than just interest or academic trips, for many it is a pilgrimage. Some of the groups are led by people in “monk robes” and some have kind of religious things draped around their neck. At the monastery at the sermon on the mount many people crossed themselves with a dip from the holy water . At tabgha, people were kneeling and praying there and lighting little candles. While I guess it could be neat to pray in a place like that certainly there is a religious aspect to a visit to the holy land, I'm not sure how I feel about the religiosity these people attribute to it; it seems to focused on the works aspect of things, the pilgrimage. While perhaps they don't all think this, and maybe some are just doing it because that seems to be the thing to do, it was something that has crossed my mind.
From there we went Zippora/Sepphoris, near Nazareth. Current day Nazareth is not quite where the old town of Nazareth was, today, Nazareth is a largely muslim town. Zippora is probably a town that Joseph would have done work in since Nazareth was a rather small town. While the translation of Joseph's job is a carpenter, he was probably more of a stone worker since there isn't a lot fo wood to work with in Israel, certainyl he might have had to make frames and such out of wood, but most structures and even furniture was made from stone. Mishi made an interesting point, Jesus probably came to work with his father when he was young, and if he wasn't working with him he might have spent time listening to and talking with the large number of Rabbis there. This could have given him some experience which allowed him to speak with authority at the temple in Jerusalem as a boy, besides the supernatural element. Also in Zippora are the extremely well preserved remains of a floor mosaic in an eating room of a well off house. When it was first discovered it was removed by rolling onto sticky sheets around large drums and taking to Jerusalem to be cleaned and reassembled and brought back to the site. It consists of 1.5 million stone pieces from 23 different colors.
The incredibly preserved mosaic.
This eating room from the same time as Jesus presents a different picture of the last supper than Leonardo Da Vinci in his last supper painting. Rather than being along a single large table they would have been sitting on couches on three sides around the outside of a rectangle with their feet sticking outward. This would have allowed Jesus better access to wash their feet rather than under a table. Also, they wouldn't have had plates and silverware, but bread and food on a little low stone table every few seats. This mosaic here though does have the “Mona Lisa” of mosaics in that there is a figure of a lady with a slight smile and eyes that seems to follow form any direction. All together this was a work of art. We saw the rest of the town, we went to a building that had a different mosaic design for every floor's room. It was likely the house of a mosaic artist and used each room for living, but also for demonstrating the different designs that he could do. This was a neat place to see because of the old roads and building remains, it felt rather majestic in a way. It was rather impressive, on one of the main roads you could see ruts worn in the stones from chariots and wagons using them so much.
Ruts in the stone rode from Chariots and Wagons
We stopped briefly at the Gideon Springs where God narrowed down Gideon's 32,000 men to 300. Specifically, how they drank from the water, whether lapping from their hands and paying attention, the 300, or bending down and drinking straight from the stream. While it may not have been exactly 300, perhaps more of a symbolic number, it still wasn't very many for going against 135,000 mideonites (the modern bedouins). One of the first training bases for the Palmach, an Israeli paramilitary fighting group before the formation of the state of Israel, was also located here.
Cave beginning of the springs, the spring is much smaller than it used to be.
Then to Bet Shean, this is a well preserved and excavated city south of the Galilee area. In Bible terms, this is where the headless, naked, bodies of Saul and his sons were hung on the walls after being defeated and killed in a battle with the Philistines. This was a rather large city, and most of the walls and large buildings have been found. There was an amphitheater, hippodrome, and 7500 person theater.
An overview of Bet Shean, we started basically in the center near the theater.
The hill at the center is where the temple was located, there are remains of 15 cities there and items from Roman, Greek, and Egyptian influenced temples.
Looking out over the main buildings of the city and the center hill where the temples would be
Also in this city were Roman public baths and latrines. The latrines were interesting in that it was a whole line of stone toilet seats right next to each other over some running water, no privacy at all. There was then a small stream of water running in fton of the seats for cleaning oneself. It's interesting that this didn't phase the Romans, I guess it is part of their rather decadent culture.
The public toilets being demonstrated.
The toilets were really quite comfortable, as I tried them out. :-D
Trying out the "toilets." Surprisingly ergonomic. :-)
An earthquake destroyed most of Bet Shean as we see it today, the collapsed pillars and buildings. This was also very interesting to see, the majesty of the former roman city and road running through it with pillars and columns collapsed along the side.
Collapsed pillars in Bet Shean
Finally, we went to the Jordan river, the place commemorating the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. It isn't the actual place since it happened on the lower Jordan, but rather a place remembering it and for tourists. We were able wade in the river as well.
Me in the Jordan River
In the evening we had a brief presentation of the different faces of Judaism. It is hard to characterize a Jew by ethnicity or religion. Many different categories of Jews from different areas; main divisions are the Sephoric from the Spain area, and the Ashkenazim from Europe. Other areas came from remains after the Babylonian captivity or having moved to Africa or other regions. As for religion, there are those who are orthodox, or more relaxed (conservative and reformed/liberal), and secular Jews (those who don't care about the religious aspect, but perhaps attend synagogue on high holidays). Secular Jews make up over 50% of Jews worldwide and in Israel. Typically, one is considered a Jew if ones mother was one. As for the law of return t o allow Jewish immigrants back to Israel, they ironically follow rules similar to the Nazis, if your grandfather was a Jew you are counted as one, this is partly because if you could suffer for being a Jew under the Nazis you were welcome in Israel.
Jim/Hopps
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