Shephelah Field Trip

      Several week ago now...we had a tour of the Shephelah!  It's the 'low, rolling hills' region of the country.  The first stop, on the first day, was at the tel of Gezer, which is mentioned in 1 Kings 9:15.  Along with Hazor and Megiddo, Gezer is one of the 5 most important sites in Israel.  It ‘s really neat to see a city that was so important for ancient people for so long!  The Gezer calendar was found here which is the oldest Hebrew text, and is really important for understanding ancient agriculture.  The nicest Iron Age gate, Solomon’s Gate, is found at Gezer.  One of the reasons why it’s so important is because it is the beginning of the classical fortification style of ancient Israel.  We stopped at the high place of Gezer and saw the standing stones that were possibly made as a sign of treaties. 

The standing stones at Gezer

Solomon's Gate

            Our next stop was at tel As Safi, or the ancient site of Gath, which is the hometown of Goliath.  

            Azekah was the next site that we went to.  It listed as part of the inheritance of the clan of Judah in Joshua 15.  From here, we could see Khirbet Kiafah, Socoh and the Elah Valley, where David fought Goliath.  We read the story of David and Goliath from 1 Samuel 17 here.  We descended from Azekah to go to the Elah Brook, where we could get a stone similar to what David might have used in his sling!

Overlooking the Elah Valley from Azekah

The Elah Brook

            The slopes of Adullam, another site mentioned in Joshua 15, was our last stop of the day!  It was a really beautiful view, but it was also really neat to read and reflect on Psalm 34 and 56.  I really enjoyed being able to take a moment and picture where David actually was when he was having these struggles, but then turned around and praised the Lord!

The view from Adullam

A sheepfold (sheep corral/cave) on Adullam

            On the second day of the Shephelah tour, we started by going to Bet Shemesh, Samson’s hometown.  We looked again to the list of cities in Joshua 19 and saw Bet Shemesh, and then we read Samson’s story in Judges 13.  It’s also been interesting to see how different my view of Samson that I got from Sunday school is!  I always thought that he was sort of a good guy (God still works through him of course!) but he’s really quite bad!  

            From here, we went to Socoh, a city that we had a view of from our first trip at Azekah.  Even though we talked about David and Goliath on the previous trip, we reenacted the story, which was really fun!

            The hometown of Micah the prophet, Moresheth-Gath, was out next site.  We went spelunking here, which was an interesting experience!  I couldn’t even begin to imagine how difficult it would be to live in such a small space...let's just say I hope that I never go back into a cave like that ever again :)  When we all finally figured out how to exit the cave, we went over to the nicest amphitheater of the country at Bet Guvrin and had a fake gladiator fight that was very entertaining!  

            In the area, there was a columbarium, a big cave built to house pigeons.  They would use the pigeons to eat or sacrifice, and they would use the bird poop for fertilizer.  It is absolutely fascinating to me how they had the caves as their ‘coops!’  After that, we went to the Bell Caves.  The thing that’s interesting about these caves is that they were carved out for the purpose of taking the limestone to make plaster for other cisterns instead of being made into cisterns themselves.  Benj also told us that one of the caves is in the movie Rambo 3, which really makes me want to have a movie night when we get back to America!  We sang a couple of songs in the cave and got to interact with some Israelis who enjoyed our singing after we finished!

An ancient 'bird cage'

Bell caves

            Our last stop of the day was at the tel of Lachish.  It is a huge site that spans 30 acres!  We also saw the remains of the Assyrian siege ramp that was built up against the city walls…it’s very impressive!  Joshua 10 talks about how Joshua conquered Lachish in the Southern conquest.  The reason why Lachish is such an important city is because it guards the southern approach to Judah.  

Lachish!

Enjoying a little stroll around the base of the tel

After wandering around a little bit, we loaded up and headed back to Yad Hashmonah!

En Gedi Hike/Dead Sea--Nahal Parat Hike--Sukkot!

       This post is going to be about a couple of different things...we didn't go to these places with any particular academic purpose (taking notes/having to remember things for a test!), but I figured they were worth sharing :)

En Gedi/Dead Sea
       We went to En Gedi, a city in the Judean Wilderness to go on a hike.  This is where David and some of his followers were hiding from Saul as talked about in 1 Samuel 24.  We hiked up the Ascent of Ziz...and it was so hot!  Fortunately, we came along a couple of springs along the way to take a dip in!  Now, when I read about a spring in the wilderness/longing for water in the wilderness/etc in the Bible, I truly understand!  Since this area of the wilderness is right next to the Dead Sea, we could see it from our hike.  Once we finished the hike and went down to the sea, I didn't get any floating pictures! :( I was too busy being wet and salty and rubbing mud all over my body!  :)

An ibex!

Wilderness at En Gedi

More wilderness!

The spring!

The Dead Sea, and looking across to Jordan.

Nahal Parat

       Nahal Parat is a riverbed/canyon northeast of Jerusalem where Jeremiah 13 says that the prophet Jeremiah left his linen belt.

A cave...where someone probably lived!

A pool we found along the way...if you stick your feet in and be really still...they'll come up and eat the dead skin off your legs and feet!

Wilderness

Wilderness

Sukkot

       We got to experience a real Jewish holiday!  Sukkot, or the Feast of Booths, is a reminder of God's provision to them when they were wandering around in the wilderness.  We went into Jerusalem the day before Sukkot started to see the fair that they have set up, where they have vendors selling all the necessary Sukkot decorations.  We also got to walk through the Orthodox community.  The following Sunday, we got to go into Jerusalem again!  Since we usually go into Jerusalem every Saturday, it was fun to be able to go when all the Jewish people are out and about...and celebrating a holiday, which makes it extra fun!

The Sukkot fair

Taking a stroll through the Orthodox neighborhood!

The hustle and bustle of the Western Wall during a holiday!

I also rode a camel! :)

      

Judah Field Study

A couple of Wednesdays ago (October 1), our field trip was to a few of the high points in the land given to the tribe of Judah.  In the bus, we were told about how Judah really doesn’t have very many stories in the Bible about it!  We were told that for the most part, how Judah looks now is very similar to how it would have looked in ancient times.  In the 1950s, the rest of Israel was reforested with pine trees, so it looks a little bit different!  I didn’t really know what to expect, but I was still excited to be ‘transported in time!’

            Our first stop was in Jerusalem at Ketef Hinnom, near St. Andrew’s Church.  We started off by reading from Joshua 18.  This site is the most important tomb complex associated with Jerusalem.  The tombs are from 7 to 6 BC, and during this time (a range of time following 586 BC) is the most unknown period in Israel’s history.  Archaeologists found a lot of burial gifts that would have been put to ‘help’ the dead in their afterlife.  They also found the silver amulet that has the oldest recorded scripture in it at this location. 

People laying in the tombs at Ketef Hinnom.

            In the bus going to the next location, we learned about how in ancient Judah, a person couldn’t live on just one occupation, like a crop farmer.  An example from the Bible of someone who lived like this was Amos, who was a shepherd/farmer.

            Our next stop was at the monument of Herodium.  It was built as a memorial to the victory that he had in 40 BC at this site.  Surprisingly enough, it was also the only battle he ever fought!   This site is also one of the rare places that Herod ever built from scratch.  Places like Masada were only rebuilt or remodeled.  Herod had aqueducts bring him water from 27 miles away to hold in a 2 million gallon cistern for his baths and gardens.  He definitely lived a lavish lifestyle in spite of the inconvenient location!  He also built himself a grand tomb on top of his theater, which had a special box suite.  The hill was even built up because Herod wanted it higher.  It can be seen from the Mount of Olives!  We could see the route that the magi would have taken to visit Jesus, and to avoid Herod on the way back to their country, which we read about in Matthew 2.  Even though Herod was crazy, I’m kinda grateful that he was so self-obsessed, because we wouldn’t be able to see all these incredible fortresses if he hadn’t been narcissistic enough to build them!

A model of Herodium

Looking down into Herodium...the cylinder/column is the big tower in the model!!

                From Herodium, we drove to Bethlehem.  When we arrived in Bethlehem, we went to one of the fields and read from Luke 2.  Seeing the fields was really fascinating to me because they’re so small!  Also, they’re right in the middle of the city (or parts of the city!), which we don’t see too often in America!  The main attraction in Bethlehem is the Church of the Nativity.  Justinian rebuilt this church in the 5^th century, and it’s where Jerome translated the Vulgate.  It’s also a combination of Catholic, Armenian, and Greek Orthodox influence.  In the Crypt inside the church, there’s a silver 14-point star that’s supposed to be where Jesus first touched the earth when he was born.  The really fun part of Bethlehem was going to see the graffiti!  It’s really interesting to me how intense the messages were on the graffiti…in America, graffiti is just ‘self-expression’ or art or whatever, but here, it’s a big political statement!

Church of the Nativity

Supposedly where Jesus touched the earth for the first time!

Graffiti

            Instead of heading to Hebron, where Abraham bought a cave for Sarah's burial, we waited for the bus driver to get a broken window fixed!After a long wait for the bus driver to get a window fixed, we headed back toward Jerusalem to get a look at the Rephaim Valley. When we got to the valley, we read from 2 Samuel 5 and talked about the difference between David and Saul.  Saul could never access God without Samuel, but David sought God on his own.  And that was it for this day!

            

Benjamin Field Study

This past Wednesday, our field trip was a 'tour' of the tribal allotment to Benjamin.  Our first stop was right in the moshav’s backyard.  Benj talked about Kiriath-Jearim, which is a border city between the tribes of Benjamin and Judah.  We had already been there and talked about it, but it's still neat to think about all the biblical history that is so close to us!

            We then got on the bus and went to one of the nine proposed locations for the city of Emmaus.  This location, Emmaus-Nicopolis, has tradition that goes back to the 300s AD.  The problem with this site is that it’s too far away from Jerusalem according to the account given in Luke 24.  Even though the Nicopolis location is not likely to be the real location of Emmaus, we all got a beautiful view of the Aijalon Valley!

Aijalon Valley

   Lower Beth-Horon, a route mentioned in Joshua 18:14, is on the northern border of Benjamin.  The stories of the victory over the Philistines in 1 Samuel 7, the victory at Geba-Michmash in 1 Samuel 14, and David’s attack of the Philistines in 2 Samuel 5 all have connections to this route.

Looking out from the Beth-Horon Ridge Route

            

Shepherd and his sheep! :)

Nebi Samwil was the next stop.  It’s on the top of a hill that commemorates the prophet Samuel.  From here, we could see Jerusalem from afar and the tel (archaeological dig site) of Gibeon.  Seeing the little hill where Gibeon was and how small it looked was really fascinating!  We talked about the story of the Gideonite deception in Joshua 9.  Crusaders who believed that the location was the city of Ramah, where Samuel was buried, built Nebi Samwil, the church on the hill.  Benj, our teacher, thinks that this is the high place of Gibeon where Solomon asked God for wisdom in 2 Chronicles 1.  We had a little reenactment of the battle depicted in 2 Samuel 2 of David verses Abner which was really entertaining!




The hill in the center is the tel of Gibeon




The church on Nebi Samwil

            

   The next stop was Gibeah, where King Saul had his capital.  The king of Jordan also started to build a palace there in 1965, but it was never finished.  We got to climb all over it which was fun!

The Jordanian palace!




View from the palace...the towers in the distance are on the Mount of Olives

            

   We then stopped on a hill by The Pass.  We were sitting where Geba was in front of us and Michmash was behind.  The story we read was of Saul and his battle with the Philistines in 1 Samuel 13.  The other passage we read was Isaiah 10:28-32.  What really amazed me about this passage was that it’s so geographically accurate!  At face value, it looks like a poem or something, but it's actually a description of the land!

            Tel Jericho was the next stop!  According to the tile on the fountain that’s right at the entrance, Jericho is the oldest and lowest city in the world!  Benj said that it is the lowest city in the world, and that the city is from the pre-pottery Neolithic period!  We were able to see some of the layers that were revealed as archaeologists have dug down, which had storage pottery in it and a dark, burnt layer.  It’s so cool to see archaeological evidence that correlates to the Biblical story in Joshua 6!  Before we left, we stopped at the spring that Elisha purified.

The fortifications of Jericho

          

Excavations of the city...in upper right (sort of!), there's a dark gray layer of ash!

Cooling off in Elisha's spring.

   We then went to New Testament Jericho, where Herod the Great had a palace.  Between tel Jericho and the new Jericho is where Jesus healed a blind man as told in Matthew 20 and Luke 18.  

Herod the Great's palace in the new Jericho

   The last stop of the day was overlooking the Judean Wilderness.  This is where Jesus was tempted and is the location that Isaiah 40:3-6 describes.  The 'voice' that would cry in this wilderness was John the Baptist.  

The Judean Wilderness!

And that was the end of our Benjamin tour!