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 5th 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!
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