Tel Dan

Some restoration has been done at Tel Dan. Walls rebuilt, I suppose. But it is a tel, built upon ruins of other cities.

The City of Dan was the northernmost city in the kingdom of Israel, which was the northern kingdom anyway. Dan was one of the 12 tribes, remember. In 1 Kings 11 (and other chapters) we can read about Jeroboam, who led the revolt against Judah and the family of David, achieving separation of the kingdoms. Ten tribes in the north, two in the south.

And Jeroboam became king of the northern kingdom. Duh.

But Jeroboam wasn't a true follower of Jehovah, although the golden calves he built for the people to worship--one in Dan--were, he said, representations of Jehovah. He also started worship of wooden images. (Like a log could bring salvation.)

I have a few pictures of Tel Dan, most at the restored city gate, a place of much socialization and city business. The governor of the city would sit on a throne at the gate and see people, conduct business, hear complaints, etc.

Walls at Tel Dan. And a guy I didn't really want in the picture.

A sculpted mural depicting typical activities at the city gate.

The throne at the gate.

And there she is.

From a hill in Dan, I looked across at Lebanon. Things are close over there, nothing like driving all day just to cross Montana or Texas.

Lebanon

Coming down from Tel Dan, Ann helped her mother down the cobblestones. It's just because I wore the wrong shoes.

Thanks to Kathy for this picture, although there is only one thing I like less than a picture of me from behind. Right. It's a picture of me from in front.

The old becomes new ish

A tel is, to quote our friend Abraham, "town upon town upon town upon town." If time or natural disaster or war destroyed a city, the people who remained simply rebuilt upon the ruins. I mean, why waste the rubble? Use it. Use whatever foundations remain and rebuild. It's what they did.

Remember the synagogue at Capernaum? And, when you go to Israel, take a look at the walls in the old city. Newer built upon older.

Archeologists are all over Israel. Digging. Here we are at Beit Lehi (by the way, beit means house), an archeological dig. We have been down.

Underground in the olive press at Beit Lehi

The columbarium (dovecote) at Beit Lehi. Underground.

And we have been up.

Ann at the church at Beit Lehi, or what they have found of it. 

The church is not underground. So, what do you suppose is under it?

Mosaic, one of many, at the Beit Lehi church.

But a tel could also be a mound or hill, under which lie the ruins of who knows how many cities. Which means if you like to dig, you could be happy for many years. Well, no doubt you'd want to find something.

Pablo. He's an archeologist from Argentina.

Here is our friend Pablo at Beit Lehi, telling us to look around at the hills, then telling us that there are ruins beneath all, that's ALL, of those hills. He knows. He's been here for seven years, has advanced degrees in archeology from U of Buenos Aires. That pretty much makes him an authority.

Lots of people take pictures of flowers. I don't. But this time I did. They were right at my feet as I listened to Pablo.

Some of the hills Pablo spoke about.

Next post, we go to Tel Dan. The name lets us know the place was built upon an older city, or two.

Remember, I'm not going in order. Do you care?

Two Things

We're at Caesarea, on the Mediterranean Sea. Such a gorgeous spot. And here are the two things.

Ice Plant. Exactly like what we had in our front yard in Santa Monica, by the Pacific Ocean.

The ice plant surrounded our palm tree. Yes, we had a very tall palm tree in our front yard, on the east side of the concrete steps. On the west side, we had lawn. You know, grass.
Makes a person feel at home to see such things. This person. Me. I really liked this ice plant.

A raven.

I had not seen a raven like this before. But I saw many in Israel. It's a big bird, you may be able to tell. Remember, the ravens fed Elijah. These birds could do it.

That's it. The two things.

Well, one more picture from the Mediterranean. It's a favorite, and I know you'll see why. This was our first sight of the Mediterranean, just before we went to Caesarea.

Couldn't be better. Me, my daughter, the sea.

At En Gedi

En or ein means spring, as in water. We went to En Gedi, the spring of the goat kid. It's near the Dead Sea and is an oasis, because water flows down from the mountain.

Thanks to Brian for this picture.

Remember? King Saul, who had loved David, changed his mind when he knew that David--and not his own son Jonathan--had been anointed to be king. From then on, Saul tried to kill David.

At En Gedi, David hid in a cave. Here is 1 Samuel 23:29 "And David went up from thence and dwelt in strong holds at En Gedi." And from chapter 24:2 "Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David on the rocks of the wild goats."

Yes, this is the place. Again, thanks to Brian. It's a great picture.

Saul took his "three thousand men" and came to En Gedi to kill David, but that is not what happened.

What I learned:
1. What en means: spring or fountain. Water is there.
2. What gedi means: goat kid.
3. What sheepcote means (see 1 Samuel 24:3). It's a shelter for the sheep. In this case, a cave with stone walls near the entrance.
4. What this means: "and Saul went in to cover his feet." It means that Saul went into the cave to go to the toilet, except no toilet, of course.

"And David and his men remained in the sides of the cave."

Then in verse 4 we read that David's men said to him that this was the time; the Lord had delivered Saul into his (David's) hands. This is when David could have taken Saul's life. But he didn't. He went to where Saul had left his robe and cut off the "skirt." Which is to say, the hem or border of that garment, the part indicating Saul's authority.

You should read 1 Samuel 24 for the rest of the story. It's a good story.

Israel is about fruits and vegetables

Did you know? Israel is a leading exporter of agricultural products. Like, in the world. I didn't know. But I know it now. 

Many fruits grow in Israel. You might be surprised how many. We didn't see all of the more than 20 kinds of fruit growing there, but we did see orange and lemon and grapefruit groves. In fact, Israel has developed a couple of varieties of the grapefruit--the pomelo, for instance.

We saw acres of date palms and, yes, acres of banana trees. And we saw hot houses, lots of them, perhaps for growing tomatoes. Tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers were part of every meal we ate at our hotels in Israel.

Fig trees, and grape vines and I don't remember seeing pomegranate orchards, but they certainly grow there in Israel. We saw olive trees, of course. Olives were part of every meal also.

Do you know the loquat? I do. There was a loquat tree in the front yard of a house I passed every day as I walked to elementary school. I wonder if those people saw me when I would steal their loquats. I LOVE LOQUATS. They grow in Israel. 

But we did see this bunch of mango trees near Capernaum. I don't know if a bunch of mango trees is a grove or an orchard. But here they are.

Mango trees near Capernaum

Wheat, also a big crop there. We walked down a dirt road into a wheat field in the Hula valley. On one side of the road: wheat. On the other side: thistles.

Wheat

Thistle

More from Capernaum

 
Peter lived in Capernaum. As did James, John, Andrew, and Matthew. I do not know where those four apostles lived, but I've seen the ruins of Peter's house and the large (sorry, I have to say it, ugly) octagonal church built over the ruins.

Obviously, I'm going to post pictures, so you'll see, too.

The octagonal church dates from the 5th century AD and was actually built over a smaller Byzantine church. All on top of what was Peter's house. This is an A site. I think. Certainly those guys who built the churches believed this was the place. You know. That's why they built the churches there.

Capernaum was a fishing town, right on the Sea of Galilee. These men were fishermen, remember. You can walk past Peter's house and reach the sea in less than one minute.

The synagogue is in direct line with Peter's house, with a row of houses between. Houses now in ruins, of course. This synagogue is not the original. It is the white synagogue, built on the foundation of the original synagogue, where Jesus taught. You can see the basalt stones that were the original foundation.

Well, you can't see them, but I did.

The plaque from my previous post tells that Capernaum is the city of Jesus. Most of his ministry was here, much of what we read of him in the New Testament occurred here. Yes, we know he went to Jerusalem every year for Passover, and to other places, but Capernaum was home.

Remember, he left Nazareth after the people there tried to throw him off a nearby cliff.

Peter's house

The synagogue

Peter's house from the synagogue.

The row of houses between the synagogue and Peter's house stands in ruins, of course. Notice the basalt. That was the building material of the time.

Obviously, I take pictures of water. This is, of course, the Sea of Galilee.

Yep. The Sea of Galilee.

The Sea of Galilee at Capernaum

Sometimes it's hard to write a post, because:
a) They must be, of necessity, brief. There is much more to say.
b) I'm not sure anyone's reading them.

But I want this record of my trip. So I'm writing. You know, I have traveled other places, but this trip seems actually to be the "Trip of a Lifetime."

It's Not Really About My House

I grew up in Santa Monica, California. Our house was old, big and old. Very big and very old. We had a view from our house because the ground it sat on rose high above the street. And so our place had a retaining wall around it, six feet high at the front. Fourteen concrete steps came up from the sidewalk to a concrete landing.

If you turned left (west) at that landing, you would find you were on a concrete path that led past the west front of the house, and you would see the bougainvillea--a beautiful climbing vine with bright flowers. Bougainvillea covered the entire southwest corner of our house and reached the second story, near my sister Janeen's bedroom.

If you wanted to go up to the front door, you wouldn't turn left at the landing but would take the 14 wooden steps up to the porch, which porch extended from the front door around the east side of the house.

I do not intend to describe the entire house, really I don't, although I could, you know, because I loved the place.

My purpose here is to tell about the bougainvillea. It was thick and healthy, with deep, dark pink flowers. I had not seen any like it until I went to Capernaum.  There I saw "my" bougainvillea and a yellow bougainvillea, which I had never before seen or known of.

I hope you can read this plaque.

Bougainvillea, like what I knew at home.

Yellow bougainvillea

You can find out more about bougainvillea here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bougainvillea


No doubt I'll be writing more about Capernaum. I liked it there. It's quite possible I'll write more about my house, too.

WikiHow, Wow

Wed the Undead: How to Have a Zombie Wedding

I am really old. I had no idea this kind of thing (I call it crap, excuse me) was going on.

Is this life imitating "art"? If it can be called art.

That's a link up there. You can click on it. Go ahead.

Tabgha

Here is the Sea of Galilee again. Yes, I love the water, love this sea. You already knew that.

This is Tabgha, the place of seven springs that empty into the sea. The spring water is warmer than the sea water, and fish are attracted here. But you can read about it here. http://www.bibleplaces.com/tabgha.htm 

Ann Johnson steps her feet in the sea.

Such a lovely place. Hard to leave.

We are loving this. Can you tell?

Another view at Tabgha

We stopped here briefly before going on to Capernaum, just to see Tabgha, the well of Capernaum.
Tabgha is believed to be the site of Christ feeding the 5,000. It is also believed to be the site of the events described in John 21, where Christ comes the third time (after his resurrection) to visit his apostles. Remember, they have been fishing all night without success and Jesus tells them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat, and their nets are filled with fish.

In this chapter He also asks Peter, "Lovest thou me?" He asks three times. Remember?

Nazareth

Michael on the brow of the hill.

Nazareth is behind, some distance behind, where the people are sitting. We know this hill is an A site. Here's the scriptural account.

Luke 4:16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.


What he read was Isaiah  61:1, 2, which prophesies of the coming Messiah. When he finished reading, he sat down.

Luke 4:21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

They were stunned. They did not like his declaration, and they didn't like anything he said afterward. They knew him, the carpenter's son, knew his sisters, his brothers. How did he dare to say such things?

Luke 4:28-30 And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath. And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way.

There is nothing in the scriptures to indicate that Jesus ever went back to Nazareth.

Mother and daughter, Nazareth in the background

Bethlehem

Remember, I'm not going in order, but I want to write a little bit about Bethlehem. You've heard of Bethlehem, O Little Town of, where Jesus was born, the City of David.

It is now a Palestinian city with a huge wall that snakes around and through. The wall, built by the Israeli government, is 20 feet high in most places and is ugly. "A scar upon the place," said Michael. But it has greatly decreased the number of attacks by Palestinians there, attacks upon Jews and Jerusalem, which is about six miles from Bethlehem.

When you go to Bethlehem, you will have to pass through a guarded station, and likely a woman accompanied by an armed soldier will walk through your bus and look you over. And you will not be allowed to take pictures at that station.

The picture below is of a street corner in Bethlehem, actually a roundabout, outside Nissan Brothers' olive wood shop. Big shop. Lots to look at, and I thought the prices were high, by the way. But, yes, I bought something.

The following photos are also in Bethlehem. The Church of the Nativity. Soldiers there, too. Notice that you have to stoop to enter the church.

Church of the Nativity

Ann going to church in Bethlehem

Inside the Church of the Nativity

Also inside, a priest studies. I believe it/he is Eastern Orthodox.

 There are A sites, B sites, and C sites. A sites are ones like the synagogue in Capernaum. We know Jesus was there. We have scriptural references and we have the actual place. B sites are like the one immediately below. This place is under the Church of the Nativity and is "thought" to be the grotto where the Savior was born. That's why they built the church here.

Sorry the picture is blurred.

In the courtyard at the Church of the Nativity. We sang Christmas Carols here. It's Bethlehem, remember.