The first five days in Galilee

It was such a busy week trying to grade papers and exams and get ready to go to the Galilee. We have been up here for 5 days and we’ve had some amazing experiences!

We left Jerusalem early on Monday morning and we had 3 stops on the way: Bet She’an, Nazareth, and Mount Arbel. The Bet She’an picture is a selfie

 of me climbing the ancient tell and looking down at the Roman occupation, which they call Scythopolis. The major event that took place on the tell was that when the Philistines defeated King Saul’s army, they took the bodies of Saul and Jonathon and hung them on the walls of Bet She’an until the men from Jabesh-Gilead came and took them and gave them a burial. in the New Testament times, Bet She’an was the capital city of the Gentile association of cities known as the Decapolis (Greek = 10 cities). It is possible that Jesus came and preached here, but there is no specific reference to it.

At Nazareth we went to the Church of the Annunciation. 

 This picture is a selfie outside the grotto which tradition says was the home of Mary in Nazareth and the place where Gabriel came to announce to her that she would be the mother of the Son of God.

 This pic is the excavations of the homes in the first century village of Nazareth. Nazareth was a very small insignificant village at the time and the village’s well is just north of here, so it’s pretty certain that Jesus would have grown up in this area.  

Me with Abbie in the church built over an ancient synagogue. This site commemorates that Jesus taught in the synagogue in Nazareth, and gave (from Luke’s perspective) his inaugural sermon when he reads from Isaiah 61 and declares that he is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. I have never been in the synagogue before, so it was wonderful to be able to go there.

After Nazareth we went up to Mount Arbel where we had a panoramic view of the Sea of Galilee. The rains were coming, so the air was actually quite clear—it was the clearest that I have ever seen it up there and we could clearly see the Golan Heights on the east side of the sea (where we have been staying on a kibbutz on the sea shore—BEAUTIFUL!!!!!). Just after I finished teaching the rains came down in bucket loads and we all got drenched, but it was absolutely worth it.

On Tuesday my class went out on a field trip while the other class stayed at the kibbutz and had classes. We went to a number of churches: the Mount of Beatitudes, Peter’s Primacy (commemorates the story of John 21), Tabgah (commemorates the feeding of the 5,000).  

This is one of the scenes on the door leading into the chapel at Tabgah. I thought that it was interesting to see the combination of images of Christ’s crucifixion, along with either his “pressing the winepress alone” or, possibly, standing in the waters of baptism. The former probably works better, but the door looks out on a courtyard with a ritual bathing area.

This is at Nof Ginnosar. It is a first century boat that was discovered in the Sea of Galilee a number of years ago. It gives us a real glimpse into what 1st century fishing boats looked like. After we left here we took a boat ride back to out kibbutz. It poured with rain while we were in Nof Ginnosar, so the journey was rough, and we did it at night, so we had a lot of fun singing Master the Tempest is raging and Jesus, Pilot me and talking about when Jesus stilled the storm and later came to the apostles when they were in difficulty at night in a storm.

We then had 2 days of very heavy rain. The other class had their field trip in the rain, which was difficult for them, while my class stayed back for classes. The second day my class was supposed to go out on a field trip, but it was too wet so we had another day of classes. Today both classes went up to Gamla.

 This may have been the city when Jesus spoke about a city set on a hill in the Sermon on the Mount. During the Jewish Revolt in 66 AD it was a place that the Roman attacked. They killed 5,000 people and the other 4,000 committed suicide by jumping off the cliffs. It is VERY mountainous and the trek down to the ruins was VERY steep (8,500 steps there and back) and muddy and slippery. I wasn’t sure that I was going to make the trek, but I decided to give it a go. I wanted to get to the synagogue, which is one of the largest and best preserved from the 1st century. I was very slow and careful going down, but I made it and I have a picture to prove it!

It was hard climbing back up but I just took my time—one step at a time. I didn’t want to look up because if I did I would have given up :o) This area is also a nature reserve so we were climbing with eagles soaring around very close to us—It was gorgeous!