Israel: The Sea of Galilee

Hello Friends, I have an incredibly large amount to say about our time in Israel. In fact, it’s going to be FOUR posts in all. And, the first two are not short, so I apologize if it bores you a bit–just look at the pictures instead. I hope for many of you, though, you find what I wrote almost as interesting as I found experiencing it. I’ve also included the dates–Hope it gives you a little more insight to our time and maybe you can imagine you were there with us.

October 30

I think waking up in Tel Aviv put the Bible closer to home. We’re finally in Israel where so much of the Biblical narrative occurs, but while we are physically close to it all, it is still a foreign country. While running in the morning along the Tel Aviv boardwalk, I felt like I was in SoCal. I think this started the day off feeling like the Biblical events weren’t so far from my own home even though we are halfway across the world. 

I never caught that Caesarea was on the beach even though that’s the only thing that makes sense with it being a port city. Seeing a place built by a man who we also imagine as so evil really gave a perspective into what lens we look at history through. There are 4 different Herod’s during the time of the New Testament, and I never really thought about the political atmosphere of everything at the time, but I understood it all so much better being in their home, which I previously thought was in Jerusalem. So suffice to say, I learned a lot. 

October 31

I spent Reformation Day at a Catholic Basilica—one dedicated to the Virgin Mary for where the angel Gabriel came to her. A few things: first, basilica is one of my favorite words. Second, the basilica and complex takes up basically all the land that would have comprised biblical Nazareth, so Nazareth was not very big. And third, America is weird, and the artwork of Mary that they submitted for the church is just so much stranger than the rest of the countries (except Canada). 

I also spent Halloween in a tomb. We went to Nazareth and visited the village that was built to look like it would have in the first century (a cool place to spend Reformation Day), and they had a replica tomb.

It was perfect for Halloween and complete with spiderwebs. The village was actually very eye-opening to see how a first century town would have been, as we normally only see the remains of them. 

Our tour guide took us to see a wine press, olive press, loom, and woodcarver’s home. One of the coolest connections that I learned is that in Hebrew “Gethsemane” means “olive press.” Olives are pressed three times for oil, and Jesus prayed three times in the garden.

He sweated blood which can happen under immense anguish like He faced, so He literally was pressed upon while in the garden of the olive press. 

In the afternoon, we hiked the Mount of Transfiguration, where I went into another tomb and spent time in another Catholic Church. To add to our spooky day, we hiked down the (very) steep dirt path in the dark with cell phone flash lights, because the suns sets so early.

We joked about how that was the reason that Peter probably suggested tents, but Jesus was like “dude, I am the light of the world. We can hike down a mountain in the dark.” Paraphrased.

The day ended with a team Halloween party, with a number of team members dressing up as each other and proceeding to mimic and dramatize everything they do. 

November 1

We spent All Saints’ Day walking in places that many of the saints once walked. The Sea of Galilee is a beautiful region, not really what I pictured, but now I don’t know what else I ever would have pictured. We visited quite a few Biblical towns and sites of miracles and teaching including Bethsaida, Capernaum, and Tabgha. 

Bethsaida is one of the cities that Jesus woes in Luke 10, and it is now just ruins. It was once a fishing village where Peter, Andrew, and Philip were from, but now it is far from the Sea; it may have been filled in by an earthquake or just a deposit of dirt. 

Capernaum now has a church built over the house of Peter, which is guessed to be his by the fishing equipment and Christian signs found inside, along with a past writing. If it is Peter’s, then it also would have been a house that Jesus lived in while doing ministry in the area.

I have a new theory that Jesus was the kind of friend who came and crashed at his friends’ homes and just came and went as he pleased like it was his own. There is also the ruins of a synagogue left that was probably rebuilt by the Christians in the first century because it is not up to normal synagogue requirements; the original was destroyed after the Jewish Rebellion in 69 AD, but it still is in memory of a place Jesus would have taught a lot. 

November 2

Shabbat. Today was Sabbath rest, and I didn’t leave the kibbutz (commune). Instead I made chocolate chip and banana pancakes with some of the other girls all morning, did some writing, and took a nap. Now, I think Sabbath should be taken more seriously, because it is wonderful.

The greatest part of the day was family church (just the team) by the Sea of Galilee where we had a baptism. One of our teammates, Effie, had asked to be baptized there with our family around (don’t worry, we videoed it for her family back home), but it was such a beautiful moment. Baptism is so special, and seeing one where Jesus lived (although not the Jordan River where He was baptized) was powerful.

November 3

We spent the morning in the ruins of Hippos, a New Testament town on a hill, overlooking the Sea of Galilee. It’s a small site, but the fact that Dr. Middendorf (our visiting professor) worked there for three summers and knew so much about it, made it very special. It’s a Greek city with defining features like a theater, agora, and temple. Later it became a Christian city with multiple churches, one of which Middendorf and a team of Concordia students worked on. In it, they helped open a coffin that was found the previous summer with the bones of an old women. Now it is believed that the surrounding buildings were part of a convent of sorts where women were able to devote themselves to the Lord’s work and still be protected.

The city was abandoned by an earthquake, and remained basically untouched until archeologists started to dig there. It was just really special to see this city on a hill that the Concordia system now has a connection too. Plus, it is the supposed site of Jesus casting out a bunch of demons into a herd of pigs, which is a great story.

Our other stop for the day was at the town of Hazor where Deborah and Barak fought. Here they are still working to dig deeper down into a giant water cistern that we walked down into. On the way up we carried buckets of dirt that they have sitting after being dug and that need to be taken up, so we helped carry some up which isn’t necessarily archeology, but a lot of archeology is moving dirt so we were excited to pretend that we worked with them. 

November 4

Ben She’an felt like we were back in Greece. Archeologists have uncovered a large plot of the city where we saw the theater, main road, bathhouse, fountains, and the bonus feature—the public toilets. The vomitoriums were the other fun, new place which were the halls leading out and behind the theatre seating, and were used for what they sound like. We talked about how good Greco-Roman women mostly stayed home and were unable to use any of the amenities that the Greek and Roman cities provided to their citizens. I was a little bitter during this conversation knowing that if I had lived in that time, I would not have been able to use any of the amenities. 

The Dead Sea is 1200 feet below sea level and is the lowest point on earth. It also has the highest salt water percentage making it super easy to float in and void of fish—my ideal kind of swimming. Spending time here made for a fun afternoon 

November 5

Masada is not mentioned in the Bible, but it is one of Israel’s most important places. Sitting high up on a mountain overlooking the Dead Sea, it was a strategic military fortress containing one of Herod the Great’s palaces. Masada fell to the Romans after the Jewish Rebellion in the 1st century AD when some of the rebels fled. The Romans encamped around and slowly built a dirt ramp leading up the mountain where they found the entire community dead, because they would have rather all died then surrendered to the Romans and be slaughtered.

The city’s history intrigued me despite its lack of Biblical mention. I understood the military advantage the city held, but when looking out over the landscape, I really wondered why they still would have wanted to build a city in the desert and found it so important. Everything was bare, and the nearest water was the saltiest water in the world. The city had an extensive water system built, however, to provide for its need and be able to survive through long sieges. It still all just seemed like too much to me though, when a city could just as easily been built in a nice area of the country.

Look out…the second Israel post will come at you in just a couple days.