Today was another long one beginning in Ginosar, and ending with us finally making our way to Jerusalem.
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| The 2,000 year old "Jesus boat" from Sea of Galilee |
We spent our final night in Ginosar (Galilee) last night, and woke up to visit the “Jesus Boat,” a ship dating to 2,000 years ago that was discovered in the Sea of Galilee. This boat would have been used during the time of Jesus, and though many people like to say it was used by Jesus, that is merely speculation. It does however, allow us to have the type of ship that may have been used by Jesus.
Next we went to Tabgha, the traditional location of two very important events in the life of Jesus. One being where Jesus fed the 5,000, where now sits a church, the Church of the Multiplication, which holds beautiful mosaic floors honoring the miracle. Second, is what is called Peter’s Primacy, the place where Jesus prepared a meal for some of the disciples and restored Peter. The church here is built around what some believe to be the very rock Jesus would have started a fire to cook for the disciples.
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| The church of the multiplication. |
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| Potentially the rock on which Jesus prepared a meal for his disciples, and restored Peter. |
Next we traveled to Jericho, which is the oldest city in the world. There is a tel located there in the city with numerous tels, dating back thousands of years. One of the excavations has revealed a watch tower that is over 10,000 years old! Though as you might guess, there are no remains of the city which Joshua and the Israelites conquered, because of course, they destroyed it all.
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| Jesus may have spent 40 days/nights here. |
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| Jesus baptismal site |
Following lunch in Jericho, we made a stop to see what some believe to be the mountain on which Jesus was tempted in the wilderness (Mark 1). If this is in fact the place Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights, I will honestly say that I would barely last a few days before I went crazy, but it was still cool to imagine Jesus waiting out the devil on the mountain. We also stopped at the place along the Jordan river where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.
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| Some of the caves at Qumran. |
Finally, and probably most excitingly, we visited Qumran. This doesn’t appear in the Bible, though it is very important for Biblical scholarship. Back in 1947, a young shepherd boy stumbled upon some caves which housed scrolls from a Jewish sect known as the Essenes that once called this area home. Most notably among these scrolls is the oldest known copy of the Bible, which is remarkably similar to what we have in our Bibles today. We were able to see some of the caves where these documents were found along the Dead Sea.
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| JERUSALEM! We made it! |
Today was a long one with visiting the many locations, and with moving into our new hotel here in Jerusalem, but it was well worth it when we came around the bend and saw the city of Jerusalem and all her splendor. I would ask that you do keep our group in your prayers, as we have some experiencing some health concerns on the trip, and others who have had emergencies arise back home, yet are here and cannot do much to help the situation. Tomorrow, we head to Ein Gedi (place where David was hiding from Saul in a cave) as well as Masada, before going to swim (or in this case float) in the Dead Sea!
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