O Galilee, Sweet Galilee*

On Friday November 20th Marie and the kids drove up to Galilee for the last half of the long field trip. That night we enjoyed a dinner of St. Peter's fish (aka talapia). Joel and Will were unfazed by the whole fish and enjoyed eating it.

Sarah opted for plain pasta, but did enjoy eating pieces of fish that she didn't have to pull off of the carcass.
On Saturday we attended sacrament meeting at the Tiberius Branch in its new church owned chapel with a great view overlooking the Sea of Galilee. It was great for me to greet members from when I was a member of the branch back in 1989.

After church we stopped at Yardenit--a Jordan River Baptismal site (not the traditional site which is near Jericho) right where the Jordan flows out of the Sea of Galilee. It is used primarily by evangelical Christians who as part of their pilgrimage experience are (re)baptized in the Jordan. Tiled accounts of the baptism from many different languages decorate the walls of the large complex. We liked the pidgin Hawaiian account the most--which was right next to the Indonesian account.

Sunday morning the kids played on the beach while I taught three hours of New Testament classes. That afternoon we joined with many of the students for an optional activity of floating down the Jordan River. We began at the ancient site of the city of Bethsaida (that was cursed along with Chorazin and Capernaum) and floated in five-man rafts down the peaceful shallow Jordan. There was one little "rapid" (the float was much like childhood floats down the Logan canyon canal out to North Logan) but the greatest danger were the overhanging thorn bushes. There were 10 rafts and we all had fun splashing each other. At the end of the float (about 40 minutes long) Joel and Sarah were able to wade across the whole width of the Jordan River near where it flows in to the Sea of Galilee. Will had strep and this was the first day of his antibiotic so he and Marie didn't come. We'll do it again next semester.

Monday was a full day field trip to some great sites. Our first stop was the Arab village of Nain to a church commemorating Christ's raising of the widow's son. There is not a local Arab Christian congregation in the village so the church is mainly a place for Christian pilgrims. A Muslim Arab caretaker let us in. We read the biblical account and then we talked about Christ's love and concern for widows in both the Old and New Testament. I suggested that the principle of taking care of widows and fatherless should nowadays certainly include single mothers with young children.
Next stop was Mt. Tabor--the traditional site of the transfiguration (Mt Hermon to the north is the other possible site).


We stopped to see some interesting synagogue mosaics at Beit Alpha. Then we all enjoyed 1 1/2 hours of swimming at the spring fed pools of Gan Hashalosha.

Our final stop was Bet Shean. The heads of Saul and Jonathan were displayed on the walls of the Canaanite city which was located on the top of the tel. Down below are the excavated ruins of the Byzantine city.
Tuesday morning we woke to very strong winds from the east--the tempest was raging.
After morning classes, our family drove to Nazareth. By now the winds had turned to rain. During my 1989 stay in Nazareth Christian-Muslim harmony started to decline with the rise of an Islamic party in the local municipal elections. The bill board prominently displayed for all pilgrims to the Church of the Annunciation to see is a good example of that on-going religious divide.
We all liked seeing the dozens of images from around the world of Mary and Jesus that are displayed in and out of the church.


Most of the images are of Mary or of Mary and Jesus. I like this one from the Philippines because it shows the annunciation.

Wednesday's field trip took us to the crusader city of Akko/Acre.
Sarah, Joel and Will in the belly of a big fish.
A Templar tunnel.
Arab kids on a field trip playing basketball in the crusader moat.
Back at En Gev the kids enjoyed some beach soccer
And some wading in the beautiful Sea of Galilee at sunset.

*The title of this post comes from a hymn from the old hymn book. I have memories of singing this song in 1979 on my first trip to the Galilee as we walked from the Mt. of the Beatitudes down to the Sea of Galilee. I introduced it to the BYU students--none of whom had ever sung it before.
Each cooing dove and sighing bough,
That makes the eve so blessed to me,
Has something far diviner now,
It bears me back to Galilee.

Refrain

O Galilee, sweet Galilee,
Where Jesus loved so much to be,
O Galilee, blue Galilee,
Come sing thy song again to me.

Each flowery glen and mossy dell,
Where happy birds in song agree,
Through sunny morn the praises tell
Of sights and sounds in Galilee.

Refrain

And when I read the thrilling lore
Of Him Who walked upon the sea,
I long, oh, how I long once more
To follow Him in Galilee.

Refrain

Galilee Thanksgiving

We began our Thanksgiving celebration on Wednesday evening with a turkey dinner provided by Kibbutz En Gev Holiday Village. This resort has hosted BYU students for several decades. We stay for nearly two weeks on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.
The dining room was decorated with an American patriotic theme. The turkeys were delivered to the waiting students and faculty with flaming sparklers on top.

Later that evening in a three hour testimony meeting around a bonfire on the beach, one of the students began his testimony by expressing gratitude to the En Gev Holiday Resort for the wonderful stay and for somehow knowing and taking into consideration that his family's tradition was to present the turkey with sparklers on top (this was the top laugh of the evening).
The turkey tasted great (I was the only dark meat fan at our table). It and the corn were the most authentic portion of the dinner. We also had rolls, baked potatoes with dill butter (pretty good), candied yams with raisins, waldorf salad, and apple strudel a la mode--all tasty but with an Israeli twist.
On Thanksgiving day we headed out on our last field trip in the Galilee. First stop was Sefforis (Arab Saffuiryah and Israeli Tsippori). Here we saw Roman ruins and mosaics including the beautiful Mona Lisa of the Galilee. While driving to Sefforis I told the students that it was a mere 7 kilometers NW of Nazareth. Joel then asked an excellent question. He wondered if Jesus had ever visited Sefforis (he probably was listening better and leaning more than some of the sleeping or i-pod listening students). Many biblical scholars have suggested that Joseph and Jesus most likely would have spent time working as craftsmen (a better translation than carpenter and most likely meaning stone mason) at Sefforis--the growing capital of Herod Antipas in the Galilee. Up until 1948 Sefforis was a large Arab village. I told the students how the residents of the village fled to the safety of Nazareth during the war and then were not allowed to return once the war end--even though they were now citizens of Israel. They stayed in Nazareth as "internal refugees" and eventually settled in a quarter of Nazareth that looks out to Saffuriya (read more about this in my book Beyond the Basilica). To make sure that the Arabs did not return to the village the government of Israel bulldozed down the rock homes and then planted trees (this was done to over 200 villages vacated by Arabs during the war). Most tourists to Sefforis never know this part of Sefforis' history. To ensure that my students got the whole story I pointed out the piles of stones from the demolished homes hidden under the trees as well as the olive, pomegranate, almond and other trees planted by Arabs that still are found on the hillside where the village once stood. The only remaining structure from the Arab village is a crusader/Ottoman citadel on the hilltop. The jump picture above (a favorite pose perfected by BYU Jerusalem students) is taken on the roof top of that citadel.
We next made a quick stop at a new site I learned about--a Roman era rolling stone tomb just off the main road on our way to Mt Carmel.
Next we drove to the traditional site of Elijah's confrontation with the priests of Baal on Mt. Carmel. The students had already studied this wonderful story in Old Testament class. I recounted the story (mainly so Joel and Sarah could hear it--Will fell asleep on Marie's lap at the back of the small Carmelite chapel) and reminded the students that when the fire from heaven destroyed the bullock, wood, stones and water on the altar, it destroyed the symbols of the four main Canaanite gods (who were now being worshiped in the northern kingdom of Israel thanks to the adverse influence of Ahab's wife Jezebel) which then showed to all Israel that Jehovah was God. I then noted that when Elijah asked the people "why halt ye between two opinions?," he was exhorting them to return to what the prophets and scriptures had taught their fathers. He was "turning the hearts of the sons to the fathers"--which is why he then was tasked with restoring the keys of temple work to Peter James and John on the Mt of Transfiguration and to Joseph Smith in the Kirtland temple. We then focused on the end of the story where after the priests of Baal had been put to death (as in the photo above) that no clouds turned into a tiny cloud the size of a hand (symbolic of the hand of God blessing our lives?) which then turned into a dark cloud that brought rain and ended the three year long drought. The Lord blessed Israel for returning to the worship of Jehovah. From Elijah on Thanksgiving Day we learned to be thankful for fathers (and mothers) who have gone before and prepared the way by seeking religious freedom in America (choosing a good opinion) and to be thankful for our many other blessings as symbolized by the rain on Carmel. Then we sang "Prayer of Thanksgiving" and "Come, ye Thankful People" both of which have great lyrics that actually tied in to our Elijah discussion.
We then drove to Haifa via the crest of Mt. Carmel with a stop as a viewpoint down on the port and the Baha'i temple (unfortunately enclosed in scaffolding) and garden. Our final stop was at the German Cemetery in Haifa. This cemetery (beyond the neat rows of the British WWI cemetery) is where two LDS missionaries (Adolf Haag and John Clark) are buried. They served in Haifa in the 1890s among the Germans of the Templar colony and there died of typhoid and smallpox. Present in our BYU group were two great great grand nieces of John Clark. One was in my bus group and the other with the second group. As we sat on the lawn in the corner of the British cemetery, Angie Clark told our group how she had come to appreciate this ancestor for his faithful service. Also buried in the cemetery are two LDS couples--both German converts. Georg Grau was converted (in 1884) by Jacob Spori the first missionary to Haifa. Spori had a dream that he was to go to Haifa and there find a blacksmith with a black beard who was prepared to receive the gospel. Grau had a dream that a man would come the next day with the truth. It happened as was dreamed and Grau was baptized and then a month latter he baptized his wife Magdalena in Acco Bay. Magdalena's grave has the image of a flying angel and the scripture from Revelations about "another angel flying in the midst of heaven..." The grave stones of the two missionaries are marble pillars broken off near the base to indicate lives cut short. It was a touching emotional visit as we talked about serving God wherever called. We sang "I'll go where you want me to go." We then drove home to Jerusalem.

Galilee Thanksgiving

We began our Thanksgiving celebration on Wednesday evening with a turkey dinner provided by Kibbutz En Gev Holiday Village. This resort has hosted BYU students for several decades. We stay for nearly two weeks on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.
The dining room was decorated with an American patriotic theme. The turkeys were delivered to the waiting students and faculty with flaming sparklers on top.
Later that evening in a three hour testimony meeting around a bonfire on the beach, one of the students began his testimony by expressing gratitude to the En Gev Holiday Resort for the wonderful stay and for somehow knowing and taking into consideration that his family's tradition was to present the turkey with sparklers on top (this was the top laugh of the evening).
The turkey tasted great (I was the only dark meat fan at our table). It and the corn were the most authentic portion of the dinner. We also had rolls, baked potatoes with dill butter (pretty good), candied yams with raisins, waldorf salad, and apple strudel a la mode--all tasty but with an Israeli twist.
On Thanksgiving day we headed out on our last field trip in the Galilee. First stop was Sefforis (Arab Saffuiryah and Israeli Tsippori). Here we saw Roman ruins and mosaics including the beautiful Mona Lisa of the Galilee. While driving to Sefforis I told the students that it was a mere 7 kilometers NW of Nazareth. Joel then asked an excellent question. He wondered if Jesus had ever visited Sefforis (he probably was listening better and leaning more than some of the sleeping or i-pod listening students). Many biblical scholars have suggested that Joseph and Jesus most likely would have spent time working as craftsmen (a better translation than carpenter and most likely meaning stone mason) at Sefforis--the growing capital of Herod Antipas in the Galilee. Up until 1948 Sefforis was a large Arab village. I told the students how the residents of the village fled to the safety of Nazareth during the war and then were not allowed to return once the war end--even though they were now citizens of Israel. They stayed in Nazareth as "internal refugees" and eventually settled in a quarter of Nazareth that looks out to Saffuriya (read more about this in my book Beyond the Basilica). To make sure that the Arabs did not return to the village the government of Israel bulldozed down the rock homes and then planted trees (this was done to over 200 villages vacated by Arabs during the war). Most tourists to Sefforis never know this part of Sefforis' history. To ensure that my students got the whole story I pointed out the piles of stones from the demolished homes hidden under the trees as well as the olive, pomegranate, almond and other trees planted by Arabs that still are found on the hillside where the village once stood. The only remaining structure from the Arab village is a crusader/Ottoman citadel on the hilltop. The jump picture above (a favorite pose perfected by BYU Jerusalem students) is taken on the roof top of that citadel.
We next made a quick stop at a new site I learned about--a Roman era rolling stone tomb just off the main road on our way to Mt Carmel.
Next we drove to the traditional site of Elijah's confrontation with the priests of Baal on Mt. Carmel. The students had already studied this wonderful story in Old Testament class. I recounted the story (mainly so Joel and Sarah could hear it--Will fell asleep on Marie's lap at the back of the small Carmelite chapel) and reminded the students that when the fire from heaven destroyed the bullock, wood, stones and water on the altar, it destroyed the symbols of the four main Canaanite gods (who were now being worshiped in the northern kingdom of Israel thanks to the adverse influence of Ahab's wife Jezebel) which then showed to all Israel that Jehovah was God. I then noted that when Elijah asked the people "why halt ye between two opinions?," he was exhorting them to return to what the prophets and scriptures had taught their fathers. He was "turning the hearts of the sons to the fathers"--which is why he then was tasked with restoring the keys of temple work to Peter James and John on the Mt of Transfiguration and to Joseph Smith in the Kirtland temple. We then focused on the end of the story where after the priests of Baal had been put to death (as in the photo above) that no clouds turned into a tiny cloud the size of a hand (symbolic of the hand of God blessing our lives?) which then turned into a dark cloud that brought rain and ended the three year long drought. The Lord blessed Israel for returning to the worship of Jehovah. From Elijah on Thanksgiving Day we learned to be thankful for fathers (and mothers) who have gone before and prepared the way by seeking religous freedom in America (choosing a good opinion) and to be thankful for our many other blessings as symbolized by the rain on Carmel. Then we sang "Prayer of Thanksgiving" and "Come, ye Thankful People" both of which have great lyrics that actually tied in to our Elijah discussion.
We then drove to Haifa via the crest of Mt. Carmel with a stop as a viewpoint down on the port and the Bahai temple (unfortunately enclosed in scaffolding) and garden. Our final stop was at the German Cemetery in Haifa. This cemetery (beyond the neat rows of the British WWI cemetery) is where two LDS missionaries (Adolf Haag and John Clark) are buried. They served in Haifa in the 1890s among the Germans of the Templar colony and there died of typhoid and smallpox. Present in our BYU group were two great great grand nieces of John Clark. One was in my bus group and the other with the second group. As we sat on the lawn in the corner of the British cemetery, Angie Clark told our group how she had come to appreciate this ancestor for his faithful service. Also buried in the cemetery are two LDS couples--both German converts. Georg Grau was converted (in 1884) by Jacob Spori the first missionary to Haifa. Spori had a dream that he was to go to Haifa and there find a blacksmith with a black beard who was prepared to receive the gospel. Grau had a dream that a man would come the next day with the truth. It happened as was dreamed and Grau was baptized and then a month latter he baptized his wife Magdalena in Acco Bay. Magdalena's grave has the image of a flying angel and the scripture from Revelations about "another angel flying in the midst of heaven..." The grave stones of the two missionaries are marble pillars broken off near the base to indicate lives cut short. It was a touching emotional visit as we talked about serving God wherever called. We sang "I'll go where you want me to go."

Herodian Jerusalem

Today's field trip with the students was to Herodian Jerusalem--or in other words ruins from Jerusalem at the time of Christ. Our first stop was a 7:15 AM appointment to tour the Western Wall tunnels. This tunnel runs the length of the western wall of the Herodian retaining wall of the second temple. It starts at the Western (Wailing Wall) and runs to the Via Dolorosa near Lion's gate.
The tunnel when it opened was very controversial because it runs underneath the Muslim Quarter. In this model of the temple the lights (barely viable) show the route of the tunnel. The tour was very informative with nice models about how Herod expanded the platform for the temple and built the retaining walls.
One section of the tunnel is identified as the closest place along the length of the wall to where the temple was located. Because of its closeness, Jews will come into the tunnel to pray at this section. Here is one woman touching the two thousand year old wall that was put in place by Herod's workmen to retain the enlarged temple mount.
The Herodian stones of the retaining wall are on the right. We are deep under the Muslim quarter at this point. Part of the tunnel passes by Warren's Gate. It is one of four gates that lead on to the temple mount from the west. It has long been blocked up by stones as Jerusalem was rebuilt at higher levels. There is always concern by Muslims that zealous Jews will try to use this tunnel as a beginning point to tunnel eastward under the temple mount in search of buried temple treasures and artifacts. Our guide noted as we passed Warren's Gate that there are no tunnels going under the mount because it is too contentious and it would anger the Muslims of the world. I hope he is right. There were no tunnels branching off from our level, but we passed over excavations at lower levels that could also be access points.
We then visited several interesting sites in the Jewish Quarter. Excavations have unearthed the remains of several Roman era homes. These remains show ritual baths (mikvas), mosaic floors, storage rooms etc. This section of Jerusalem (the western hill) at the time of Christ is where the upper class priests and Sadducees lived. In the Burnt House we could see the remains of one of these home including the charred remains of a roof beam and a layer of ash from the burning of Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Romans. Descriptions of the conquest related how bloody and horrible it was for the Jews of Jerusalem.
This and others signs in the Burnt House noted that both the Babylonian and Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the temple were the result of wickedness.

Other excavations in the Jewish Quarter revealed the "Broad Wall" as mentioned in Nehemiah 3:8. This seven meter wide wall was built during the reign of King Hezekiah in the 8th century BC. Isaiah 22:10 notes that a new wall was built and that houses were broken down to build the wall. Such houses can be seen to the left of the wall. This wall would have been built to protect the newer residential areas of the city on the western slopes. It is likely here where the ancestors (perhaps grandparents) of Lehi may have settled--they were probably refugees fleeing the Assyrian destruction of the Northern Kingdom.

We also toured the Cardo. The main street of Jerusalem after it was rebuilt by Hadrian following the 70 AD destruction. A section of the Cardo is now lined with shops along both sides much as it would have been during Roman and Byzantine times. This shop (this photo is from May 2008) sells interesting paintings of Jerusalem in the future. In most of the paintings the Dome of the Rock is absent. Some show a vacant parcel of ground and others show the third temple in its place.
This painting of the temple descending onto the Temple Mount without the Dome of the Rock certainly feeds the fuel of fear among Muslims that they need to protect the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque from such things as underground tunneling.
The Roman Cardo started at Damascus Gate and then as it proceeded southward it spit in to two streets. The Eastern street ran adjacent to the temple mount. Here is a large mural showing a Roman street scene.
Our final stop was the archaeological digs on the south and southwestern corner of the Temple Mount. Here looking northward towards the western wall you can see the paving stones from the time of Jesus. This was the main thoroughfare of Jerusalem and was lined with shops. Notice the large indentation in the pavement. Most likely made as Romans pushed temple stones off the mount. Behind it is a pile of jettisoned stones left in place. In Matthew 24:1-2, Jesus prophecies that not one stone of the temple would be left on top of another. The Temple Mount was wiped clean. Notice the huge Herodian stones on this southern most section of the western retaining wall.
Here is a pile of temple stones as they landed nearly 2,000 years ago.
The SW pinnacle of the temple. It is here where Satan may have tempted Jesus to throw himself down so that angels could save him. The SE corner dropping down to the Kidron Valley is the traditional site, but the SW corner makes more sense for it rises above a busy market street where many would have seen the grand angelic rescue. See Matthew 4:5-6
The stone of trumpeting (a replica--the original is in the Israel Museum) stood atop the SW pinnacle. It is identified as the trumpeting stone by an inscription in Hebrew at the top. It has a section carved out for a trumpeter to stand in as he heralds the coming of the sabbath or the beginning of a feast day. It too was pushed off of the temple mount.
Trumpeter Will
On the south end of the temple mount we climbed up 2,000 year old steps to the double gate that entered in to the temple mount. This is a Herodian stone at the entrance to the rocked-up double gate. Astronaut Neil Armstrong on a trip to Jerusalem after his walk on the moon, asked an archeologist where he could go to walk where Jesus walked. The archeologist took him to these stones leading up and in to the double gate. Armstrong pondered for a moment about where he was standing and then he is reported to have said: "It means more to me to stand on these steps than to stand on the moon." He was happy to walk where Jesus walked--we were too! I have a slide of mom and dad standing on this same stone back in 1982 when they came to visit me while on the BYU Jerusalem program.