Last minute blogging

Life is crazy! It seems that these days blogs have taken a second or third seat to homework and doing fun stuff in Israel. I am enjoying life tremendously. Let me share a little of my weekend through the pictures that were captured.

Here I am in front of the Sea of Galilee. Here Jesus did most of his ministry. How exciting!

Some fishermen fishing at the Sea of Galilee... Is that Peter and Andrew?

There is a light at the end of the tunnel. I love this picture mainly because I can't stop looking at the light. It was a really cool little passageway leading to the Sea of Galilee.

This is the view standing from Mount Carmel, where YHWH defeated the gods of Baal through Elijah. Elijah told a bunch of prophets of Baal to build altars and he set up an altar as well. He said that whichever god sent down fire from heaven to burn up the altar was the true God. YHWH did. 

This is at the cliffs of Arbel, looking over the Sea of Galilee. As with all my other pictures, this is likely where Jesus stood at some point in his life.

This is a 1st century mosaic. It is intricate, and is kinda a big deal. It is sorta the Mona Lisa of Israel.

This is the tree that Judas hung himself on in the movie Jesus Christ Superstar. And this is an awesome picture.

This is a toilet. You just sat down there and let it out. Dan here is havin a good time.

I hope next time to share more about my trip. If you want to see the collection of pictures, they're on facebook.

Suffice to say that the weekend was great. Every night I got to hang out at the Sea of Galilee! Jesus probably did this often as well. It was surreal, and very exciting! I will share more at another time. Right now, I have work to do. Can't wait to see all my family and friends back home someday soon!

Adventures every day.

Every day is an adventure here in Jerusalem. I and some friends love to walk around at night. We walk around, people-watch, get some food, watch the Western Wall, or do anything else we feel like doing. It's given me a good feel for the neighborhood I am in.

Speaking of which, let me tell you what neighborhood I'm in. I am currently living on Mount Zion. Some of you may know that name... it's in the Bible a lot. The sad fact is, though, that when the Bible talks about Mount Zion, it's actually referring to what we call today the Temple Mount. It was where the Temple stood. At some point since the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, people (probably the Crusaders in the 1500's) thought that the hill where I live now was Mount Zion. They were wrong.

Anyway, I live right outside the "Old City" of Jerusalem. This name is also a little deceptive. The Old City has a wall around it, fortified since around the Middle Ages. It is not the same parameters as the city of Jerusalem back in the Bible periods. You can see in the picture below that the now Mount Zion is Southwest of where it was back in the day. Also notice that within the Old City there are different "Quarters"- Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and Armenian. You walk through it, and you definitely know when you've switched to a different quarter.

I also live close to the "New City" of Jerusalem. This is a very recent development with a mall and a bustling cultural center with nightlife and everything people could want. It starts mainly to the East. I walk through Jaffa Gate to the Old City usually, and right outside that is the New City, with a coffee shop named Aroma that has become the favorite place to get coffee around here.

I'm coming back to the States in about 6 weeks, which is sad and exciting at the same time. Today it is 99 degrees, and in Lansing Michigan right now it is 35 degrees. Yep, you read that right. I think I may leave on that note. I wish I could spend more time talking about Jerusalem, but I have homework to do. I have to study for a test in my Rabbinic Thought and Literature class with a friend. God bless!

Three Day Weekend

This is my favorite picture that I've taken so far. It's of the Dead Sea. For those who may not know, the Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth. It's so salty and dense that you naturally float on it. Your whole body just floats on top of it. It's a very strange experience!

This picture is also a favorite of mine. Somewhere out there, a long time ago, a huge man named Goliath stood and yelled out "Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us." Then he said, "This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other."

David heard these words and was irate. Goliath wasn't just defying the nation of Israel. He was defying the God of Israel. So David knew that the battle was not David vs. Goliath, but Goliath vs. God. And David knew that giants could be surrounding him, but if God was for him, who could stand against him?

 This is a picture of my friend Reggie tied up on an altar ready to be sacrificed.

Here I am sitting in a temple in Israel. This was a temple around the time of King Solomon, until the reign of Josiah (possibly destroyed when Josiah reformed Israel). Where I am sitting is the Holy of Holies. The fascinating thing is that there are two altars here. The Israelites were regularly worshiping not only Yahweh, but Asherah, a goddess of fertility.

I climbed this cliff in the wilderness. It was great!

A view from the top

Israel has the largest natural crater in the world. While standing on it, we saw some wild Ibex. 

 Another view of the Dead Sea

We stood here and yelled out, and the echo from the canyon was beautiful!

This was just a portion of my weekend.

Highlights:
- Looking at the place where David killed Goliath and chased the Philistines all the way to Gath
- Dead Sea
- The Waterfalls at En Gedi (I'll put up pictures soon)
- The largest natural crater in the world
- Hanging out with good friends!

I try to update this at least twice a week, so I'm sorry it's been so long. I also try to add a personal note in each of my updates. Here's the one for today, and it's basically my ramblings about living in Jerusalem.

I find it challenging learning so much about the ancient Israelites. The world they lived in is so different than my own, and I find it hard to make connections. Faith is hard here. Whenever there is something that contradicts my personal beliefs, I find myself in a "faith crisis" where I have to choose between what I believe and what people are telling me. I've had to rearrange certain things. I try to hold on to my faith in Jesus Christ in this land.
You would think that would be easier here in Jerusalem, but it's not. Everything about Jesus here in Jerusalem is a tourist spot, and every place is only significant because of what Jesus did there. I find myself being concerned for the people around here... people who have to watch as thousands of rich people from all over the world visit these sites, take pictures, and leave. People who depend on these rich people to buy a souvenir for a dollar so that they can feed their families. People who are in a war for their own land (both Arabs and Jews).
Anyway, I've written probably more than I should have. I'll post again soon with more pics from this weekend and maybe a joke or something. Shalom!

Pottery Dating

As some of you may know, I am in Israel studying three main things: History, Theology, and Archaeology. I've never studied archaeology in all my life, so it has been possibly the most challenging and rewarding learning experience I've had here. Something I didn't know about Archaeology is that the way we date what time period a building is from is by the pottery that was found inside.

Here's the basic idea: thousands of years ago, a stone building is destroyed, and the walls and/or ceiling collapse on everything inside. Over time, dirt piles up over all of this, and by the 20th century, people dig it up. They find this pottery because it's usually one of the only things that doesn't decompose from a building.

So, if we know what kind of pottery these ancient civilizations used, we can know when the building was from and who settled there. Pretty simple, really.

We know first that this is an early pot because it was before the invention of the spinning wheel to make pottery. You can see on the bottom that it was made on a straw mat.

Here's a whole pot! How exciting! :)

These are writing utensils, and the thing in the middle is something to write on. The invention of writing makes it a lot easier to date things, for obvious reasons. If the tablet doesn't specifically mention something that gives a clue to when it was written, we can study the language and learn that way.

The invention of pottery was around 7,000 BC, according to Archaeologists. Every building after this time period has pottery in it, without exception. So what happens when a building has no pottery? The assumption is that it was built before pottery was invented. There's Carbon-14 dating, of course, which helps Archaeologists date certain things with a very educated guess. The building I am standing in is estimated to be from 8,000 BC, and is accepted as the oldest building we know of!

 

Here is a coffin made out of clay. I just thought it was cool.

 At the end of yesterday,  I stood at the place where King Saul was born and where he first reigned as king from, and here is one of the pictures I got. The view was beautiful!

So, that's just a taste of what I've been doing and learning. Sorry it's been a while since I've updated. Everybody here has been working on a big paper that was due today, and although I finished it early, it's been a little boring since everybody has been busy. Next weekend we go to the Negev desert and the Dead Sea! It should be a good time! I'll take pictures for you!