Galilee-Tuesday

Alright, last post of our field study last week is finally done! I'm now almost caught up with blogging!

On our final morning in Galilee I got up really early while it was still dark to watch the sunrise and spend some with Jesus on the sea where he spent a lot of time as a man. It was super overcast, so I didn't see much of a sunrise, but the sea was still beautiful and time with the Lord was good as I flipped through Luke and read all the stories that happened at or on the sea of Galilee.

This last filed study had a similar theme running through out our different stops- mosaics. We began by looking at an old mosaic floor of a synagogue in the place called Zipori/Siphoris. It was beautifully done and preserved well. Some interesting aspects of this mosaic is the zodiac in the middle of the different Bible stories portrayed on the floor. There are actually 7 different Zodiacs that have been found in synagogues all over Galilee. Some say this is simply a religious symbol of the time but no churches of this time have had any kind of zodiac in them. It is assumed that this is when the Jewish community began to become accommodating towards people of other religions and accepted some of their different influences, including keeping up with the styles and having zodiacs in their places of holy worship. The synagogue that had these mosaics not only had pagan symbols but also were committing what their fathers would consider idolatry as they had pictures of people and animals all throughout their decorations. In this particular floor there is also four woman constructed in the four corners of the mosaic that represent the four seasons. This was a huge step to not only an image of a person but a woman in their synagogue. This particular floor also has what looks like an image of Helios, the Greek god of the sun. The zodiac

We also saw many more mosaics at this sight in some other building including what is known as "the Mona Lisa of Galilee."

We stopped at Jezreel for a few minutes (Ashleigh and Kaytlin above), but because of the rain we continued on to Beth Alfa where we saw more mosaics and saw an interesting movie on the hiring and making of the beautiful floors.

We concluded our day at the most amazing ruins sight of the entire trip- Bet Shan/Scythopolis. It was fun to see a place with more "modern" ruins (from the time of Christ-early AD) that are modeled after the grand structures of Rome.

The amazing theater

Columns were everywhere

We climbed the Bet Shan Tell to see the view of Scythopolis below. It is hard to tell how big this place is but the giant theater is in the far back left corner if that gives you an idea.
The sun set as we began our journey back to Jerusalem. This filed study was our final one in Israel. Only two more trips to go- in two weeks: Jordan!