Galilee-Sunday

Day two began by us driving on a road that went directly through two old Syrian-Israel Boarders. The sides of the roads are lined with fences and signs warning of land mines. We were supprised to find out all the signs were completely legit and necessary as the acres of fields on the side of the road contain millions of land mines that have never been triggered.

Ian and me going to the edge (the signs says "Danger Mines! in case you can't read it)

We then continued on to the tell of Hazor- the biggest tell in all of Israel. Despite it's size, there wasn't anything that made it stick out from other tells and ruins we have seen, so I'm only posting one picture from it...it will give you a great idea of the overall historical feel of the place.

Yep, me and solider man, that's Hazor...

Onward to Dan...

Some of the ruins here were from the time of Abraham and there was an arch that Abraham may have even gone through. We spent some time cheking out the ruins of tell Dan and then got to explore some of the beautiful trails.
Liz and me hiding in what the sign tells us is the "Winnie the Poo" tree. Can you see it?
It was beautiful and calm

Our next stop was Caesarea Philippi where there were many places dedicated to pagan gods-
This is the giant cave of Pan, the Hellenistic god of fertility. It was here, in the midst of all the pegan influences, where Jesus asked Peter who he though he was (Matthew 16:13-20). Also, an interesting fact: it was here that Jesus said "on this rock I will build my church." Maybe he was using this place, this core of Hellenistic paganism, to say that he can take all the wrong and still build his kingdom on man’s mistakes, on this giant rock dedicated to another. I made them do it...but we licked one in Jerusalem, why not here too?
I'm not sure what this old building is, but I loved the colors and shape

I'm skiping telling you about a boring lookout and bringing you to the last stop of the day- A basalt valcano in the Golan Heights where we visisted an inactive military base from the wars against Syria and Lebanon. It was so cold at the top of the mountain and as the evening got later we were standing in the midst of clouds. Our view through the overcast sky was into Syria- the closest I'll get to that country in a long time. Dan, me and Jon jumping on the mountainThe sweetest sign ever! Kinda like the one in Portland but more legit...

and that is the end of day 2. yay, now off to write some reports and study for a test tomorrow. peace.

Galilee-Saturday

It all started one slightly sunny day in the grand city of Jerusalem. We were all up by 6am getting ready to leave on our longest field study yet to the Galilee. The prediction of rain put no damper on our excitement. First stop of the day Caesarea (not to be confused with Caesarea Philipi which comes later on in the trip). The ruins of Caesarea are right on the Mediterranean Sea. And though the sea is very beautiful, it held a very negative image for the people of the Bible. During our instruction time, Dr. Wright began by telling us to try to view and understand the sea in the way in which it was seen and understood by the people who lived long ago. The ocean was a place hated and feared by the Israelites who much preferred the shelter and stability of the dry hills. Psalm 107 talks about how the sea brings no peace. Revelation 21:1 talks about how there will be no sea in the new heaven and new earth, and Revelation also talks about how the Anti-Christ will come up out of the sea. A final example of the negativity associated with the sea is the story of Jonah and how he sought to escape the Lord and so hid in a place where there was supposedly no Lord and no peace. After hearing this, I still love the sea, but I will definitely read about it with new eyes as I try to understand the view of the people I am reading about.
Detailed capitals from the post New Testament period

There were a ton of fishermen on the shore of the sea
"Horse racing" in Caesarea's giant stadium

We then went to see the Caesarean Aqueducts and then on to Mt. Carmel. The place on Mt. Carmel that we stopped at overlooked the Jezreel Valley. This was the place where many Bible stories took place including a great deal of Elijah's life.

Everyone is orienting their maps to the horizon line.

Here is a paragraph from my field study report that talks about an interesting aspect of one of Elijah's story:

The story takes place in 1 Kings 19 where, after Elijah has been hiding from Jezebel for a long time and is at such a low place in his life that he wanted to die, God reveals himself to Elijah. The wind came, then an earthquake, then lightning- but God was not in any of these. Finally there was a still quite whisper. It was through the whisper that God chose to speak to Elijah. It is hard for us humans to understand why God wouldn’t show his power in a huge way and reveal himself through one of the very strong forces of nature. We must look at the culture and what is going on around Elijah religiously in order to make some sense of this. Baal was one of the prominent gods of this time and many Israelites were beginning to compromise over their beliefs in worshiping only one God by adding bits of paganism into their normal worship and engaging in idolatry. The god Baal was the god of the rains, the sky, and bringing about new growth. The wind, earthquake and lightning could all be seen as things under his domain and God did not want Elijah to think that he might actually be similar or simply anther part of Baal. He had to be, in no way, associated with a false god. God was showing that his very essence was completely different then this false god.

It started to rain on the Mt. and I was very unprepared so I wore my Geo-basics book to keep me dry...see Dr. Wright? It has so many more purposes then just teaching me about rocks!

We went on to see more ruins at Megido (and the armagedon valley). We discussed how this would not be the place of the final battle at the end of the earth as many people tend to think (thanks Left Behind). There is a very strong possibility that the final battle will actually happen in Jerusalem. Dr. Wright explained the reasoning behind this, but it is to hard to explain on this blog. It's super interesting though.

Our final stop was a great view from the Nazareth ridge. After more class time we headed to a lovely hostel in En Gev right on the Sea of Galilee where we would be staying the next 3 nights. We had a wonderful, all you could eat, dinner before falling into bed for much needed sleep.