We hosted tours today. Dieter Vieweger and Katja Soennecken, archaeologists from Germany, took a tour with us. They have been excavating under the Church of the Redeemer in the Old City. There are differing opinions about whether that area was inside or outside the walls in Jesus' time. The excavation has uncovered Herod's wall which shows the area of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Church of the Redeemer were outside the city walls in Jesus' time. Many believe that is where Jesus was crucified. The scriptures say He was crucified outside the city walls.
Tonight we listened in forum to Matthew Kalman, a British journalist who has lived in Israel for 15 years. He said you can't believe the media - if you are interested in a story, compare several news sources. Media has celebrity journalists who drop in, do a story about something they know nothing about, then leave. We listen to them because we like them (they are celebrities), not because they know what they are talking about. Even seasoned journalists make mistakes. When Matthew started in the business, his stories were read by 3 people before they were published. Now he can write a story and see it published in 20 minutes.
He said the middle east is a unique and crazy place. He told of a time he was going to Ramallah to cover a story. In his car were foreign journalists and a Palestinian who was a TV comedian. The Palestinian said he would take them through an area where they could by-pass the Israeli checkpoint. He told them to turn into an olive grove, but they ran into several Israeli army vehicles and soldiers in the middle of the grove. Several Palestinians were sitting on the ground with hands behind their heads. One of the soldiers asked who the Palestinian was in their car. The journalists told him he was a comedian who did impersonations and he was taking them to Ramallah. The soldier told the Palestinian to get out of the car. He asked him to impersonate Yasser Arafat, which he did. The soldier yelled to his buddies "Hey, this is the comedian we've seen on TV". The soldiers came over, the Palestinians on the ground came over, and they watched the comedian do impersonations for 15 minutes. Then the soldier said, "ok, we've got to get back to work". The soldiers picked up their guns and went back to their stations, the Palestinians sat back down on the ground and put their hands behind their heads, and the soldier told their driver to take a right at the 3rd olive tree.
We walked into the Old City after we finished tours to see Church of the Redeemer. We arrived just before they closed and could spend only 10 minutes inside. We walked back to the Jerusalem Center through Lion's Gate in the Muslim Quarter. We were captivated by this scene as we looked back at the city before leaving Lion's Gate. This is Via de la Rosa, traditional path Jesus took to his crucifixion.
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