Monday-Thursday, 24- 27 November 2014 Galilee Field Trip

Monday we left bright and early for the first half of the Galilee field trip.  We went on the second half last fall, so this will be our last field trip with the students.  We stopped at Beth Shean before arriving in Galilee.  Beth Shean is an 18-stratum tel that was important throughout the Canaanite and Old Testament eras.  Canaanite as well as Egyptian temples have been uncovered.  Joshua could not conquer it.  After the deaths of Saul and Jonathan, the Phillistines displayed Saul's armor and hung the dead bodies of Saul and Jonathan on the walls.  The Israelites probably controlled Beth Shean during the reign of David.

Roman theater in the city of Scythopolis

The Roman ruins at Beth Shean

View of the country side around Beth Shean

The city was destroyed by an earthquake.  The pillars fell in the same direction.

The main road or cardo in Roman cities runs north-south.

Then it was on to Nazareth to visit the Church of the Annunciation commemorating the angel Gabriel's announcement to the Virgin Mary that she would give birth to the Son of God.  There were beautiful depictions of the Virgin Mary and the Christ child from all over the world.

I thought the art from China was interesting.

The Church of the Annunciation is a Roman Catholic church which holds the honor of being the largest Christian church in the Middle East.  It was completed in 1969.

 Church of the Annunciation has beautiful modern stained class windows.

 Downstairs in the Church of the Annunciation

Ceiling of the Church of the Annuniciation

We then went to the Church of St. Joseph.  It is north of  the Church of the Annunciation and is built over a  grotto which was the traditional site of Joseph's carpenter shop and the home of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus.

Mosaics in the front of the church

 

 I especially liked this picture of Jesus working in his father's shop.

Main chapel

The last church we visited in Nazareth was the Synagogue Church. It is built ove the traditional site where Jesus' family would have attended synagogue and where Jesus announced he is the Messiah.  The current structure is a  small one-room Crusader church from the 12th century. 



  From the late 12th century, pilgrims reported visiting a church on the site.

Candles and incense burned in the synagogue.



 Mt. Arabel provides a spectacular view of the Sea of Galilee, Tiberias, and Golan Heights. Mt. Arbel is located west of the Sea of Galilee and south of the Plain of Gennesaret, about five miles north of Tiberias.

Gaye Strathern taught at the site.

And the rains came...

Even the goats took shelter.

November 25 we went to the Mount of Beatitudes where the Sermon on the Mount was delivered.  (Matthew 5-7 ). Church of the Beatitudes, a Roman Catholic church built in the late 1930's from donations from Italian Benito Mussolini, has an octagonal shaped dome. Each side represents one of the Beatitudes.

Even in November the roses were in bloom.

There has been rain so the fields near the Mt. of Beatitudes are getting green.

There were natural caves below the mount.  This particular one had a tree that was determined to grow.

There are two churches at Tabgha, each built in the 20th century on top of the remains of Byzantine churches.  Church of Peter's Primacy was built in 1933.  The rock in front of the alter is the traditional site where the resurrected Christ appeared to his disciples who were fishing in the Sea of Galilee and served them breakfast.  While they were eating, the Savior asked Peter three times  "lovest thou me?"  When Peter responded in the affirmative, the Savior commanded Peter, "Feed my sheep."



Tree at St. Peter's Primacy
 

On the shore of the Sea of Galilee outside Church of Peter's Primacy.

We then went to the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes.  It was dedicated in 1982 and commemorates when Jesus fed the 5000 from a few loaves and fishes.

This is the site of Peter's home in Capernaum.  In 1990, a new Catholic church was built on top of the site.  The church has a glass floor in the center so that people may see the excavations of Peter's home below.



Gaye Strathern is standing in front of a synagogue just north of Peter's home.  This synagogue dates to the 4th-5th century AD.  The limestone synagogue rests on a basalt foundation, possibly the actual site of the Capernaum synagogue mentioned in the New Testament.  Whether or not this is originally from a 1st century synagogue, there definitely was a synagogue at Capernaum in which Jesus cast out an unclean spirit and preached the Bread of Life sermon (John 6: 48-59.

Donna Funk inside the synagogue in Capernaum.

We then went to a recent excavation site at Migdal believed to be a fishing village and home of Mary Magdalene.  They have escavated an ancient synagogue there as well.

Ruins of the synagogue with a menorah on the side.

Foundation of the synagogue

Mosaic floor in the synagogue

The church at Migdal has a boat representing what Christ would have used.

There were pictures of the 12 Apostles around the room.  Judas is holding a bag of money and his name is not written in gold as are the other apostles like the one below.

Ginosar is a small village on the Northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. In 1985, a severe drought caused the Sea of Galilee to recede significantly.  In 1986 an ancient boat was discovered along the muddy shoreline.  The boat was excavated and preserved.  Experts dated the boat to between 100 BC and AD 70.  A boat similar to this one may have been used during Christ's ministry.

We then went on our own boat ride across the Sea of Galilee.  It was windy and rainy which gave us a first hand feel of what Christ experienced when he calmed the waves.

The Sea of Galilee is fed by fresh water from springs. It supported a large fishing industry in Old and New Testament times.  The lake is 13 miles at its longest point, seven miles at its widest  point, and is about 700 ft. below sea level. Israelis call the lake Kinneret.



We stopped the boat mid way to sing hymns and recall the experience of Christ walking on the water.

Thursday November 26, Blaine and I went to Gamla in the Golan Heights.  It was once a fortified city overlooking the Sea of Galilee.  During the First Jewish Revolt (66-70 AD) Gamla was one of the last Galilean cities the Romans destroyed.  Rather than surrender, many of the Jews jumped from the precipice to their deaths. Josephus says that when the Roman army eventually took Gamla, 4000 Jewish fighters were killed, while another 5000 committed suicide by jumping off the cliffs rather than being taken prisoner.  Gamla is sometimes known as "the Masada of the north".

Gamla was surrounded by steep cliffs, except on the east- the only side of the city that needed to be fortified by a wall.

Artillery weapons used during the Roman siege were catapults.

A model of the city Gamla.

This shows the contour of Gamla.

The name Gamla comes from the Hebrew word for camel, because the spine of Gamla's ridge resembles the hump of a camel.

As we drove through the Golan Heights, we saw tanks off the side of the road, possibly remnants from the 67 War.