From sea to shining sea
Last night we were in Tel Aviv and I took pictures of the sun going down over the Mediterranean. Tonight we are in Tiberias on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and I got pictures of the setting sun reflecting off the hills on the western shore opposite our hotel.
Sorry, no pictures tonight. I only took 134 today and I'm not up to sorting through them, and I know you don't want to have to go through the 134 yourselves!
The other days will be educational, too, I'm sure, but today was full of learning experiences. Right off the bat I realized I had confused Haifa and Yofa (Joppa)--see correction to previous post.
Then I discovered that Caesarea is not where it always was in my mind. I always pictured Peter going to Caesarea Philippi over in Galilee, but guess what? There was another, bigger Caesarea on the coast north of Joppa! It was where Pontius Pilate was based, as well as Cornelius.
Then we went up on Mt. Carmel, where Elijah had the showdown with the prophets of Baal. Here I learned that: l) Mt. Carmel is indeed a mountain. 2) It overlooks the Valley of Megiddo (prophetical location of the last great battle when the Lord comes). Which leads to the next amazing discovery.
The Valley of Megiddo is enormous. It is a vast plain in its own right! I had always wondered how the armies of all the nations could go to battle in a valley. What I saw today convinced me there's room for a lot of armies there!
When we came over to Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee, I became aware, for the first time, that it is also below sea level, somewhere on the order of 213 to 218 meters below sea level. I don't know exactly how I imagined what the geographical setting of the sea would be, but it's different than I pictured it.
Nazareth: we're going there tomorrow, but we saw it today from a distance as we crossed the valley of Megiddo. I hadn't pictured Nazareth perched on the crest and slopes of hills overlooking Megiddo. Nazareth is visible across the vally from the town of Nain, where Jesus raised the widow's son from the dead. We ate lunch in Nain today.
One final curiosity learned today: the pointing system now used for the Hebrew scriptures was developed here in Tiberias. If you think that's a bit of an anti-climax, I did call it a curiosity, not necessarily a life-changing event...but for a foreigner who senses the frustration of trying to read Hebrew without the vowel points, this invention was not insignificant.
Event of the day:
One of the places we went was the archeological site of the town of Megiddo, that overlooks the great valley of the same name. The group walked to the top, and we had a choice of routes for returning to the bus. The guide suggested taking the route through a tunnel dug in the mountain that went almost straight down 183 steps, then leveled out for a 100 meters or so to the spring that supplied the town with water, before going up 80 steps and coming out on the back side of the hill. That number of steps made Abbie decide not to chance her knees going down so far and back up, and one of the men in the group did not like the idea of going through the tunnel, either. So they went back by the path we came, and the bus would be waiting for us on the back side of the mountain and would pass by the entry to the site and pick up the two that walked back to the start of the trail.
20 of us were on the bus, and I was watching for the driver to turn back into the park entrance to get Abbie and the brother. But he kept right on going! I was certain there was no other way up to the park entrance, and I passed the word from the back of the bus up to the front: "Hey, you forgot my wife!" Because we are in a big tour bus, the driver had to drive on a couple of miles or more before he could turn around. Abbie and Helder were sitting waiting patiently when the bus finally got back to them. Just to think: we went off and left them in the middle of nowhere in northern Israel!
Sorry, no pictures tonight. I only took 134 today and I'm not up to sorting through them, and I know you don't want to have to go through the 134 yourselves!
The other days will be educational, too, I'm sure, but today was full of learning experiences. Right off the bat I realized I had confused Haifa and Yofa (Joppa)--see correction to previous post.
Then I discovered that Caesarea is not where it always was in my mind. I always pictured Peter going to Caesarea Philippi over in Galilee, but guess what? There was another, bigger Caesarea on the coast north of Joppa! It was where Pontius Pilate was based, as well as Cornelius.
Then we went up on Mt. Carmel, where Elijah had the showdown with the prophets of Baal. Here I learned that: l) Mt. Carmel is indeed a mountain. 2) It overlooks the Valley of Megiddo (prophetical location of the last great battle when the Lord comes). Which leads to the next amazing discovery.
The Valley of Megiddo is enormous. It is a vast plain in its own right! I had always wondered how the armies of all the nations could go to battle in a valley. What I saw today convinced me there's room for a lot of armies there!
When we came over to Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee, I became aware, for the first time, that it is also below sea level, somewhere on the order of 213 to 218 meters below sea level. I don't know exactly how I imagined what the geographical setting of the sea would be, but it's different than I pictured it.
Nazareth: we're going there tomorrow, but we saw it today from a distance as we crossed the valley of Megiddo. I hadn't pictured Nazareth perched on the crest and slopes of hills overlooking Megiddo. Nazareth is visible across the vally from the town of Nain, where Jesus raised the widow's son from the dead. We ate lunch in Nain today.
One final curiosity learned today: the pointing system now used for the Hebrew scriptures was developed here in Tiberias. If you think that's a bit of an anti-climax, I did call it a curiosity, not necessarily a life-changing event...but for a foreigner who senses the frustration of trying to read Hebrew without the vowel points, this invention was not insignificant.
Event of the day:
One of the places we went was the archeological site of the town of Megiddo, that overlooks the great valley of the same name. The group walked to the top, and we had a choice of routes for returning to the bus. The guide suggested taking the route through a tunnel dug in the mountain that went almost straight down 183 steps, then leveled out for a 100 meters or so to the spring that supplied the town with water, before going up 80 steps and coming out on the back side of the hill. That number of steps made Abbie decide not to chance her knees going down so far and back up, and one of the men in the group did not like the idea of going through the tunnel, either. So they went back by the path we came, and the bus would be waiting for us on the back side of the mountain and would pass by the entry to the site and pick up the two that walked back to the start of the trail.
20 of us were on the bus, and I was watching for the driver to turn back into the park entrance to get Abbie and the brother. But he kept right on going! I was certain there was no other way up to the park entrance, and I passed the word from the back of the bus up to the front: "Hey, you forgot my wife!" Because we are in a big tour bus, the driver had to drive on a couple of miles or more before he could turn around. Abbie and Helder were sitting waiting patiently when the bus finally got back to them. Just to think: we went off and left them in the middle of nowhere in northern Israel!
posted by EP | 9:11 PM | Permalink
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