Travels in Galilee
We may have missed the boat today, but at least we didn't leave anyone behind like we did yesterday. The tour program called for us to catch a boat and cross the Sea of Galilee this morning, but we took longer at Nazareth than planned and missed that trip. We did get out on the sea after lunch but just for a ride out to the middle and back, so we sailed where Jesus walked and the disciples sailed, so to speak.
On the way to Nazareth, we drove through Cana of Galilee, where Jesus did His first miracle. On the highway through the town, I saw a couple of shops that made reference to that fact: "The Wedding Wine (something or other)" and "The First Miracle (something else)". Tourist shops, most likely, hence the names in English. I didn't have time to snap a photo of either one.
Nazareth, a town of 500 or 600 in Jesus' day, has close to 250,000 population today in the greater urban area, most of whom are Arabs. The signs were more often in English and Arabic rather than English and Hebrew. The YMCA has set off an area on a hillside in the city and tried to give an idea of how people would have lived 2000 years ago, by replicating houses and other facets of life of the time. Our group enjoyed that so much that we couldn't make our appointment at the Sea of Galilee, which is about 30 minutes away.
We visited other areas where Jesus ministered--and there seems to be some sort of church built on the spot. Capernaum, where Peter lived and where Jesus made His home, has a modern church built over the spot where Peter's mother-in-law lived, a block from the synagogue.
Then there's Kursi, the place tradition says the herd of swine went off the mountain into the sea when the demons left the Gadarene. There was some discussion among us regarding that site, as the top of the hill is at least 100m back from the shore line. For that to happen there, under the present-day conditions, only "when pigs fly...", as the saying goes. There are ruins of a church there, too.
At the location where Jesus fed the multitudes by the shore "because it was a desert place", another big church (possibly Orthodox, judging from the icons in the church).
I tried to picture the location as it would have appeared in Jesus' day, but the church, the souvenir shops and the tour buses somewhat spoiled the "desert-place" idea. And we couldn't even see the shore from that spot because of all the constructions. We would never have guessed we were close to the sea.
The Mount of Beatitudes, where the Sermon on the Mount is said to have been given, practically overlooks the area where the 5,000 were fed. Another church. But we stood out on the side of the mountain overlooking the hills of Galilee to our right, the Sea of Galilee to our left, and contemplated what we were seeing and had seen. Despite the interference of "religious" men in building monuments to preserve the memories of an event---like Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; let us built three shelters, one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah"---and although on the hills above Tiberias, I could see urbanization creeping ever upward in the form of apartment buildings, that sea and those hills are still the same today as they were when Jesus travelled across them.
On the way to Nazareth, we drove through Cana of Galilee, where Jesus did His first miracle. On the highway through the town, I saw a couple of shops that made reference to that fact: "The Wedding Wine (something or other)" and "The First Miracle (something else)". Tourist shops, most likely, hence the names in English. I didn't have time to snap a photo of either one.
Nazareth, a town of 500 or 600 in Jesus' day, has close to 250,000 population today in the greater urban area, most of whom are Arabs. The signs were more often in English and Arabic rather than English and Hebrew. The YMCA has set off an area on a hillside in the city and tried to give an idea of how people would have lived 2000 years ago, by replicating houses and other facets of life of the time. Our group enjoyed that so much that we couldn't make our appointment at the Sea of Galilee, which is about 30 minutes away.
We visited other areas where Jesus ministered--and there seems to be some sort of church built on the spot. Capernaum, where Peter lived and where Jesus made His home, has a modern church built over the spot where Peter's mother-in-law lived, a block from the synagogue.
Then there's Kursi, the place tradition says the herd of swine went off the mountain into the sea when the demons left the Gadarene. There was some discussion among us regarding that site, as the top of the hill is at least 100m back from the shore line. For that to happen there, under the present-day conditions, only "when pigs fly...", as the saying goes. There are ruins of a church there, too.
At the location where Jesus fed the multitudes by the shore "because it was a desert place", another big church (possibly Orthodox, judging from the icons in the church).
I tried to picture the location as it would have appeared in Jesus' day, but the church, the souvenir shops and the tour buses somewhat spoiled the "desert-place" idea. And we couldn't even see the shore from that spot because of all the constructions. We would never have guessed we were close to the sea.
The Mount of Beatitudes, where the Sermon on the Mount is said to have been given, practically overlooks the area where the 5,000 were fed. Another church. But we stood out on the side of the mountain overlooking the hills of Galilee to our right, the Sea of Galilee to our left, and contemplated what we were seeing and had seen. Despite the interference of "religious" men in building monuments to preserve the memories of an event---like Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; let us built three shelters, one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah"---and although on the hills above Tiberias, I could see urbanization creeping ever upward in the form of apartment buildings, that sea and those hills are still the same today as they were when Jesus travelled across them.
posted by EP | 8:15 PM | Permalink
1 Comments:
Bet Mom wasn't too sad to miss the boat...
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