The Great Galilee Fieldtrip

So far, we have only seen the middle section of the Israeli state. In both geography and climate it is fairly consistent or monolithic. Rocky hills with short trees and scattered underbrush gives way to a barren rocky land on the eastern slope. Samaria, on the other hand, contains wider valleys, smoother slopes, and more fertile pastures-a more gentile and varied landscape over all.

Day One: The Jezreel valley and Nazareth

The morning of the first day covered familiar ground quickly in order to proceed to the unexplored region of the Northern Tribes, within an hour we were already up the international highway in the seaside plane to the northern entrance to the Jezreel valley, the Megiddo pass. There are three north-south passes through the Mount Carmel hill country: Jokneam, Megiddo, and Kishon. In 1468, Thutmose III, Pharaoh of Egypt, came against the Canaanite kings by way of the sea. When he reached Mount Carmel, his advisors told him not to take the Megiddo pass. They counseled him saying that the Megiddo pass is the most direct, but also the narrowest; we will surely die. The Pharaoh did not listen to the voices of his advisers but instead sent small battalions up the Jokneam and Kishon passes to draw away Canaanite attention from the main force headed straight up the middle pass, straight to Megiddo and crushed the Canaanite forces there. The Middle-bronze era Canaanite city had a three chamber gate to stall invaders, and this may be the attribute Thutmose III is talking about when he said, “Capturing Megiddo is as capturing 1000 cities.” Megiddo is strategic along the coastal highway. Solomon fortified it as one of the three major cities during his dominion of Mesopotamia, the others being Hazor and Gezer. With these cities along the major trade routes, he was able to tax both local and international commerce. (I Kings 9:15, 16) Megiddo’s north-western view overlooks the Jezreel valley, Mt. Gilboa, the Harod valley, Mt. Moreh, Mt. Tabor, and the Nazareth ridge. This view is indicative of the dominion of Megiddo at the base of the great trunk route which leads through Jezreel past the Sea of Galilee and up to Hazor. Megiddo’s arms stretch out over these lands.

We stopped at a rolling stone tomb circa 135 AD. This tomb was carved out of soft limestone, and used after the Jewish revolt in 132. It would be similar to the Tomb in which Jesus was buried.

Next, we stopped at Mount Carmel, which is renowned for its lush, fertile beauty.

Elijah had a stand off with the prophets of Baal here. (I Kings 17-18) He challenged the prophets of Baal to call down fire from the heavens to burn up a sacrifice on the altar. This was to prove once and for all that Baal was the true God, but once they quit, Elijah took his turn and called down fire from God and burned up the sacrifice. He then pursued the Priests of Baal and struck down 450 prophets.

We then went to the Harod spring. This is the place Gideon chose his men. I dropped my Bible in the spring. Maybe I am ready for battle, huh?

Day Two: I live by the sea in a land called Galilee

We started out the day at Kefar Cana, just outside Nazareth. Here Jesus performed his first miracle by turning water into wine. We visited a Greek Orthodox Church at the traditional site of this miracle. (John 2:1-11) It was a beautiful Sunday morning, and the church bells tolled beautifully. We also had a little wine there to really get the “feeling” of the site.

Our next stop was Sephoras or “bird”. It was the capitol of Galilee during Jesus’ childhood and the only other significant fact is that the Mishnah was codified there by Judah the prince.

From there we traveled to Zippori, quite a beautiful National park with many large mosaics which many scenes. Some contained up to 1.5 million tiles of 23 colors. A scene of the worship of Dionysus the roman god of drunkenness where many young men we depicted dancing with centaurs and drinking wine. Another scene was a Nile hunting party where men hunted down creatures of all sorts and sizes. This city was probably the center of Dionysus worship, and was also directly across from Cana where Jesus turned the water into wine; a direct confrontation and defeat to the Dionysian cult. Zippori is also known for making peace with the Romans when the rest of Israel stood against oppression. This could explain why the remains of the Jewish synagogue contains not only Jewish symbols but also signs of the zodiac. Jewish syncretism weakened or at least contributed to the Jewish bending the Roman will.

We then had lunch in the Jezreel valley at McDonalds in the Golani Junction, and after lunch, we went straight to the Arbel cliff where we surveyed the Sea of Galilee for the first time. Jesus completed 80% of his life’s work here, so the view was breathtaking. Arbel is not recorded in the accounts in the scriptures, but Jesus probably saw this great view more than once. Arbel is directly above Tiberius, the only major city on the lake today and in Jesus’ time. We spent some quality time on the top of the cliff just surveying the Galilean scene. What a wonder to think that I could see all those places Jesus walked, talked, preached, healed, and slept. I was also similarly grieved when a large group of Mormons joined our group on the top of the cliff. I was wondering why they were there. Why do you have to come to Israel with your false teachings? Why does God, who is glorified in our worship, allow such blasphemous doctrines to go on unvindicated? The reason they were there was simple. They don’t have an AmeriBEX to study. There is no evidence in America to back up their beliefs. It is an unfortunate ruse, a hoax. No amount of imagination can bring them to the reality of God like Israel, the Holy Land. After some musing about Christ’s life and ministry here, we took a route down the cliff on foot. It wasn’t a hard hike as it was all downhill, Bill’s favorite. There were caves galore carved into the rock face. Hasmonean resistors hid from the Romans in these caves, and the Romans would try to kill them any way possible, but it was difficult, because they were hidden in the crags. The Romans came up with a system of smoking out the caves. They would lower one man down from the top of the cliff with a torch, and he would throw it into the mouth of a cave, and when the Jewish occupants would try to throw the torch out, he would shoot them with arrows. I had an opportunity to climb up into these caves and the only thing I saw there was evidence of pigeon and goat occupation, if you catch my “draft”. After we finished the hike, we got back on the bus and finished the day at our new home: En Gev Kibbutz Resort and Holiday. We had nice little cabins directly on the Galilee beachfront. It was a very nice Kibbutz, very good food, facilities and perfect location on the Sea. I don’t want to give the wrong impression, I love life on the Moshav, but it was much nicer there. We played games in the surf until well past sundown when dinner was served in the cafeteria. The climate at the Sea was almost tropical. Banana trees and Date palms were common there and it was very humid by the Sea because the Sea of Galilee sits in a bowl, 700 feet below sea level.

Day Three: River Rats

Early the first morning at Galilee, Matt, Theo and I rose before the sun to watch it come up over the Golan Heights. It was quite a remarkable sight. I read Psalm 22, and when I read verse 22, “I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you.” On that beach I thought of how David praised the Lord, and, remembering the Israeli dance I learned the week before, I began to dance there on the shore. This moment was slightly enigmatic for me because on one hand, I can’t dance and on the other hand, I don’t care, I just wish I was Jewish.

After a little breakfast, we went to the cove of the sewer between Heptapagon and Capernaum. This is a possible location for the Sermon on the Mount because of its great natural acoustics. Sound carries so well here that I could clearly hear Mike Brusuelis reading aloud almost 100 yards away!

When we arrived at the site of Capernaum we went directly into a Catholic monastery. It was built on the site of Peter’s house. There were a vast number of ruins here, including a Jewish Synagogue from the Byzantine times. The synagogue was built as a basilica facing south toward Jerusalem. Archeology used to presuppose that this synagogue was a first century building because the Byzantines would never let the Jews build a structure this grand, and because the Jews were not wealthy enough during the Byzantine period to import the white limestone used to build it. So, they dated the pottery around this area to the first century. Unfortunately, Archeology is a faulty science sometimes, and this is one of its major mistakes. After claiming this date for some time, Byzantine coins were found under the Synagogue, and the date was adjusted. In John 6, Jesus walks to Capernaum on the water from the north-west side of the Sea and explains the significance of the feeding of the five thousand to his disciples. He clarifies that when he claims to be the bread of life that he is claiming to be the ultimate sustenance for life; the living bread. This claim baffled the Jews the day before and they could not accept it. So, he takes his disciples to the other side and explains it simply.

From there, we traveled east on the shore line to the Mount of beatitudes. The Church on the top of the hill was built with a generous contribution from Mussolini, an irony I can’t quite fathom, but then again, I don’t know many power hungry men who do not use religion for power. The Sermon on the Mount is recorded twice in the gospels, once in Matthew 5-7, and again in Luke 6. Matthew gives a broad overview and Luke gives a brief synopsis. Scholars hold different opinions on where the sermon was actually given because it is necessary to harmonize the fact that Matthew says Jesus went up the mountain side and sat down and began to teach, while Luke says he went down and stood on a level place. Some scholars say these accounts are separate, and there is no need to harmonize them, because Jesus had to preach the same gospel over and over to different crowds, while still some say it is a flat place on the top of a hill, while others but the events one right after each other. I do not see that it makes much difference. All that matters is that we cherish the depth of words Matthew recorded and the breadth of words in Luke.

At Tabgha, there is another church built on a site dedicated to these words, “follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” This is also the place Jesus appeared to Peter and the disciples after the resurrection and asked him to affirm his devotion three times in John 21:15-25. He asks Peter, “Do you love me?” three times; a stroke for every denial before Christ was crucified.

From here we went to Nof Ginosar and saw a 1^st century AD boat that was dragged up from the sea bed and preserved by infusing the wood with wax.

After the 1^st century boat, we ate lunch at Tiberius. When I was done filling my belly with Pizza, we left for Et Tel known as Bethsaida. The site is inconclusive as Bethsaida because it only contains two main houses, and Bethsaida during Jesus’ time was much larger. Jesus spent lots of time in Bethsaida. He called Andrew, Peter, Philip and possibly John here (John 1), he healed a blind man (Mark 8:22-26), and he refuted the challenges of the Pharisees here.

We were able to spend the rest of the afternoon ditching out duties for inner tubes and we floated down the Jordan River. The banks are mostly overgrown, and the water is dirty, but that didn’t stop me from having a blast. The river is no wider than 30 ft across and not much deeper than 15 ft. (I used a bamboo pole to measure) The breaks in the riverside underbrush were mainly small trails or larger trails left by tank bridges. I saw a couple of these tank bridges and they are pontoons tied together and strapped to wheels left out in the open air waiting to be used again.

Day Four:

We stopped quickly at a couple locations to see the cattle of the Golan Heights, a turret from the top of a tank, and an Israeli defense station that we were not allowed to capture with our cameras. We arrived at Nimrod fortress on the southern side of Mt. Herman. (Psm 29, 133) At 9100 feet, Mt Herman towers over the Israeli valleys.

We then visited the temple of Pan, a ½ man, ½ goat god from the Roman pantheon. In Jesus’ day it would have been nestled here at the foot of Mt Herman. This is a possible location where he transfigured before Peter, James and John. (Matt 16:13-28)

From here we departed for Tel Dan. During the conquest under Joshua, the Danites failed to push the Philistines out of their allotment on the Mediterranean Sea. So, they asked Joshua if they could move to conquer fertile lands up north. From the Tel you can see Lebanon, and it is the ancient northern border, as the saying goes, “From Dan to Beersheba”. Jeroboam erected one of the high places with golden calves here when he led Israel astray from the true God. Dan is the closest landscape to western Washington. I can’t lie, the briers and greenery made me a little homesick.

We ended the day breaking into both Hazor and Chorazim. We were running well behind schedule, and Bill gave us permission to explore Hazor without any other tourists. I vote we do it that way from now on. Too bad it was our second to last field trip.

Day Eight:

At the Lower Jordan River, we stopped to see a pilgrimage destination. There were large groups of European and South American Christians coming to be baptized. The Jordan is much wider here, as it starts its decent to 1300 below sea level to end in the Dead Sea.

Beth Shan was my favorite stop. It held impressive roman ruins. A large theatre, largest Byzantine road I have ever seen, and many buildings line valley below the Canaanite Tel Beth Shan. On the top of the Tel, you can see all the way to Jericho if you have a clear view. Saul’s body was hung on the city walls here after he was defeated on Mt. Gilboa. The men from Jabesh Gilead came to retrieve his body from the Philistines.

I learned more about Jesus’ life this week. I walked in his sandals and saw the home of his disciples. I tasted the water of the Sea and slipped on the rocks of Arbel. I slept a night in Jesus’ hometown. This trip changed my life.