Walk Around Jerusalem

One of the benefits of our coming to JUC is the opportunity to audit classes. In other words, we get to enjoy selective lectures and go on many of the field studies with the students. While our kitchen duties won't allow us to attend Dr. Wright's "Physical Settings" class, we do get to go on all of the trips. The first two were the past two Sundays . . . a walk around Old Testament and New Testament Jerusalem. Much imagination is necessary when attempting to go back in time.

Where JUC is situated, and the walled in Old City we have been visiting for over a month now, is New Testamant Jerusalem. This is where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Dome of the Rock (Temple Mount), Western "Wailing" Wall, Via Dolorosa, and the four inhabited quarters are (Jewish, Christian, Armenian, & Muslim). The walls surrounding were built, and rebuilt, during the Crusader, Byzantine, and Ottoman periods.

It's debated whether Jesus was crucified and buried at the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (CHS) or the Garden Tomb outside the northern wall (which we have not visited yet). Dr. Wright says he is not certain if there is enough evidence to place these events at the site of the CHS but he is certain it is not the Garden Tomb. CHS is very ornate, with Greek Orthodox & Catholic icons, candles and burning incense. While we were there, a procession of singing priests were "making their rounds" throughout the interior. Interestingly, during the Ottoman Empire the reigning Turk stepped into a squabble and gave the key to the church to a Muslim family. To this day, it is a member of this family who unlocks and locks the doors each day. You can imagine how demeaning this is to the Christian community. There are actual rooms upstairs where only Catholics can stay overnight. They are austere and available through prior arrangement. The clincher . . . once the door is locked at night, it remains so until 5am the next morning. A story has circulated that an overnight "guest" suffered a heart attack in the night, and they could not get him out! But, whether Jesus died and was buried here or the Garden Tomb, I can't say for sure. I'm just glad that wherever it was . . . it's empty!!!

Old Testament Jerusalem is the "City of David", which is outside the current Old City walls descending sharply down southward to the intersection of the Kidron and Hinnom valleys nestled between high hills all around including the Mt of Olives to the north and east. The City of David begins outside the Old City southern wall, directly across the Kidron Valley from Silwan village (a volatile area which Dr. Wright cautioned us to avoid). There are no identifiable remains of David's palace only foundations and retaining walls suitable for previous large buildings. The area today does not reflect where one would expect royalty to abide but it was most probably chosen by David because the valley is where the water flowed and collected (water is life in this area... even to this day). Also it was an established city of the Canaanites who where conquered by one of David's mighty men, Joab. (Next to Damascus, Jerusalem is the longest continuously inhabited city in the world.) It was a productive agricultural area at the time, and we saw the site where the King's Garden would have been at the base of the hill. You can well imagine the psalmist when he sang:

"I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from whence shall my help come? My help comes from the LORD who made heaven and earth." Psalm 121:1-2

As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds His people from this time forth and forever. Psalm 125:2

We walked through a portion of Hezekiah's Tunnel on the dry pathway. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezekiah_Tunnel Water still flows through, and visitors can wade through its entire length as long as you don't mind water up to your calves, tight spaces, and you carry a flashlight. We may do this when temperatures in Jerusalem reach 100 degrees in the summer.

And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? II Kings 20:20

And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem, he took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which were without the city and they did help him. So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, "Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?" II Chronicles 32:2-4

This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works. II Chronicles 32:30

Next, we went to the Pool of Siloam (keys also held by an old Muslim man). New discoveries are being made at this site since 2004, including steps which ascend/descend from the temple site to the pool. Jesus most probably walked these same steps and directed the man born blind to go there after putting the mud salve on his eyes.

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, "Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg?" Some claimed that he was. Others said, "No, he only looks like him." But he himself insisted, "I am the man." "How then were your eyes opened?" they demanded. He replied, "The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see." "Where is this man?" they asked him. "I don't know," he said. John 9:1-12

There are also recent discoveries of Roman coins, which a young man was eager to show us.

We looked at a painted mural which depicts what the pool would have looked like in Jesus' day. That concluded our morning of discovering the City of David or Old Testament Jerusalem.

After lunch at JUC, we then began a "discovery" of the New Testamant Jerusalem. We entered the current Old City through the Dung Gate, past the Western (Wailing) Wall, through a museum to the entrances of Herod's temple. We sat on the steps where the apostle Paul reportedly sat as a student of Gamaliel.

The Western (Wailing) Wall receives the most pubic notoriety but we were impressed with the extension of this wall, uncovered after 1967, especially the southeast corner. The "pinnacle" of the temple was the highest place among the royal colonnade built by Herod within the area of the temple. Here at the base of the temple mount wall the stones are massive. We photographed one, estimated to weigh over 250 tons, but others are estimated to weigh 500 tons! We walked past some which were hurled down by soldiers of the Roman Legion after the destruction of the temple on the 9th Day of the month of Av in 70AD. The recently uncovered stone slab pavement of the street reflects the impact of the huge stones cast down.

Some believe the distance from the top of the pinnacle to the pavement below to have been seven hundred feet. It was from here that the priest watched, waiting for dawn, to give the silver trumpet signal for beginning the services of the day where he summoned his waiting brethren beneath to offer the morning sacrifice. This is where Satan enticed Jesus:

Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: " 'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.' " Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.' " Matthew 4:5-7

Next we visited St. Anne's Church and the Pool of Bethesda, both within the Muslim Quarter. The Church of St. Anne is a beautiful 12th-century Crusader church, erected over the traditional site of the birthplace of Anne (Hannah), the mother of Mary (again, using your imagination). The architecture is captivating, because it is purposely designed with "flaws" . . . opposing windows, columns, & moulding with just the slightest difference in design to reflect that we, too, are flawed and only made perfect when united with our Creator.

Saint Anne's acoustics, designed for Gregorian chant, are so perfect that the church is virtually a musical instrument to be played by the human voice with a 7 second echo. Pilgrim groups come to sing in the church throughout the day and only religious songs are permitted. One of our students (appropriately named Melody) led us in singing a couple of songs . . . truly beautiful!

Is this truly the site of Mary's mother's home? We don't know, but it is fun to imagine young Jesus visiting his grandmother on this spot. For thirty plus years would He have passed a crippled man nearby at the crowded Sheep Gate, near the Bethesda Pool?

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me." Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. John 5:1-8

Our last stop was at the Austrian Guest House on the Via Dolorosa, where we were allowed to climb to the rooftop and watch the sunset over New Testament Jerusalem. It remains very eery to hear the muzzein's call to prayer from the many Muslim minnarets throughout the Old City. One in particular began right next to the guest house. We looked in the window, expecting to see a bearded Muslim in a robe singing/leading the ritual prayers. Instead we saw a plain clothed fella holding a microphone in his right hand, standing casually with his left hand resting in his pants pocket. Could just as easily been on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour (and lost if based on quality & pitch). But he was pleased to let us watch, throwing back the window curtain for a better view. One of our students, Todd, remarked,"Hey, where do I sign up for that?"

A great day with a great bunch of kids in a great city with a great teacher! We walked this past Sunday from 7am to 6pm. After dinner, it was a quick "spit bath" and bedtime. Because the alarm was set for 5:15am to prepare breakfast and lunch again.

Shalom y'all