Sarah Wagner
Galilee Field Study
Physical Settings
Dr. Wright
Jerusalem University College
21 October 2003
Day 1: Saturday
On this field trip I started off badly by forgetting my park card. But then I booked it up the hill, up all the stairs, and to my room and got it. But I still felt stupid and the bus left late because of me.
Our first stop was Caesarea, which was really cool because it was a New Testament town. The Roman theatre there was awesome, especially for a theatre person like myself. There I also got to check out the mostly extant Byzantine bath complex. I was struck with how much of the Byzantine times was a continuation of the earlier Roman Empire. Which I knew, but it didn?t quite strike me how much the Byzantines kept around stuff that we would consider ?pagan?, like baths. Though it did cover up a part of the ?pagan? hippodrome, so I guess that was positive.
In the baths it was obvious that being a slave there would be a crummy job. The tunnels to light the fires for the caldariums was so tiny and scary. Playing with fire in there as well would be highly dangerous. The baths did have some very nice mosaics. But the most amazing thing was the piping system. In the walls were tons of clay pipes, most of which are still there, that obviously were used to bring in fresh water, take out old water, and run hot air around to the baths, and take smoke out.
The next stop was Mt. Carmel, which had an amazing view of Lower Western Galilee. The monastery there was dedicated to the event of Elijah defeating the prophets of Baal, so there was a statue of Elijah there that looked really scary. But more than that, the view from the eastern side of the mountains gave me a greater understanding of the movements of King Ahab and his international relations.
The last stop of the day was Tel Megiddo, which was a very large site. Here Jeroboam II of Israel had his capital. In the center of the town was a large grain pit that stored all the taxes paid to Jeroboam. I was struck by the irony of the fact that Israel broke off from Judah because they were being overtaxed by Solomon, but then they had the same problem with their own kings. It also occurred to me that the grain pit, being so large, and having no cover, the grain on the bottom would have rotted before anyone could eat it. Which was extremely wasteful, especially seeing how some years farmers would have to give practically 100% of their harvest in taxes.
At Megiddo I also learned that ?Armageddon? in Rev. 16 does not refer to the city of Megiddo, nor its Tel, nor its valley. Instead it comes from a Greek pun from the Hebrew, and means ?the assembly place? which would be Jerusalem. Which makes sense, because Jerusalem is a city that is fought over, and will continue to be fought over for a very long time.
Day 2: Sunday
After waking up at En Gev, which was a very nice kibbutz, and seeing the Kinneret from my window, which was extremely cool, we went to the very cool park of Qasrin. This Talmudic town was made completely out of black basaltic rock, which gave it a rather odd appearance. It was extremely helpful for me to see a typical house, reconstructed ?in situ?, to put together what home life was like for the average Jewish villager in the 1st and 2nd centuries. The house also explained to me what Jesus meant when he said that he was building us ?rooms? in his Father?s house. In the west we?re all so quick to make that verse mean that we?re all going to have a big house on forty rolling acres, when actually it just means that we?re going to have a small room within the small house where all of us, the whole family, will eat and talk and play together. The picture that Jesus gave, contrary to the King James translation, is one of an intimate family, not a group of individual kings.
From there we went to the Upper Golan, which was a different world altogether. The volcanic cones and the rise of Mt. Hermon, as well as the military presence guarding the Syrian border, made me realize how different the rest of the Middle East is from the Mediterranean ecosystem that the rest of the country has. Mt. Hermon was an awesome mountain, and at 6000 feet it is no wonder it was comparable to Mt. Olympus as a divine mountain.
On the way out of Golan we stopped by Nimrod?s fortress, which was a castle complex built to keep the Crusaders from pushing into what is now Syria. The site was very large, and had a great view of the region, although it would be such a bear to climb up to it all the time if you had to live up there. I guess that?s why people were so isolated back then. Some of us got a little lost on the far side of the ruins, and ended up climbing down the ?extreme hiking? path, a mile away from the bus. But that was a lot of fun, especially the part where we sent Andy to sprint up the road to tell the bus to come pick us up.
The next stop was Banias, or Hermon Springs, or Caesarea Philippi. Here was a natural spring, where it appears that the water just pops right out of the rock. That this would have been seen as a divine miracle by the ancients is no surprise. However, I would have thought that the Romans would be smarter than that, but no. King Herod built a temple here to Caesar Augustus, who gave this land to Herod after he had wrested it away from Cleopatra VIII. There was also a temple built into the natural cave in the cliff face dedicated to Pan, as well as temples to Nemesis and others, as well as a goat dancing sacrifice place. After spending so much time in synagogues and churches, as well as ruins of other synagogues and churches, it was odd to be in the ruins of pagan temple. On the other hand, it may have been around here on Mt. Hermon that the Transfiguration took place.
We then went to Tel Dan, which has the largest natural spring in all the Middle East. The entire site is flowing with water, including the part which is called the Garden of Eden which includes Winnie the Pooh?s tree. The neatest part was the mudbrick city gate that dated to the time of Abraham. Seeing mudbrick like that intact is so rare, especially the mudbrick arch.
Day 3:Monday
This day was much easier, as we stayed around the Kinneret all day. But first, I was crazy and got up at 4 am to climb Mt. Hippus to watch the sunrise. It took 45 minutes to walk to the top, during which I decided that the smell of rotting dates and banana?s was just as bad as the smell of cattle. I got to the top just before the sun rose over the higher Jordanian hills. On top there are ruins of an Early Byzantine church and a couple other buildings. Rachel told me that there were cool mosaics there, but I couldn?t see them because the site had already been closed down with plastic and sand to protect it from the winter rains. Nonetheless, I was able to sit on top of the wall of the apse to watch the sunrise, and then to poke around the rest of the site for a little bit before I had to leave.
The first stop was Kursi, which is the ruins of monastery and church that remembered Jesus casting the demons into the swine. This city was a part of the Decapolis, the major Greek cities on and beyond the Jordan, so it was no surprise that there were unkosher animals here. Even more interesting is the fact that the man Jesus healed may not have been Jewish himself, as well as the fact that he proclaimed his healing in non-Jewish towns. The church there was most interesting because it housed a huge cistern in the outer courtyard.
We then went to the north side of the lake to Capernaum. There we took a boat ride out onto the lake and talked about the different methods of fishing. Fishing doesn?t seem to have been a very big business on the Mediterranean, leaving just the Kinneret to feed the area with fish.
The town of Capernaum was loads of fun. Historically, Capernaum was on the main New Testament International Highway to Caesarea Philippi and Damascus. As such, it was a very large town. This town was also the adopted hometown of Jesus. The site has a huge ruin of a synagogue, which dates to slightly after the time of Jesus, although it was built on top of an earlier one. Next to the synagogue is the ruins of an early church, which was built on top of the house that tradition identifies as the house of Peter. In the ruins you can see the larger and larger walls of the octagonal church, which probably also had a nave extending from it like the Church of the Nativity. It now has a Catholic Church built suspended above it, commemorating the church as well as protecting the ruins from the elements. The Church is supposed to look like a boat, but it actually looks like a spaceship.
We then went to a couple other sites, such as the Primacy of Peter church and Tabgha. These places were very quiet and refreshing. The Nile scenes in the church at Tabgha was most interesting, showing how international some of these cities on the International Highway were.
After lunch we went and saw the Jesus Boat, the 1st century fishing boat pulled out of the mud of the Kinneret and preserved just recently. I found it interesting that the Israeli?s referred to this boat constantly as an ?ancient fishing boat? which makes sense since the museum is on a kibbutz. But even batter was the fact that they translated the sons of Zebedee as Jacob and John, instead of the stupid King James mistranslation of James and John. I love Jewish people.
Day 4:Tuesday
I enjoyed this day because there was more Greek/Roman/Byzantine sites. At Sepphoris I enjoyed looking at what a high-art mosaic was. The artistic techniques used here in these mosaics were definitely advanced enough even for a high Renaissance clientele. Usually one thinks of ancient art and sees it as being at a much lower scale of quality than what the Michelangelo?s and Monet?s did. However, at Sepphoris we see that, given the correct economic circumstances, i.e. circumstances equal to the situation in Europe in the late Middle Ages, the ancient artists could also have the wherewithal to produce great masterpieces.
After that we drove through Nazareth and looked out at the Jezreel valley. I found the explanations of the battle between Barak and Sisera most illuminating. The geographical context of the valleys and the hills greatly explained the nature of the battle. The story of Sisera and Jael was also loads of fun.
The stop at Bet Alfa was interesting, not the least because it showed, in comparison to Sepphoris, what a cheap mosaic looked like. The depiction of Abraham in the Akeda was hilarious, it looked like Abraham had a really major overbite. Nonetheless, the Jews there really did try to give their Synagogue a bit of nice public art and pizzaz, and you?ve got to give them credit for that. Although, together with the poor mangling of the Zodiac it faintly reminded me of how Christians can mangle art when they try to turn it into an item within the Christian subculture, CCM and Thomas Kinkade comes to my mind.
The swimming hole at Gan Hashlosah was very fun. Historically, it reminded me of the fact that if you wanted to go for a swim in the ancient world you always had to deal with the fish trying to lick your toes. On the other hand, I was also reminded of the fact that I?m not a very good swimmer, and rivers are very deep. But the swim, as well as the showers afterwards, woke me up enough to make it to the next stop.
The last stop was Bet Shean, also called Scythopolis. This place had a massive theatre, mostly intact, which was really cool. The entire city layout was pretty clear, which was cool because I got to walk the streets and go past shops and intersections just like a person back then would have. The place was destroyed by an earthquake in the 8th cent. C.E., so a bunch of the columns had fallen down and smashed right through the street. The fact that the marble for the columns were imported from Turkey made me realize how rich and important this Decapolis town was during its heyday. The Egyptian fortress on the top of the Tel was really neat because I was able to touch copies of the Egyptian inscriptions that they found there. The presence of Stone Age remains near the top of the Tel was very interesting as well, showing how important that site was from the earliest times.
The field trip was loads of fun. It was more interesting to be in a landscape completely different from that around Jerusalem. It was also nice to be in a place where the feeling that we were in a place where Jesus walked was more clear. I didn?t see a miracle there like Jesus walking on water or anything, but the presence of the octagonal church at Capernaum over Peter?s house did make the life of Jesus more real to me.