Yesterday I said the Garden Tomb was on shaky ground when claiming to be the place where Jesus was crucified. Today we visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the spot with a much better claim to being the real deal.

The day started with a return to the Garden of Gethsemane for the devotional that we were unable to do yesterday. The highlight was a talk given by the youngest member of our group; a 16-year-old-girl named Esa. She reflected on the hurt that Jesus must have felt when his trusted disciples failed him in this garden (they fell asleep rather than standing by his side during his final night on Earth) and how he felt betrayed when Peter denied him three times. Her point was that we have a duty to support those around us in time of need. It’s also our responsibility to be open with others when we are in need of help.

We visited the site of the Antonia Palace, built by Herod the Great and named by Herod for his Roman patron, Marc Anthony. The palace was destroyed in 70 CE along with the rest of Jerusalem by Hadrian (the wall guy). This is where, traditionally, it is believed that Jesus was brought for trial before Pontius Pilot. As usual, other places in Jerusalem are candidates for this role. And as always, the exact location is not important; it’s the remembrance of the event that counts.

This served as a starting point for walking the Via Dolorosa, the Sorrowful Way, or Way of Suffering. It’s the path that Jesus traveled to Calvary, carrying the cross, where he was crucified. There are 14 Stations of the Cross (the Gospels mention eight), commemorating events that occurred as he carried the cross. 

The path today isn’t exactly the same as two thousand years ago. First, Hadrian covered over a portion of the original road that Jesus would have traversed, to create a raised street for shops and traffic. We were able to walk under the raised street and see Roman era remains, including a place where guards played the Game of Kings, a game of chance perhaps like the game Jesus’s guards played to distribute his clothing. Other sections have more recent buildings that block the straight-line path. And of course, the narrow street is filled with fellow pilgrims and the streets are lined with food stalls and souvenir shops of every description. 

All these impediments, especially the shops and their insistent vendors, detract from one’s ability to contemplate Jesus’s suffering and eventual crucifixion. On the other hand, the importance of the Via Dolorosa to Christians means that many are attracted to the site. And where there are tourists, there are inevitably souvenir shops. So, it’s perhaps selfishness to wish that everyone else would stay home. Like the uncertainty of the location of historical sites, it’s the pilgrim’s responsibility to rise above the distraction and to contemplate the meaning of the events.

The end of the Via Dolorosa is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The church encompasses two sites of highest importance to Christianity. First Calvary, the place where Christ was crucified, according to tradition going back to the fourth century CE. It’s also known as Golgotha (skull). Nearby there is a stone slab on which it is believed Christ’s body was placed and anointed with oils and spices. His body was then placed in a tomb provided by Joseph of Arimathea. It was at the tomb that Mary Magdalene encountered the risen Christ. 

The church was established by Constantine the Great. After Constantine had legalizing Christianity, he sent his mother to Jerusalem to find the place where Christ was crucified. She, with the help of local bishops, found three wooden crosses, which convinced them 1.  To build a church here, a Roman temple to the god Jupiter/Venus, built by Hadrian 200 years or so earlier, had to be torn down. In the process they discovered a tomb, assumed to be Christ’s burial chamber. The church has been destroyed and rebuilt over the years, including a fire set in 614 CE by the Persians, and several earthquakes. The tomb, actually a cave with three burial spots, is today enclosed in a structure called the Aedicula, built in the 19^th century.

I was somewhat surprised to see how close together Calgary and the tomb are – sites easily included in a single church. The site lies outside the walls of Jerusalem, as they existed at the time of Christ and is in a first-century graveyard. The line to see Jesus’s tomb was so long so we entered a different tomb from the same era only a few feet away.

Our day ended on the Teaching Steps, a long series of steps leading to the area where the Second Temple would have stood. This is the temple where Jesus is believed to have taught his elders when he visited Jerusalem when he was only 12 years old and where, during his ministry, he castigated the money lenders. We had a devotional there before Pastor Charlie and out guides declared the pilgrimage to be officially complete.

One surprise in the Old City, and throughout Israel for that matter, is the abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables. That was quite evident during our walk today with produce stands intermixed with t-shirt and souvenir shops. We shot a number of pictures to illustrate Old City commerce. 

Our trip home went as planned. No hitches, an on-time arrival and we were at our home in Melrose by 6:30 AM. Rebecca and her kids Esme and Griffin were there to greet us. I’m typing this final paragraph in the sunroom with Doby the grand-dog at my feet.

It’s good after 40 days on the road, to be home.

Today we visited a number of sites on the periphery of the Old City, each with a connection to the life and especially the crucifixion of Jesus. The problem with most of these sites is that very little archeological evidence remains from the first century CE, the time of Jesus and the Romans. The biggest problem is the total destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE, shortly after Jesus’s death in 30 CE. Jesus had actually predicted such destruction. After that, a succession of empires ruled Jerusalem: the Byzantines, Muslims, Crusaders Mamluks and Ottomans. Each contributed to the reconstruction of the ruined city. Most “old” buildings in Jerusalem date from the early Ottoman period in the 16^thcentury.

The bottom line is that, with a few exceptions, the places we visited have some case to make for being the actual site where biblical events took place, but there’s no guarantee. It’s also necessary to filter out the noise of tourist crowds from every corner of the earth.

The important thing is to experience and imagine what Jesus experienced. We came away with a better ability to read the Gospel accounts with an understanding of the distances, terrain and geographical locations involved, and with a fresh reminder of the importance of that narrative.

Here’s what we saw today:

The Church of Saint Anne – the traditional birthplace of Jesus’s mother Mary. The church is noted for its acoustics and we did some singing to appreciate it. The Muslims decided to keep it when they took over rather than tearing it down, turning it into a mosque and preserving the sound quality. It’s owned by the French, and flies a French flag. They got it from the Ottomans as a thank-you gift for support in the Crimean War against Russia. 

Nearby is the Pool of Bethesda where Jesus miraculously healed a paralyzed man on the Sabbath. Jesus told the man to pick up his mat and walk. Rabbis accused the man of breaking the Sabbath by carrying the mat. The man said, “Jesus told me to do it,” creating evidence the rabbis could use against Jesus.

 The Mount of Olives (not a mountain; just a hill) was, for me, the most striking place we visited today. There is a perfect view of the Old City and our guide pointed out the path Jesus was forced to walk, from his arrest, imprisonment, trials and eventual crucifixion. He was forced to walk at least five miles, from one end of Jerusalem to the other and back again as Herod, Pontius Pilot and the rabbis debated his fate. It made the biblical account much more understandable.  

At the foot of the Mount of Olives we visited the church at the Garden of Gethsemane, the place where Jesus prayed the night he was arrested and where Judas identified him to the authorities. The place was too busy for us to hold the devotional service planned. We’ll go back for that tomorrow.

Next, Mount Zion and the Upper Room, the place revered as the place Jesus served his disciples the Passover meal –  the Laat Supper.

The Church of Saint Peter in Gallicantu is the place traditionally identified as the spot Peter repented after denying Jesus three times. Jesus, at the Last Supper, had told Peter he would deny him three times before the cock crowed. Gallicantu is a Latin Word meaning cock’s crow. This church was first built in the fifth century, rebuilt by the crusaders and rebuilt again in 1931.

The Church of Saint Peter in Gallicantu is also thought to be close to the Jewish Priest Caiaphas’ mansion. Caiaphas interrogated Jesus and, tradition has it, Jesus was imprisoned that night in a nearby cave that is known to have been a Roman prison. There are several other places in Jerusalem that lay claim to the prison location, but this one seems to have a pretty good story to tell.

Finally, the Carden Tomb, the place where Jesus is said to have been entombed after his crucifixion and where Mary and the others saw Jesus after his resurrection. The evidence is a bit sketchy, but the setting, owned and maintained by a British organization, is quite nice. We held a devotion that included communion for our group.

A full day, to be sure. Tomorrow we’ll do more in the Old City, including walking the Via Delarosa, the path Jesus took, carrying the cross, to Calgary and his crucifixion.

And then that’s it. Judy and I will leave for the airport at 8:30 PM for a 12:40 AM (Monday) nonstop to Boston. We’ll arrive at 5:50 AM, ending our 40-day odyssey.

Breakfast time came and we discovered that the Holocaust Museum, our first choice for today’s “free day”, was sold out for today. The Israeli Museum, 57 shekels versus free, gladly sold us tickets We procured two taxis and off we went, arriving at opening time of 10 AM.

We spent the first two-and-one-half hours in the Archeology section, organized chronologically from the earliest evidence of humankind 1.5 million years ago to roughly the Roman times two thousand years ago. There may have been more recent displays but if so, we missed them.

The displays of religious, farming and everyday implements were very comprehensive interesting and the accompanying descriptions quite good. I particularly like the Stone Age section and the Canaan period (end of the Bronze age around 1200 BCE). There was a section with artifacts from surrounding cultures that had influence on what went on in the Levant (Israel, Syria and Lebanon, give or take). Egypt and Mesopotamia (Iraq) were represented but no mention of my best bro from Egypt, Pharaoh Ramses II.

We made a pass at the Israeli Art department and completely bypassed the Contemporary Art area. Time was limited. This being Friday means the museum closed at 2 PM in preparation for Shabbat at sundown.

We did, however, visit the area that deals with the Dead Sea Scrolls. Fragments were on display, along with detailed descriptions of the Essences tribe that occupied a desert area about 25 miles east of Jerusalem. An ultra-conservative sect of Judaism, they created scrolls containing the books of the Torah and what we now call the Old Testament. They lived from 200 BCE to 100 CE, give or take. The scrolls are the oldest (almost) complete written record of the. Hebrew Bible in existence.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947/48. The caves in which they were found were in what is now the Occupied Territories. Jordan controlled that area at the time and had control of most of the scrolls until the Six-Day-War. Most of them are now in Israel. Jordan and the Palestinian Authority still lay ownership claims. The scrolls have also generated great controversy among scholars whose oversized egos seem to be a big part of the problem.

There is another exhibit, collocated with the scrolls, displaying the Aleppo Codex. Until roughly 1000 CE, the books of the Hebrew Bible existed in numerous communities and handed down from generation on scrolls. Then, legend has it, in the sixth century the Ben-Asher family began compiling a complete collection – called a codex because they had figured out how to write on both sides of paper, rather than using scrolls. The process was completed in 980 CE. The Crusaders intervened and eventually the Codex ended up in Aleppo, Syria – hence the name Aleppo Codex. The Aleppo Synagogue was torched during an anti-Jewish riot in 1947. Part of the Codex was lost, either in the fire or by thieves. The remainder ended up in Israel.

In actuality, the Hebrew Bible was under development until the second century CE. And of course, the New Testament was largely written in that same timeframe.

By the time we left at 2 PM the coffee shop was down to ice cream bars. That and an apple will have to hold us until cocktail hour on our balcony at 5:30.

Cocktail hour was fun. Our balcony had lots of room for the six of us and it served as a very enjoyable party for my 75^thbirthday, which is today.

Dinner is over and we’re off in the morning to the Old City of Jerusalem. Today’s visit to the museum was a good introduction.

Masada makes an interesting story – I was going to say it makes a good story, but the story isn’t really “good.” It has a tragic ending and it’s beginning isn’t that great either. Then there are those that say it didn’t really come down like legend would have it, but I’m never one to let facts get in the way of an interesting/good story.

Herod the Great ruled Judea from 47 BCE, when the Roman Senate named him ruler of the Jews, until his death in 4 BCE. Through a complex set of relationships that included his father’s connections to Rome, Marc Anthony and Caesar Augustus, he worked his way up from a kid raised as a Jew to ruler and persecutor of the Jews. Cleopatra was a business partner mining asphalt from the Dead Sea to seal ship hulls. He’s the one calling for all Jewish babies Jesus’s age to be killed, causing his folks to move to Egypt until Herod died a painful death of some disease.

Herod was a builder: he expanded the Second Temple in Jerusalem, founded the cities of Caesarea Maritima and built fortresses like Masada, which we visited today. Masada was probably a safety fortress. If Herod was on the run, he could head south from Jerusalem to the mountaintop mesa where Masada was built. I’m not sure if anyone knows how often Herod used Masada but it was there if he needed it.

The Masada story is that during the first Jewish uprising against the Romans, a group of radical Jews took over Masada as a final enclave. The Romans put the Jews under siege and built a ramp to the fortress walls so they could maneuver a battering ram into place. The night before the battering ram was used the Jews realized that they could not prevail. The soldiers believed that the Romans would kill all men, rape and kill all women and sell the kids into slavery. The Jews decided that, rather than face that eventuality, each man went home and killed his family. By lots, men were chosen to kill other men. The lottery continued until the last man killed two others and then committed suicide. A woman and five kids escaped to tell the story.

The story has yet to be proven by archeological evidence but nonetheless Masada has become one of the most popular tourist spots in Israel. A cable car brings visitors to the tabletop where the fortress walls, accommodations, church, baths, granary and water supply were constructed. The views of the Dead Sea and the Judean Desert are breathtaking.

Incidentally, after the First Jewish War ended, the Romans completely destroyed Herod’s creation, the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

We drove north up the Dead Sea coast to the town of Jericho. There’s not much to see of the original town, the one where tells of Joshua’s attack in which “the walls came a tumbling down.” It’s another fact in some dispute by warring camps of archeologists and historians. There is belief that Jericho is the oldest city in the world, with archeological evidence that civilization existed here 11,000 years ago, when mankind was developing farming technologies.

We were shown a sycamore tree billed as the one the Zacchaeus climbed to see Jesus and repent his sins. The tree is a couple of miles from where Jericho existed at the time and sycamore trees last at most four hundred years. But it makes a harmless reminder of the Bible story. We had a tour bus lunch not far away. Some of our group took camel rides. I got my fill of camel riding in Egypt so sat in the bus and watched. None of the souvenir vendors offered me 10,000 camels for my wife like they did at the Pyramids.

As we drove, we saw Bedouin villages nestled in the sand dunes. We also saw graffiti-covered cement block huts that, until 1967, were the barracks of the Jordanian Army, before it was driven out by Israel in the Six Day War And across the Dead Sea in Jordan, we could see the spot where Moses, and two years ago Judy and I, saw the Promised Land from Mt. Nebo.

Then it was time for a dip in the Dead Sea. We went to a complex set up for the purpose with changing rooms and a roped off swimming area. The water there is 34% salt, compared to most ocean waters that are 4% salt. We were only allowed to float on our backs. Swimming on one’s stomach is too apt to cause ingestion of salt water, which can be dangerous to one’s health. But it’s just like they claim: floating on your back is effortless. You float like a dry piece of wood. The water feels oily from the salt. The water was in the 90s.

This evening Judy and I went to a home-hosted dinner with a couple in Bethlehem. They’re Catholic, he’s a woodworker making olive wood products and she helps with his business. They both spoke excellent English. He’s been to the States 10 times selling his wood creations in shopping malls. Check out bethlehembells.com. They have three kids, one 21 and married to a Palestinian and living near Atlanta, GA. There’s a boy 19 and a boy 11. Bishara’s shop is nearby; his father lives on the first floor of their building, his brother on the second and he and his wife Shorok live on the third floor. His 11-year-old was off playing with friends, some Muslim. They said Bethlehem is a big small town where everyone knows everyone and looks out for one another.

Bishara says it is much more difficult since Trump to get a visa to travel to the U.S. so his ability to sell there is hampered. Israel must also approve the visa, which costs $200 whether the visa is issued or not. They expressed many of the same issues Abraham gave us yesterday.

Tomorrow’s a free day. We may visit a museum or a Friday market. We’ll see.

 

Today we hit the road at 7 AM for Jerusalem, which will be our home base for the rest of our trip. On the way we stopped to see three important sites associated with the life of Jesus. But first we stopped at a souvenir shop in Bethlehem that specializes in religious figures and scenes carved from olive tree wood. This shop is favored because it is owned and run by Palestinians in the West Bank who are Christian and known to be honest in their dealings with tourists.

Jesus was, of course, born in Bethlehem, his father’s hometown and hence the place he had to go to be counted by order of Caesar Augustus. That meant Joseph and pregnant Mary had to (according to Luke) travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem. It took us 2.5 hours by bus over some pretty hilly terrain, following the Jordan River valley, so the trip wasn’t easy on foot and donkey.

The Church of the Nativity is built on top of the cave (not a stable like we all learned about in Sunday School) and is the oldest original church in the Holy Land. Constantine the Great commissioned the church shortly after he adopted Christianity and after his mother visited the Holy Lands in 325 CE. It was burned down but rebuilt by Justinian in 529. The Persians and Muslims respected the church and didn’t destroy it as they did other churches. The crusading knights enhanced it during their stay in Jerusalem . The Armenian Apostolic, Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches have all contributed and today have joint oversight of the church. Abraham, our tour guide, is a member of this the Church of the Nativity.

As with most religious sites, it cannot be said for certain that the cave beneath the Church of the Nativity is the exact cave where Jesus was born. But this site was first mentioned as the correct location in the second century, or within less than 200 years after the birth of Jesus, so it has good claim to the honor.

Second stop: the Shepard’s’ Field, the place where the Angel Gabriel visited shepherds in a nearby field to tell them, “”today in the City of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” There’s a church there, built in 1951-52 by the Franciscans. Archeological exploration found caves that could have been occupied by shepherds in the first century and on that basis the site was deemed to be where Gabriel appeared. There are other caves within a mile that are more likely candidates.

We next traveled to Bethany, a few miles from Bethlehem, where the tomb of Lazarus, according to tradition, is found. Again, there’s a church. The original Christian church as mentioned by Egeria and others in the fourth and fifth centuries. A mosque was built in the sixteenth century. The Franciscans built a Roman Catholic church in the 1950s and a Greek Orthodox put one up in  1965.

We were able to descend 24 rather steep and slippery steps to an antechamber perhaps 15×12 feet. From there one descends another step or two and navigates crouched down to the actual burial chamber, which is half the size of the antechamber. It is here that the casket would be placed.

Scholars say that this is most certainly not the original tomb where Lazarus was buried and where Jesus raised him from the dead. But it is likely that Lazarus was buried in a similar cave within a mile or so of this location.

As before, the significance of these sites is not their historical accuracy. They serve as a reminder of the events in Jesus’s life as told in the Gospels. Our guides urged us to look beyond the annoying crowds and not worry about taking pictures but rather to reflect on the meaning of the events these sites remind us of.

Equally interesting was Abraham’s description of conditions in the occupied West Bank territory. Abraham is a Christian Palestinian, resident of Bethlehem in the West Bank. He is quite critical of the government of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in several regards:

• Since the 1967 war, the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights have been under the control of Israel. The Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority nominally share administrative responsibility, but Israel has the ultimate and often arbitrary say.
• The Palestinian Authority has no control of its borders. Palestinians like Abraham have passports that allow passage to only Jordan. He must apply for a visa to go elsewhere. Visas are issued by the Israeli government at their whim.
• Trade, both imports and exports, across the Occupied Territory boarders is regulated by Israel. This greatly limits Palestinians from developing export business within the Territory and limits their ability to obtain goods needed within the territory.
• Israel collects taxes on behalf of the PA, charging 3% for their services. But, the Israelis retain the funds to balance Israel’s budget even though the tax revenues belong to the Palestinians.
• The Israelis exercise control over water allocated to the Territories. Israelis get a lot of water; Palestinians very little.
• Palestinian like Abraham to move from, say, Bethlehem to Ramallah or Bethany must cross several checkpoints where passage is again at the whim of Israeli boarder guards, many of whom are teenagers.
• Kubutzes and other Israeli settlements within the Occupied Territories makes a two-state solution difficult or impossible. He pointed to an upscale Jewish neighborhood near within the West Bank near Bethlehem with 45,000 residents. “It’s like two people negotiating how to divide a cake. One party starts eating the cake before negotiations begin. How can you divide a cake that’s already been eaten?”
• Israel justifies its policies to other countries, particularly the U.S., by pointing to God’s designation of Jews as the chosen peoples, giving them the promised land. They also point out the suffering of Jews in the Holocaust.

Despite the seeming hopelessness of the Palestinian position, Abraham remains hopeful. “Who would have predicted the fall of the Berlin Wall or the collapse of the Soviet Union? Anything can change in a short period of time.”

Tomorrow, we’re going to float in the Dead Sea.