The 2nd. Temple Model and The Weather Report
Trip Start
Jan 08, 2008
1
14
33
Trip End
Mar 18, 2008
Jerusalem,
Israel
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
The Israel Museum is the proud owner of some of the Dead Sea Scrolls and an incredible model of the 2nd. Temple Period. We walked to this museum on Monday and found that the main museum had been torn down and will be rebuilt by the year 2010. We joined a "tour in progress", being led by Gloria, a museum tour guide. She not only had an incredible background of knowledge, but also an enthusiasm and apparent love for what she was sharing. The museum acquired this model two years ago and it is set into the landscape outside, complete with the valleys and dirt. The model shows Jerusalem at the time of Herod the Great. The Temple had three sections. Gentiles could go just so far and then Jews further and the Priests could go all the way into the inner court. Only the High Priest could go into the Holy of Holys once a year and offer up the sins of the people for forgiveness. The city, at Herod's time, had just one or two streets that went through the city
View from the south
. Straight streets were a Roman way of designing a city. In Herod's time the streets were winding and very narrow. Many of the homes had common walls. Of course they were thick stone walls. Anyone who could afford it would build a home with an inner courtyard surrounded by the rest of the building. The model gave us a great visual of the city in Herod's time. To be able to visualize the city gives a feeling of "being there" in the first century. We hope that the pictures will give you a taste of the city that we saw. I hope to give a better explanation of this model at a later time. We did not take any pictures of the Dead Sea Scrolls but we did see them. In a later blog I will give some explanation of how they came to be and how they were found. It seems that a group of about 150 left their mark on history over 2000 years ago. The scrolls showed that our earliest version of the Old Testament were correctly transcribed. They predated any other scrolls by many years. What happened to these persons who composed and copied is not known. If the scrolls were not put in a safe place the writers and what they had written would have been forgotten.
And now for the weather report. We woke up today with a real surprise- it was snowing in Jerusalem. The entire day was snow, wind, sleet and rain. I did not go out and shovel. The Lord put it here and the Lord can take it away.
We will have our second "What is This?!" today. On Sunday we will let you know what these photos are and if anybody won.
Peace be with all of you as you are living with sub zero temperatures.
In Christ's Love,
Michael and Jolene
Comments
Good Stuff
M&J-- Kosher snow... how bout that ! !.. We were taken to a large outdoor model of Jerusalem that looks about the same scale as the one you showed, back in '95. If yours is only a couple years old, they must be two different ones.. but it was a great visual aid to get a feel for what the town was like.. Glad you're doin good. 'What is it?' guesses are posted at the comment section for that particular picture.. Love,, R&C,