Nazareth, Caesarea, Joppa and Jerusalem

  Jerusalem, Israel
Saturday, July 5, 2008

Today we checked out of the hotel, loaded luggage and started at 8:00 for another busy day of visits.
 
Our first stop was Nazareth where Jesus grew to manhood. It is now a large city, but at the time apparently was quite small. It is not mentioned in the Old Testament at all. It is all the more surprising then that the people who had watched Him grow up tried to throw Him off a cliff when they didn't like His teaching!  We took in the view of the old part of the city from the hills above. And we read about the announcement by Gabriel to Mary that she would give birth to Jesus.

Explanations about Nazareth from the heights

That happened in Nazareth. We then drove down into town and visited the old synagogue - not old enough to be the one were Jesus taught, but it was perhaps built on the ruins of the older one.
 
We drove on to Caesarea Maritima. This was a city associated with both Peter (who came here to see Cornelius - the first non-proselyte gentile to be made a Christian) and Paul who landed here on return from his 2nd and 3rd journeys, and was also imprisoned here after the riot in Jerusalem, before appealing to Caesar which brought about his sea voyage to Rome.
 
We saw the ruins of Herod's palace, a great hippodrome on the sea described by Josephus, and what was left of the port installations of what was the major seaport in the Holy land during the first century.

at Herod's palace at Caesarea

 
We also saw a copy of the dedication stone of a now lost building. The stone states that Pilate dedicated the building to Caesar.  Prior to finding that stone there were no known historical allusions to Pontius Pilate outside the Bible, leading some critics to claim the Bible was in error. Finding the stone put paid to that claim.
 
We re-boarded the bus briefly to go to the ruins of the aqueduct just a short distance north. It is quite amazing that the arches of an aqueduct 2000 years old are still standing. They are quite picturesque. The beach on the other side has been developed a great deal since our last visit. It was full of people, food stands, parasols and picnic tables.

By the aquduct at Caesarea

Though it took a away from the poetry of the place, I can easily understand why people would want to spend a free day here. Our group posed for a photo, feet in the water of the Mediterranean. A large wave than usual came in while they were posing and several of them had their pants soaked to mid thigh. As they say "never turn your back on the sea."
 
We drove on to our next stop of the day: Jaffa, called in the Bible Joppa. This old port, for pleasure only now, is a suburb of Tel Aviv; but it was from here that Jonah took ship to try to escape the mission God gave him. It was here that God raised Dorcas/Tabitha from the dead though Peter, and it was here that Peter had his vision of the sheet coming down full of unclean animals, to show him that God was calling Cornelius into the Church of God. It is a quaint place now, full of stone houses and building, and offering from its heights a beautiful view of Tel Aviv.

View of Tel Aviv from Jaffo

We took it all in, and then headed on to our stop for the night: Jerusalem. Photos are not allowed at the Western Wall on the Sabbath, so Doreen suggested we go before sundown on Friday, so that we could take photos. It was an excellent suggestion. We drove the hour or so into Jerusalem, going up all the time, and passing as we went the hulks of the armored cars that the Israelis had used to try to break the Arab blockade of the city at the time independence was declared in 1948. They are painted a burnt read now and have been left visible from the highway as a monument to the courage of those who tried to fight their way in.
 
Finally arrived in Jerusalem, Usama dropped us at the nearest place he could to the Western Wall. We walked in to the great square, about 2 hours before sundown, and watched all the preparations for the Sabbath including many Jewish tourist families in for a visit (recognizable by their very American accents among other things).

The Western Wall on Friday afternoon

We watched the men and women praying at the wall, and went in ourselves to look at the huge old stones up close. These giant blocks were part of the retaining wall that help up the platform on which the Second Temple (improved by Herod) was built. It's as close as Jews can get today the glory that was in and around the Jerusalem temple.

John by Jews praying at the Western Wall

 
Then it was time to go our hotel for the night. We got settled in and had a relaxing dinner together. We will turn in early tonight and enjoy our rest. Tomorrow on the Sabbath we will have the chance to enter the most important city in the history of the world, past and future.