Calvary and the Shepherds' Fields

November 4, 2009--Wednesday
We traveled first to the Old City of Jerusalem and entered through the Dung Gate (for all the garbage) right to the Temple Mount. To see the walls of Jerusalem which have been standing for millennia, in various stages is astounding. Walls were added to the original walls as the city grew. There were about three sets of walls. Today, about 30,000 people still live within the city walls.
We passed through security and walked across the wide courtyards to the stairs leading to the Dome of the Rock. Under the gold dome on the walls were large blue, green and white ceramic tiles with Arabic designs on them. The doors were closed; we couldn’t go in, anyway. We did buy a set of photos, one of which showed the inside and the rock. This is where Muslims will say Mohammed ascended into heaven. The guide said Mohammed was in a cave when he had a dream about ascending to heaven on this spot. He also said Muslims say Abraham offered up Ishmael here, not Isaac.

We walked across the courtyard around on side of the Dome, and it (like the lower courtyard or platform) had stone tiles as the base, or the flooring, throughout. The guide pointed out a large square of tiles on the northeastern side. These were a different style of stone tile than the rest of the courtyard because in the early 1900s, they pulled up the tiles and started to dig. They found the corner of a wall. Realizing it was probably the top of a a previous temple’s walls, they covered it up. The Muslims at that time admitted it was a temple wall, but now they don’t want to say the Jews had a temple there before they did.

Then the guide took us to the northwestern corner to a small place with stone columns and a dome roof. Under it on the ground was bedrock. He said that the altar of the temple, would have been on bedrock, and the altar of the temple was placed where Abraham offered Isaac--not on the rock in the Dome of the Rock.

Next, we went to the Western Wall of the Temple. The guide said that calling it the Wailing Wall is a little anti-Semitic, in that Jews don’t call it that, but westerners did when they called their praying wailing. The wall was not part of the temple, but the wall around the courtyard to the temple. However, the guide said the Jews considered it all the temple.

From there, we drove to a park with a gigantic scale model of Jerusalem from 66 CE. On the grounds there is the Shrine of the Book which has some of the fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. There are parts of Isaiah, Habakkuk, the Temple Scrolls and laws of the Essene community.
After lunch, we drove out of the city and stopped just off the road in a place called Zorah. It was here that Samson was born and grew up. We read his story and looked out over the valley where he tied firebrands between the tied tails of foxes (300) and sent them through the Philistines’ corn, burning up a year’s worth of food.

We moved onto the Valley of Ela (Elah) and walked along the edge of a plowed field by the Brook Kidron. In the field were all these smooth stones, showing they were river rocks. We looked for round, smooth stones a little smaller than a golf ball. Marla found the only one that really fit the parameters, even though 13 of us were looking.

We read the story of David and Goliath as we sat in the valley between four hills; Philistines on one side (of the road that is there now) and Israelites across the road on one or both of those two hills. There are a couple of apple orchards on the Philistine side now, and there is a bell pepper garden with six-foot-high plants on the Israelite side of the road In this valley was where David bested Goliath.

November 5, 2009--Thursday
We headed to the Old City this morning, We headed through the narrow alleys of Jerusalem to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the traditional site of Calvary and the tomb of Christ. The church was hit by an earthquake in 1927, and you can still see metal bands around a bell tower holding it together. Because three churches claim authority over different places of the church, they don’t allow one another to repair things because that would show ownership. The traditional tomb of the Savior has a large wooden structure around it. It was damaged in the earthquake, too, but it has scaffolding around it to hold the damaged parts together. The British tried to repair it, but there was an uproar, so they put up the scaffolding, and it has remained there since.

Because of the churches’ squabble, a Muslim holds the key to the church. When one group held it in the past, they locked the others out.

Going in the large wooden doors, to the immediate right are stone stairs leading up Calvary. They aren’t very high.

Going straight ahead through the door is the Rock of Unction. This is traditionally where the Savior’s body was laid and anointed before burial. Many people were kneeling down to kiss it or touch it. I read on the internet that this is not the original rock, if it is where this event happened. The rock has been replaced twice.

Over it hung several lanterns, one from each of the churches that claim responsibilities in the church.

Because they were cleaning the stairs up Calvary, we had to go up the exit stairs. At the top were three arches over where the crosses were located. Under the arches was bedrock where the crosses were erected. On a wall under the arches were these large silver representations of Jesus, Mary and another man, didn’t hear who he was (Joseph? Peter? John?).

To touch the bedrock, people had to kneel down and go into a little cubicle, and put a hand through a brass circle. A guy on the tour touched it and said it was smooth to the touch. We didn’t touch it because our guide talked about how pagan this appeared in being required to kneel down before images. He spoke about how when a religion loses the Spirit (which the Jewish and Christian religions originally had), it becomes a shell that needs relics and ritual to inspire. But it was a spiritual place.

The tomb in the church, as one prophet has told us, is not the tomb of the Savior.
We walked around a circular corridor in the church and passed a glass case around bedrock. It had no sign explaining what its significance. Then around the corner was another case around the same rock. The guide said there is a tradition that the tomb of Adam and Eve is below Calvary and that the Savior’s blood seeped down to it, and they were the firstfruits of the Resurrection. There is nothing doctrinal said about it.

We walked through the Old City to the Western Wall. It was the day when bar mitzvahs are held there, and several were going on. The men, with heads covered, went down one side, and women went down the other. I saw one woman who was walking with a man down the male side get stopped and sent to the other. Didn’t know the rule, I guess.

The main part of the ceremony was held along the fence separating men and women so the women could look over it and watch. The ceremony involved getting the Torah rolls out of a wooden, upright box and taken to a table. The young man reads part of the Torah, everyone cheered, and the women threw candy over the fence.

After lunch, we toured the Archaeological Garden and the south wall of the temple. We sat there on the steps leading up to where the south gate to the temple used to be, but is now walled up.
On the southwest corner at the foot is a replica of a corner piece from the top of the wall. The actual piece is in a museum because it is so important. It had an inscription about it being where the trumpeter stood. This was a pinnacle of the temple, and there the trumpeter stood who blew the trumpet to announce the beginning of the Sabbath. The guide said he believed this was the pinnacle the Savior was taken to by the Spirit and where the third temptation of Satan happened. This overlooked a main commercial street in Jerusalem with all of its shops, a perfect place for the temptation to throw himself off so He could be saved by angels in front of everyone down in the street.

Hardly anyone came along the South Wall, so we sat on the steps and looked out over the city across the hills. It was peaceful. Below the steps were excavated walls of the ceremonial places of washing. This was where everyone, including the Savior, would have immersed themselves and cleansed themselves before going into the temple.

From there, we drove south out of the city. We could not go to Bethlehem because it is in Palestinian control, but we did stop at a monastery built where traditionally Elijah stopped to rest on his way to Sinai. We walked around behind and to the right and sat down on a hill overlooking a valley. Across it on the other side was Bethlehem.

Sorry to burst a bubble, but there are no plains in Judea so the hymn Far, Far Away On Judea’s Plain, while inspired, is not exactly topographically correct.

The guide showed us where the Church of the Nativity was by pointing out four towers in a row, the minarets of mosques. Near the last one on the left was the church.

We read about Ruth, David’s grandmother, who came with Naomi back to her hometown of Bethlehem. We also read the Christmas story. It was a very spiritual time for us as we looked over the valley of terraced olive trees to Bethlehem.