I know, I know. My updates are late again – as some friends of mine have so kindly reminded me.
So, my last field study, which wasn't last weekend but the weekend before, was three days long. It was split up into what we call “the Shephelah, Philistia, the Negev, and the Dead Sea”. So, pretty much, everything directly to the West, East, and South of Jerusalem. Hence the three day trip. It was a lot of ground to cover. I'll try to cover it as succinctly and interestingly as I can, but I may end up dividing the three trips into three different blog entries so that I can have enough room for expression and thoughts.
Day 1: The Shephelah is the area of 6 valleys in between the Judean territories and the Philistian territories. North to South, these valleys are named: Aijalon, Sorek, Elah, Guvrien, Lachish, Adoraim. We already visited the Aijalon when we went to the Benjamite territory a few weeks ago. So we started our trip, early in the morning, on the outskirts of the Sorek Valley, looking at vineyards made on terraces and talking about ancient daily life. Did you know that it could take a full year to create a terrace of half an acre? It took generations to build up a terrace large enough to fully support your family through the year. It's not wonder sons took over the family business, where else were they going to go? Their family spent years building a plot of land large enough to support themselves. Daily life consisted of men going out and working the land, while the women spent all day making bread to feed the family. I think people mostly have this idea of men taking care of the monetary resources of the family while the women cooked and cleaned, which seems to offend so many feminists and create so many chauvinists. But it wasn't like that, at all. The way families worked was out of necessity. Men worked the land because they were physically capable of doing it; women were raised by mothers to know how to cook and feed their whole family, and how to store and ration food through the dry season. Men had to be picky about their wives because if they married a woman who couldn't properly ration food then they would most likely run out of food and die. While a woman wanted a man who could farm well, someone who knew how to get the most out of his little plot of land. Of course, if a family made enough money to hire a helping hand, then the first duty to be passed off was bread making so that the women could do other things like child rearing. Women were pregnant almost all the time because their was such a high infant mortality rate that you kind of wanted a lot of kids just in case, and then while they were pregnant they slaved away on bread making all day. Meanwhile, men worked in the hot sun to provide enough food to last them for up to 6 months, not knowing if there would be enough rain for the season or not. It's a hard life, but a fulfilling one, none-the-less. This whole lifestyle is the idea of “Shalom”. I'm sure most of you have heard this word, it's the Jewish/Hebrew word for peace. But it's more than just things being quite. Shalom means “life the way it's meant to be lived.” And this is what the Bible really means when it talks about heaven. Heaven is living life the way it's meant to be lived, but without sin. Not floating on clouds, with wings and a harp and being all disembodied. It's everyone on their own plot of land with no turmoil or strife, just a quiet life where you worship God, live in community with family and friends, and get what you work for. I think that's also what's meant when the Bible says that we will all have our own jobs in heaven – pertaining to land and home and such. And, I think it's indicative of still living with family and friends. I've heard of people, like wives and husbands, being concerned that they won't have their spouses in heaven anymore, but I actually think that idea is contrary to a Biblical image of heaven. When you marry, you become one spiritual flesh. Why would God separate you from each other, then? That doesn't sound like shalom to me. It's something to think about, anyways.
Our next two stops were located in some very exciting Biblical historical places. First, was the plains of the Sorek – where Samson and Delilah took place – and then was the Elah valley – where David fought Goliath. We mostly just read the stories and pointed out where everything may have happened. It was interesting to see how close Samson was to Philistine territory. His home was an ancient border town to Philistia. When you think of modern border towns, what are they like? Usually, slightly stressful and full of mixed culture (think of southern Texas or New Mexico or Arizona). Well, this was very similar in Samson's day. You had Jews hating that the Philistine's were in their God-ordained territory and Philistine's hating that the Jews wanted their territory. So when Samson takes his first wife, it's no wonder there's so much strife between the families! It's an ancient Romeo and Juliet scenario! Then you have that whole situation where his wife's father marries her off to another family and offers his youngest daughter to Samson instead, which would have been against Jewish culture. You don't have too many instances where you marry one woman and then marry the sister just because something happens. No, you marry one woman and if the husband dies then she marries a brother or something so that she's taken care of. Then Samson goes crazy and burns all the town's fields – which means that he's basically cut off their entire life supply. It's not like they could go to the grocery store and buy more food. So when the Philistine's kill the father and his family, their not being brutal – like we and our Western minds may think – they were getting rid of further personal problems. Otherwise, they may have been future continued feuds between him and Samson. Anyhow, all very interesting to read and visualize.
Then we went to Azekah – Saul's camp when fighting Goliath – and saw the possible locations for the Philistine camp. The most interesting thing about this story to me was seeing the contrast between Saul and David. The Philistine army comes into Judaen territory and sends out their champion, Goliath, who's about 9 ft. tall, and calls for Judah to send out their champion – who was supposed to be Saul (for he was chosen to be king based on his handsomeness and tall stature. The Bible claims he was a full head taller than everyone else.) Another important detail, the outcome of this battle was crucial to the livelihood of Jerusalem. If the Philistine's had taken this site, then they would have had control and direct access to Jerusalem. So it's no wonder that Jesse sent his oldest children to war, even though children were everything to a family because they would take over the family business. Even though his sons may have died, Jesse didn't want the Philistine's coming in, burning his land, killing his fields, and taking over Jerusalem. Jesse decided to send David to the camp site with food, hoping that Saul would further protect his sons. Kind of like a little incentive. So then David comes along – just a small boy, but wise, caring, and tough. Shepherds were by no means weak. They had to do things like protect the flocks from predators and know how to do things like find food and water in the wilderness. And have you ever seen someone use a slingshot that knows what they're doing? People laugh when they hear that David took down a giant with a rock, but slingshots were actually used as weapons for war right next to bows and arrows. They were a highly dangerous weapon. Another thing is that David grabbed 5 stones. Why? He was only fighting one man. Well, Goliath had 4 brothers. So David was being confident and threatening, saying that he would kill Goliath and then his brothers, as well – which he did, in a later battle. Anyways, so you have this contrast between the tall handsome king Saul, who cowered from the fight, and small boyish ruddy David, who took down Goliath proudly.
Our last two stops were at Beit Guvrien and Ashkelon, where we had free will to explore wherever we wanted. So at Beit Guvrien, I mostly explored underground homes there. I guess people there figured a way to dig through the soft underground limestone and practically created a whole city down there to live in. It reminded me a lot of a few Star Trek episodes – Mom :) And at Ashkelon I mostly swam in the Mediterranean – which was awesome! - and then briefly explored the oldest standing arch in history.
Day Two will post tomorrow :)
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