Eating Like the Romans did

So, sorry this is a little late. I know I said I'd get this out like a week or a week and a half ago or something. I'm sure you all know how school can get as finals week approaches. I'm having to find time to go to Bethlehem, write papers, study for finals, and get packed to go home. It's crazy, but I'm really enjoying it and these last few weeks have been good ones.

So! After much anticipation, the Triclinium Meal.

The Triclinium Meal is a Roman style meal in which the tables are arranged in a “U” shape so that entertainment can be done in the middle, while people eat, and the servers can easily bring food via the center. The tables are low to the ground and, instead of chairs, everyone reclines on pillows. So, everyone lays down, leaning on their left elbow, leaving your right hand free to eat. Also, fun fact, if you were really Roman, then you ate till you were full, forced yourself to throw up under the table, and continued eating. That's what I call feasting like a boss. So, during the time of Jesus, this is how people had feasts. Someone would rent out a building for, say, passover, and eat this way. The host would sit in the second chair on the right side of the “U”, with his most beloved guest in front of him, and the host in the third seat.

This is exactly what we see in the Bible for the last supper. Jesus “reclined at table, and the apostles with Him” (Luke 22:14). He was the host. His most beloved disciple, John, reclined with his head on the chest of Jesus, and Jesus reclined with His head on the chest of Judas, the guest. Across the table from them, was Peter, in the last seat, who had remembered that those who place themselves last are first. He would have been right in view of Jesus, across the way. Think about the setting of this here. Just previously to this, while the upper room was being prepared, Judas agreed to betray Jesus. And here he is, at dinner, with Jesus' head resting on his chest. He's laying on his chest as He announces to His disciples that one of them will betray Him. John, on his chest, leans back and asks who it is (John 13:25). He tells them that whomever he dips bread with, will be the betrayer. Then he dips a piece of bread, and gives it to Judas. Jesus turns to Him and says, “What you are going to do, do quickly” (John 13:28). I can only imagine what Judas is thinking at this point and how fast his heart is beating, which Jesus can quite obviously hear. Judas gets up to leave, which would almost be seen as rude, and Jesus assures the disciples that it was alright. Shortly after, Jesus looks across the way to Peter and predicts his denial. That night, they leave to go back to Bethany, over the Mount of Olives, it's late at night and on the way he asks them if they can stop by the garden to pray. This wouldn't have been unusual. It's something Jesus did with them countless times. And while He's praying and exhorting the disciples to pray with Him, Judas appears with the people to arrest Him and Judas kisses Him. Peter then strikes the servant of the high priest with his sword, and cuts off his ear. What's interesting about this part, is that, with John being in the first seat at the dinner, it was his job to protect Jesus. That first seat is reserved for the favored guest and the person who is also supposed to protect the host. But John doesn't strike the man. Peter, so earnest to be favored by Jesus strikes the man. Also, in Jewish thought, the Messiah was supposed to physically fight the Romans and restore Israel to its people. I'm sure that Peter saw the guards coming to take Jesus, and thought that this was their time to begin the rebellion. Jesus, however, corrects Him, says His peace, and goes with them. From here on out, one by one, all the disciples leave Jesus except for John. All the men who said they would never leave Him, all of His friends, do leave Him. Judas is then paid his 30 pieces of silver, which you would hope is a lot of money, but it is the same amount of money to be paid to someone when one person's ox accidentally gores another person's servant. It was a small wage to be paid for the death of our Savior. So the guards first brought him to Caiaphas, the high priest. The trouble about being the high priest, or any person of position in Jerusalem, during this time is that you had to appease the Jewish people and Rome. And Rome's policy, was to keep the people happy. Caiaphas couldn't condemn Him by law, without the Sanhedrin. But everyone was gone for passover. So he sent Him to Pilot, when the morning came. Standing before Pilot, Jesus is almost quiet about His accusations and does not try to defend Himself. He lets the people do what they're going to do. Pilot, who was not very loved by his people, needed to appease them in this crucial moment. If they were going to crucify Him, they had to do it before sunrise, before shabbat began. It would have been strange to convict and punish a man within 24 hours, so Pilot asked the people what they wanted. And they wanted Him dead. So Jesus was beaten within an inch of His life, and, with open gashes on His back, is forced to carry His cross to His death. He is nailed on the cross, eye level with His condemners, so that they may look in His eyes while mocking Him, and His only family around is His mother and John. He looks at John and says, “This is your mother”, and looks at His mother and says, “This is your son”. Replacing to her the son which she is now losing. And as the passover lamb is being sacrificed in the temple, so our Savior Jesus is being sacrificed for us. So He died for us, with few friends around to love Him, all of them having scattered. Some of His disciples, such as Nicodemus, were probably powerful enough to have delayed or stopped His death but didn't. I can only imagine what the disciples felt later on as they recorded the events of His death, finally having understood why He had to die.

This is the story that the president of our school told us, while we were laying down and eating, at our own Triclinium meal. The whole room was dead silent. I've never heard the story told in such a way. In such a calm and chilling way and I'll certainly never think of Good Friday the same way again.

Here are a few pictures to give you a general idea of a Triclinium meal.  Of course, we have a lot of people, so people were sitting on the inside of the "U", when that isn't technically right.

Holiday Spirit

So, I have a confession to make. I'm a Christian, but Easter is not a spiritual experience for me; I prefer the Old Testament over the New; to be honest, I hardly differentiate between Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. I understand Jesus and His sacrifice, but Jesus and I aren't “buddies”, if you know what I mean. It's been really hard to feel that way and be in Jerusalem for Holy Week where thousands of people are flocking just to glimpse his tomb and pour themselves over the stone where he was wrapped in shrouds. I don't think I've ever felt so spiritually inadequate in my life. Well... except for that one time I went to a charismatic church, but I don't think that counts.

Palm Sunday was eye opening for me. I felt as if it finally made sense to me and came together for me. That being said, Good Friday and Easter were quite a flop for me. It has not come together and produced this amazingly joyous sensation in my soul. Maybe I'm a cold person; maybe I'm too logical; maybe I'm a bad Christian. Here's an outline this weekend for you:

First of all, let me start by saying that I don't necessarily have a large group of friends here at my school. I'm not sure if it's my social anxiety or extreme realism that's pushed people away, but the kiddies aren't exactly lining up at my door to spend time with me. So, Friday night, after our Triclinium meal (which I'll explain later), I guess a majority of the students went out to the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane and then walked through the city following in the steps of Jesus the night before his crucifixion. All while reading the gospel, while they walked. Of course, I had no idea that was going on. I would have liked to have gone. Despite my aversion to the New Testament, I feel a great need to be closer to Jesus and I think that walk would have been good for me. So, fail number one.

The next day I realized I probably hadn't read the gospels since my New Testament Survey class in my first year of Bible college. So, I spent most of the day reading through Mark, since it's the shortest of the gospels. I actually had a really enjoyable day. That night, I went to church with a friend of mine that works at the school I volunteer at (after all, I do have a few friends). It was good, but not what I expected. We sang some very good worship songs that really forced me to focus on Jesus and His death and resurrection. The sermon wasn't really what I expected. Not bad, just... different. It was about Jesus being brought before the High Priest and Pilot and how he never tried to justify Himself or defend Himself. Instead, He was quiet and let God work. Not really a direction I would have thought of those verses in during Easter. Nonetheless, a good sermon. I'm really bad at keeping my mouth shut and letting God work. I always want to defend myself and prove myself right.

Anyways, Easter Sunday morning several groups of people were waking up to go to a sunrise service at the Garden Tomb. The Garden Tomb is quite far away, not outside of walking distance but still a long walk, and isn't necessarily where Jesus was really buried. Basically, the Protestants saw the Holy Sepulcher and it wasn't what they pictured as the grave site and it was under the Orthodox church. So they decided that they wanted their own site in the Holy Land and the Garden Tomb is where they claim He was buried. Once again, I wasn't invited to this event until I made a big mess about wanting to go the Holy Sepulcher for a sunrise service since it is closer and where He was mostly likely really buried. Instead, I decided to go to the Holy Sepulcher around 10. I heard there was going to be a service there at that time, it was closer, and I would get to sleep in. All around, seemed like a great choice. I even invited people to go with me! Went to leave at 9:30 the next morning, and no one was there. Forever alone, so it seems. So, I had nice peaceful walk by myself to the church, only to come upon thousands of people there. I mean, the Holy Sepulcher is usually pretty packed, but this was worse than usual. They had the courtyard barricaded and divided in half so that the people on the right side of the door could be safely filed in and people would exit the church on the left side of the barricade. I walked in, walked around inside, saw the crowds, decided I would not wait 4 or 5 hours to see Jesus' tomb, and turned around to leave. However, they had decided to stick another barricade across in front of the door and connecting to the other one. This meant that anyone attempting to leave the church was pushed into a tiny box. Their plan was to open up the barricade splitting the courtyard into that little box so that there was an L shaped path leading into the church. Of course, they were going to make everyone exit the church on the same path. Which made no sense. They should have opened the box, let us leave that way and then filed in people there other way so that there wasn't mass chaos. Which they eventually did. Way to be problem solvers, Israeli tourist police. On my way out, I saw another JUC student standing behind the barricade. I guess they were waiting for a parade to go by. I was thinking that if I stayed with them and saw the parade, then maybe I would have at least done something festively Easter. Well, 30 minutes later of standing in the hot sun and being pushed by the crowds in the barricaded block, I was getting tired. The parade was late, I was hungry, and had little patience left. Right as the tour groups' mob mentality set in and they started to break apart the barricade to get in, I got the heck out of there. The best part was the group of Asian ladies singing “Hosanna in the Highest” while elbowing people out of the way. That's the Easter spirit ladies! On the way out, several Israeli Tourist policemen passed me with machine guns. Gotta bring in the back-up reinforcements when the Hosanna hitting starts up.

That basically sums up my Easter weekend. I don't know if it's the best Easter I've ever had, but certainly the most eventful. I'll try to do another update this week talking about the Triclinium meal. That was the best and most meaningful part of Holy Week for me.

Weekend Update: Palestine, Palm Sunday, and other things.

The longer I'm here, the shorter my weekends seem to feel. I find myself rushing to do everything I haven't done in the last seven months. You know, all those things that you tell yourself, “I have plenty of time to do that. I'll do it later.” Next thing you know, it's the end of your second semester and you haven't left your room in a month for fear of failing Hebrew.

My Friday was your very typical wake up, work on Hebrew, skype with some people, have shabbat dinner, and do more work. Or, it should have been. However, this Friday was daylight savings and all four of us in my dorm room slept in till 11. It was the first time I had slept-in in months. Of course, I then proceeded to do nothing productive for the rest of the day. It was nice to just relax for a day. I think there are two kinds of college students: those that work so much they have little time for much else and those that have mastered relaxing and socializing while still managing to pass classes. What's sad is that I'm in the first category, and my grades have little to show for it. I blame multiple choice tests. If everything were essays, my scholastic life would be a lot easier.

Moving on, I usually go to Beit Jala on Saturdays to work with the school still. Like I said in my last post, I've been staying all day to help grade papers and then go to church at night. Oddly enough, after all that sleep I had the day before, I was still exhausted. So were all the other teachers. We blamed daylight savings, though an hour change shouldn't have thrown us off that much. Some of the teachers were talking about taking the 9^th graders into Jerusalem to see Hunger Games. I already saw it opening weekend, but if I saw the movie then I could just go back to school after instead of hitching a ride back after church and getting to bed around 2 am. Perfect. Except that the boarders between Palestine and Jerusalem were closed for Palestinians. I guess, on Friday, there was some protest in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, so the Israeli government decided to close the boarders. Perhaps as some sort of punishment, or that's what I assume. The whole thing absolutely baffles me. First of all, Palestinians aren't even allowed into Jerusalem unless the have a special passport or are given “permission”. Most people don't get permission unless it's a holiday and the government grants them access, almost like a present. It seems very condescending to me. “Oh, you've been good recently, here, let me allow you the privilege of visiting our country.” I mean, why does Israel get to be so high and mighty? I understand that years ago, Palestinians suicide bombed parts of Israel. But does that give Israel the right to annex a part of their land to build a wall and control everything? Seems a little overkill to me. Anyways, point being, the 9^th graders got turned around at the border. All they wanted to do was see a movie. So, we ended up not seeing Hunger Games and I treated myself to buying stuff I've been wanting from the Old City.

Yesterday was Palm Sunday. I always seem to forget about Palm Sunday. Easter is pretty difficult to remember too, because it always falls on a different day. But Palm Sunday always alludes me until I go to church and am handed a palm. I don't know that I ever understood why we celebrate Palm Sunday. I usually spend that church service attacking my parents with the palm branch. Here in Jerusalem, however, Palm Sunday consists of thousands of people gathering on the top of the Mount of Olives and walking down into Jerusalem and walking through it's gates while waving palm branches and singing. I'm not one to be a part of a crowd, though. I have an aversion to people and loud noises. So I gathered with a group that did the ramparts walk down to the gate, and that sat above the streets, on a wall, to watch the parade go by. I've been meaning to do the ramparts walk, anyways. It's a walk around the old city wall. It's a pretty popular thing to do and I felt like it was one of those things that I should try and experience while here. So, we grabbed some coffee and moseyed our way along the wall until we reached a suitable spot to sit down and watch the Triumphal march. A good hour or two later, bands started walking by and playing music. Behind them, wall to wall thousands of people walking down the street and singing “Hosanna” in all different languages. It was beautiful and joyous and unlike anything else I had ever experienced. This is what Palm Sunday is about. Christ walking into Jerusalem and people celebrating this occasion by worshiping Him. I'll surely never experience anything else like it.

An Update in the Silence of the Semester

Well readers, sorry for the lack of updates this semester.  Things have been moving horribly slowly here in Jerusalem.  I feel as if I've hardly done anything.

I still go to Bethlehem every Saturday to work at the school and I feel as if I live from Saturday to Saturday.  It's the one thing during the week that I really look forward to.  I've lived in 12 different states and probably 20 different houses but I can't seem to make myself feel at home in Jerusalem.  It's intoxicatingly tense here.  You could cut the political distress with a knife.  I've never experienced anything quite like it.  It's not necessarily hateful - though I've heard of cases where it happens.  Apparently a few weeks ago Muslims threw rocks at Jews praying at Western Wall.  We didn't hear about it at JUC until a week later and that's only because our families from home asked us about it.  Point being... it's not a comfortable place to live in.  However, I lived in Bethlehem for a few weeks and that feels more at home to me than Jerusalem ever could. If it didn't cost $4 round trip to get there, I'd go more often.  But Saturday is the only day I have free that I can justify being there.

Had an interesting conversation with one of the kids from the school a few weeks ago.  He's one of the high school kids and he just happened to be at their church one of the Saturdays I was there.  He asked me my opinion on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.  Oddly enough, it's the first time anyone has really asked me that since I've been here.  I expected it a lot more, but maybe no one asks because they know I could typically care less about politics.  Now, I'm not sure if this kid is Muslim or if he's a Christian from a Muslim family or what, but he had an interesting opinion about the whole thing.  I told him that I didn't feel like I had a right to an opinion about the conflict because I'm just an American.  While I government is all too happy to throw all their support at Israel, I don't know if that's the right choice.  Though, I don't know if it would be right for them to support Palestine either.  The way I see it, as Americans, we can never truly know the hurt that either sides have gone through.  We can never never know how they feel or what they go through on a daily basis.  So I don't think that it's fair for America to throw their power and money around the way they do.  Now, I have a few more opinions than that, but that's the gist of it and he seemed satisfied with my answer.  What was interesting about his response, though, was that he seemed to think that Christian Palestinians would be better under Muslim rule than Israeli rule.  He seemed to think that just because Christians are persecuted by Muslims in Egypt and throughout the Middle East, doesn't mean it'll happen in Palestine.  Now, he's right.  It doesn't mean a thing.  But I don't think he's right.  As little as I know about the Middle East and Muslims, I know that people are inherently the same.  And if Christians are getting persecuted by Muslims every where else in the Middle East, it's likely to happen in Palestine too.  A few other people had joined the conversation at that point, so I kind of stepped back and listened.  I know very little on the whole thing and I wasn't about to make a fool of myself in front of people that live it on a daily basis.

Back in Jerusalem, I'm learning that I truly appreciate silence.  There's nothing more that I love than to wake up to a sunny day, a cold room, and the only sounds being birds chirping outside my window.  That's a little difficult with three roommates, though.  Especially when three are extremely... feminine, one is uncomfortable with silence, and the other insists on grunting or sighing loudly at every thought she has.  It's also difficult to have silence when living in a dorm room, in general.  As an only child, I'd like to say that I've done well for myself while living in dorms.  But I am over it and there's a large part of me that's looking forward to living on my own this summer.

I'm not sure what God is doing in my life this year.  I think last semester was just about forcing me to know what it was like to fully rely on Him and not just say that I'm going to rely on Him.  But I don't know what's going on this year.  Time is passing by at an excruciatingly slow pace.  I'm literally counting down the days till I go home, which seems ungrateful as I've basically been given the chance of a lifetime.  My classes are fine, but I don't know that they're changing my worldview any.  At least not in the way that my Egypt class did or in the way that my Physical Settings class did.  I feel like if I just had a purpose to grab onto then it would at least give me something to work toward.  But, as it is now, I'm just trying to get good grades and bide my time until I can get home and move onto the next part of my life.  Maybe that's my problem.  Maybe God is trying to slow me down.  My parents said that I've always been the kind of person who was over one thing and on to the next.  And I've never been very good at relaxing, but I'm suddenly becoming quite masterful at it... either quite masterful or I'm just becoming lazy in new ways.  Guess we'll see.  After all, you never really know God's purpose until after the fact.

Parables Taught by a Rabbi

 Sadly, this semester's blog posts are going to be very different from last semester. This is mostly due to my not being in the Physical Settings class that has a field study every other weekend. Instead, I'm just having a lot of class time, a lot of reading, and a field study here and there to emphasis what we're learning in class. All that being said, I've had four field studies over the last week and a half – three of them just since this Thursday. I didn't go see anything too new or eye opening, but I am taking a lot of Jewish based classes this semester and I'd be lying if I didn't say it was fascinating and vastly different from Western thought.

So, about a week ago, my Parables class went to “The Inn of the Good Samaritan”. I was in no way excited about the field study. I've been sick off and on since the semester started, I had plenty of other more productive things to do on campus, and I didn't feel like I had any need to visit the site of a fictional story. I mean to say that I know Jesus told the story – I do believe that – but it's just a parable. It's not like it really happened. However, when Jesus told the parable, it's likely that he was referring to an actual inn along the Ascent of Adumim (remember me posting about that a few months ago? If you don't, look up the Ascent of Annihilation post) that his audience would have known. The Ascent of Adumim was an often traveled path from Jericho to Jerusalem, so it's plausible that there was an inn along the highway. Of course, when we got to the museum, it was full of mosaics from the Byzantine period and, if you've seen one mosaic, you've seen them all, in my opinion. So, that was about as uninteresting as I expected it to be. After looking in the mini museum of boredom, our professor, Rabbi Moshe Silbershien, had us sit outside, around him, while we talked about the parable – the sitting outside is very reminiscent of typical Rabbincal teaching. And that was far more interesting (no idea why we had to go to the museum to talk about it, when it could have been done in the classroom).

Um.... the structure of this blog may be a little strange. I'm going to structure in Rabbinic style, which will probably seem a little all over the place. The way that Rabbis teach and write is that they begin with one subject and, every time they read something that makes them think of something else, they talk about that something else and eventually come back to their original point. I have to deal with it in 3 out of my 5 classes, so I'm going to subject all of you to it :) It may not bother most people, but for us OCD structured folks it's a night mare. So, I bring to you the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37):

Luke 10:25 - On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

While some Christian commentaries try to make this “expert in the law” a very negative pronouncement, it really wasn't. Jews test each other all the time! That's basically what their Talmud is. The books that keep the interpretation of the Torah are lists of Rabbis that had differing opinions. They're always debating scripture. We tend to read this and think, “How dare that man confront Jesus with such an attitude!” But... that's not how it is at all. The unfortunate thing about reading as opposed to being there, is that it is very difficult to connote tone in text.

Luke 10:26 - “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you red it?”

This man asks Jesus, a Rabbi, a question and Jesus replies with a question. This is a very Socratic and a very Rabbinic way of teaching.

Luke 10:27 – He answered: “'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'”

So, Jesus asks him what the greatest commandment is and he replies with two commandments. Why is this? Well, there are only two commandments in all of the Torah that begin with “and you shall love,” and it's very common in Judaic thought to bring verses together via word association. These commandments are possibly listed together, therefore, because it was a traditional Rabbinic teaching, or because Jesus was the first Rabbi to bring these two verses together and the man is sucking up to Jesus by repeating Jesus' teaching. It can't really be proved, either way.

Luke 10:28-29 - “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

The question here is, why did the man need to justify himself? In fact, why did the man even ask Jesus the question about the greatest commandment if he already knew the correct answer? Well, maybe it's because he wanted to justify why he asked the question, or maybe he wanted to show off and find holes within the commandments. Maybe he asked Jesus the question to set him up for this next question so that the man could give his own knowledge of Torah and look good in front of the crowd.

Luke 10:30 – In reply, Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.

Jesus immediately starts replying to the man, with a parable. Which, again, is very typical of Rabbinical teaching.

So, here Jesus illustrates a man that is walking down the Ascent of Adumim. It's possible that Jesus has in mind II Chronicles 28:8-15, in which the Judahites were taken captive by the people of Samaria and they were reminded of their common ancestry. So the Samaritans then clothed the people of Judah, healed them, and brought them to Jericho, where they presumably walked back to Judah. And here, Jesus is talking about a Judaic man who is naked and beaten on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem. I don't think this is just a coincidence. I think that Jesus is pretty blatantly referring to the verses in Chronicles. Remember, everything in Judaic commentary and teaching is based on association.

Luke 10:31-32 – A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

These two men were walking down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Meaning, they were walking from the temple in Jerusalem to Jericho. Some people have said that the Priest and the Levite avoided the man because they thought him to be dead, and it would have made them unclean to touch him. But this is nonsense. If they just came from the temple, then they were done with work and would no longer have to worry about being clean! Plus, it was Jewish law that if you saw a dead man and there was no one to take care of the body than you had to bury it right there – even if you were a priest. Bodies had to be buried within 24 hours of their death, or it was considered highly shameful and disrespectful. When we take that into context, then it seems that they were avoiding responsibility of taking care of him. I mean, they so wanted to avoid the man that they were walking on the other side of the road. I've been down that road... and to be on the other side would mean to be across a small canyon/dry riverbed. It's not like walking on the other side of a sidewalk to allow someone to walk by.

Luke 10:33-34 – But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him.

So, side note, when we arrived at the museum we were handed these nifty little pamphlets with illustrations and stories about the place. But I have to tell you, the people that wrote the pamphlet have got to be idiots. I'll rewrite what they said so that you can pick out what's wrong with it before I tell you what's wrong with it:

“It was undoubtedly Jesus's intention to reproach the Jews' religious leaders – the priests and Levites who presided over the Temple – in the framework of his general opposition to the clerical establishment. But why did he choose to contrast a Samaritan with a priest and Levite, as if there were no decent ordinary Jews who would perform a benevolent deed? What necessitated his choice of a Samartian to voice his opposition to the religious authorities? It should be noted that when he traversed Samaria the Samaritans refused to offer him hospitality (Luke 9:51-53). This suggests that the parable, at least in its Hebrew original did not mention a Samaritan.”

Here are some of the problems that I find with that. First of all, we don't even know if there was an original Hebrew copy of Luke. It's likely it was originally written in Greek. Second of all, the purpose of a parable is to shock people. It's to make them think outside the box.

So let's give some background knowledge. In the Old Testament, Samaritans were just people from the area of Samaria (2 Kings 17:29). But, of course, those Samaritans were uprooted and exiled during the Assyrian conquest of Israel – which included Samaria. The New Testament Samaritan origin began during the Hellenistic period (4^th century BC), when Shechem was rebuilt after it's long period of desolation. There isn't a whole lot of knowledge on why Shechem was rebuilt. Some people think that, with Alexander the Great's influence on the rest of the land, a group of religious zealots decided to make a fresh start in an untouched area. Which makes sense, as a temple was erected on Mount Gerizim, right above Shechem. The people that built it – Samaritans – likely saw this to be a true temple, as Jerusalem was being overrun with secular practices and would have seemed impure to them. On the other hand, the Jews would have felt that their temple could be the only true one because the Torah names it as the only one. Coincidentally, the Samaritan Bible is made up of the five books of Moses (the first five books of the Bible) but the mountain for the temple is changed from Mount Zion to Mount Gerizim. Either way, John Hyrcanus destroyed the temple on Mount Gerizim in 128 BC. But tensions did not stop here. The Samaritans continued to attempt to desecrate Jewish holy places and festivals and disrupt their life as much as possible. It's no wonder, by the time we get to the second temple period of Jesus' time, that tensions are running quite high between the two groups. In fact, they hated each other so much that often Jews would travel around Samaria, rather than through it, when traveling.

All that to say, if parables are supposed to be shocking statements that make you think outside of the box, wouldn't it be extremely shocking for Jesus to use a Samaritan in light of good things while speaking to a group of Jews? I think so. It would have been like saying a modern day Palestinian saved the life of an Israeli Jew.

Another question the Rabbi asked us is: What is the importance of the trinity of Priest, Levite, and Samaritan? The person that wrote the pamphlet was convinced that it read Priest, Levite, and Israelite in the “original Hebrew”. But that isn't seen anywhere in scripture. If you know anything about Jews, you know that they can't talk about anything without referencing scripture. If that's the case, then were else is Priest, Levite, and Samaritan written to which Jesus may have been referring to?Rabbi Moshe pointed us to Psalms 115:9-11 and 118:2-4, which both list the House of Aaron, Israel, and those who fear God. Well, the priests come from the house of Aaron, but no Levites are mentioned and there is no direct reference to Samaritans. How about in Psalms 135:19-21? Here, the house of Aaron, the Levites, and those who fear the Lord. Who are these God fearers? Could these be Samaritans? From what we know about them, they worship the God of the Jews but have some different theological opinions. Also, often Gentiles in the area wished to worship God but didn't want to go through the rituals of becoming a Jew, and they were often called God fearers. So it's possible that Jesus is referring to these psalms when telling the parable of the good Samaritan and his audience, a group of practicing Jews, would have known these psalms while he was telling the story.

Also, this verse within the parable, specifically, is very reminiscent of the story in Chronicles, where the Samaritans bandage the wounds of the Judeans and put them on donkeys for their way home.

Luke 10:35-36 – The next day he took out two silver coins (the equivalent of two day's wages) and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.' Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

Again, Jesus opens with a question, tells the parable, and ends with a question. I find it interesting that Jesus is illustrating what a neighbor when the export of the law asked who is a neighbor.

Luke 10:37 – The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him” Jesus told him, “go and do likewise.”

I also found it interesting that instead of saying, “The Samaritan” the man says “the one...”, and Jesus uses this as a way to show the man how to be a neighbor instead of nit-picking about who a neighbor is.

Um... I have no answer to what the parable is about or what it all means. Why are there references to II Chronicles? Why did Jesus use the Priest, Levite, and “God-fearers” trinity? I think when we bring these things in, there is a much deeper meaning beyond the Golden Rule of treat others as you wish to be treated. I don't know... I'm still working on what I think about it.

Back at JUC

So I've been back in Jerusalem for a week now. My room is great. It's large, it's right by the boiler so it's always warm/hot while the rest of the school is freezing, it's right across from the dining room and bathroom – no more walking down four flights of stares for me! - everyone gets their own closet and desk. I really like it. And I made a fort out of my bed by sleeping on the bottom bunk and hanging blankets around it. Now I have a private place I can go to :) I have three roommates, which will be interesting as I've only been living with one person since I got to college, but I'm open to a new learning experience.

One of my roommates has been with me since day one. She goes to CIU with me back in the states and we go to the same church at home, we had the same flight here to Israel, she did the practicum with me in Bethlehem, and now we live together. She's a little messy and unorganized, which would usually make me really anxious, but we get along well... so I can't complain too much. The other two girls get along really well. They talk a lot and go out a lot and are slightly more concerned with personal appearance than I think we are, but that's okay. They're sweet and they prefer to hang out with guys than girls, which is how I am. And at least it wasn't the three of them getting along, with me on my own. It could be a lot worse.

Over all, I can tell it's going to be a better semester. There are nerds here! I'm not the only one! It's like a little blessing from God. So I've made friends with a few guys, I still get along with some of the grad students from last semester... I haven't connected with most of the girls, but they aren't as immature as some people from last semester. So there is hope. The only problem is that the girls don't feel like they connect with the guys so they just want to form a strong sisterhood and do girl's night. Which is not and has never been my thing. I don't even know what girl's do on nights like that. I want guy's night! I want video games and Indiana Jones! But I also don't want to push them away. So... we'll see. It's just frustrating to see them split off like that in the first week.

Picking out classes was an interesting adventure. I really wanted to leave Wednesdays open to work at the school in Bethlehem, but that wasn't possible. And I was originally going to take a class called Cultural Backgrounds that would have gone into Old Testament Ancient Near Eastern culture, but there was a five day trip at the end of the semester. Last summer, I really wanted to take that class because the field study at the end meant living with Bedouins and learning how to slaughter and cook a goat in the desert – which is totally my style. But, having been to Egypt last semester... I was so tired by the end of the semester that it was hard to fully appreciate the trip. And, I have a lot of things happening within the first month of me being home. It would just be a lot less stressful if I didn't go on the trip. Unfortunately, there's no way to take the class and not go on the trip. So I prayed about it, in case God wanted me to go even though I didn't – that happens a lot, and I visited all the classes that are offered that I was interested in to see if I felt lead in any direction. Praise God! I did not feel lead to take Cultural Backgrounds. So, my class list is Hebrew II, Jewish Thought and Practice, Parables, Second Temple Period History, Field Education, and I'm auditing History of the Church in the East.

When I walked into Parables and Jewish Thought and met the Rabbi that taught them, I knew that's where I should be. I'll be learning the Parables of Jesus from a Rabbi, and then looking at the Torah through the eyes of the Jews. It's fascinating. I'm having a very Jewish semester with these two and Hebrew. I'm starting to see connections between the language and Semitic though. For instance, the Hebrew language involves taking a root word and either adding a suffix or prefix to change tense, possession, person, etc. The Jewish way of looking at the Torah is the same way. They take a verse and see 70 interpretations. When we see a “problem” in the Biblical text, we assume that it's just not important or doesn't further God's redemptive purpose. But when Jews see a “problem” in the text, it's a big alert sign for them and they believe God wants them to search out the answer and interpret it. For Christians, the Bible is the inspired word of God for all generations. Jews see it as the inspired word of God and God knew that each verse would have to be interpreted differently for each generation and wrote it purposefully as such. Which feels unstable to me. So... I'm excited for my classes.

My Concrete Box - Yep, I'm a Hobo

Going back to Bethlehem was, interesting. I'm not really sure what I expected. I had kind of moved on from the worrisome thoughts that I had before, about culture and my worldview perspective, and I was looking forward with being done with everything so that I could go back home. Not that being in the states was the most amazing thing ever. I just really appreciated being surrounded by people that love and support me, and who already know me. I don't have to explain myself to them, introduce my life to them, learn how to trust them... we did that a long time ago and now we're all family. I missed that a lot.

When the wife of the family that I had been living with came and picked me up from Jerusalem (there's a boarder crossing between Jeru. and Bethlehem, so the airport taxis won't go there) she informed me that I would no longer be staying with them. Apparently, they had moved into a new house that was quite a bit smaller and one of their teacher's had left during break. So there was an empty teacher's apartment available, and they decided that I could live there. They have a couple of apartments on the top floor of elementary school where all the single female teachers live. Which sounded all nice and generous, but it meant having to buy my own groceries (when they knew full well I had saved up very little money... by little, I mean none because I was never able to find a summer job), the apartments had no heating, no hot water, and my room had no electricity. So when I walked into my apartment room the only thing in there was a bed... with some blankets. There was no light, no dresser, not even a table to put my stuff on. I sat down on the bed and unpacked in the cold dark room while crying. It was a pathetic site. Oh, and the blinds on the windows that were supposed to be electric, weren't. So I had to learn a fun and difficult trick to open and close them. Thankfully, the other girls came back from wherever they were, and gave me a lamp to use. So, the main ceiling lamps didn't work, but the plugs did. I turned my suitcase over and used it as a table and made the best out of the situation. Showering, however, meant heating up pots, pans, and kettles of water and filling up a bath tub so that I could take a full hot bath. It took two hours, but it was worth it. However miserable the situation was, I was determined to make the best out of it. I was only going to be there for two and half weeks anyways.

My roommate, who lived in the room next to me, was a 60ish year old woman from Arkansas. She had come to the West Bank to learn about Palestinians and to see how bad they really had it there. There's no good way to explain Susan. She's older, has a southern accent, and never quite smiling. Her favorite phrase is, “Really?!” As if what we're talking about couldn't have really happened or existed. Everything was unbelievable to her. For instance, I was telling some of the other girls how I had bought a bunch of skirts at Good Will before coming to Israel. One of the girls is from my hometown and knows the area pretty well. So I was telling her how I went to the Buckhead Good Will, which is in the nicest area of Atlanta. Susan's response: “You got those here?! Really?!” My response, “No Susan... no... I got them in Atlanta...” I was desperately trying not to sound too sarcastic. “Oh, I thought you got them here...” Does Buckhead or Atlanta sound like somewhere in the West Bank or Israel? Or, Susan and the other teachers were going to get a taxi for the day and go to the Dead Sea, En-gedi, and Jericho. The problem with this is that if they were going to go swimming, it would inappropriate for them to do it in front of their Palestinian male taxi driver. Susan's thoughts on the matter: “Really?! Well why not? We're just going swimming.” Keep in mind that she had been there almost 3 ½ weeks and somehow she never picked up on how men and women aren't really supposed to spend time together in the first place, let alone go swimming. The real kicker was that you could remind her of cultural standards and ways that things worked several times and she never seemed to grasp the concept. For instance, one way to get a hot shower in the apartments is to wait for a decently warm day – has to be warm and not cloudy all day – and then around two or three you can get a hot shower. All the water tanks are on the roof and they can warm up during the day when it's nice outside. The problem is that this only lasts for one 5-10 minute shower per apartment. We had told her that several times. One glorious afternoon, I decided to run up to the apartment as soon as class was over and take a shower. Sure enough, Susan had gotten in there half an hour before me and taken a shower. I felt like crying, but sucked it up and took a cold one anyways. She just happened to be right outside the bathroom, when I came out all sad and dejected and frustrated, and she asked if there was warm water because she had just taken a nice hot shower. I proceeded to tell her, again, that you can only get one hot shower a day on the solar power. What did she say to that? “Really?! Because I only took a five minute shower. I wasn't in there that long, it was real short.” I had run the water for 10 minutes and then took a cold shower because there was no hot water. My skin was purple and blue! Crazy woman! She laughed and smiled and said that we would just have to alternate days, so I was allowed to take one the next day. Of course, the next day was cloudy, windy, and gross. There was no hot water. So the next day I decided to run up and take one before she could. It was my goal of the whole day. But, the end of the day came, and she had gotten in there before me, again. She told me, again, that maybe if I ran the water for a few minutes it would warm up. Keep in mind, just two days earlier, I told her it wasn't possible. Here she was, laughing and smiling about it, again, trying to tell me I may be able to get a warm shower. I thought about heating up water to take a bath and just lay in it's warmth for an hour or so to calm down, but the stove had run out of gas so there wasn't a good way to heat up water. For the last week she was there, she kept trying to make jokes about the hot water and talk about how she couldn't believe that it only lasted for one shower when her showers were so short. Needless to say, when she left, it was awkward and uncomfortable.

Of course, then I was able to move into her room which had working blinds, electricity, a full bath and shower all to myself, and her mattress had a heating pad! Did you know they make those? Woman was complaining about being cold all the time while she had a mattress heating pad! Anyways, my last week there was really great. My room was great, I had hot showers, I get along well with the other teachers, and I fell in love with the second grade class. I mean, they were still loud, unruly, and sticky. But I started to really see their personalities and who they were.

Of course, they did have their issues. Here's something I wrote during one of my lunch breaks:

When I was in high school, I drew stick figures on fire, blowing their brains out, or stabbing themselves in the chest because being surrounded by so many shallow and ignorant people made me feel like I was losing my mind.

Something weird about the Middle East? They don't have dust bins here. They use snow shovels, instead. 

If it hardly sprinkles outside for ten minutes, then obviously that means that a flood is coming and everyone is going to die. [Okay, slight sarcasm. But it did rain lightly for a few minutes, it's stopped now, and all the kids are saying they can't go outside because it rained.] 

It's amazing how many kids don't do their work. They're just going to have to do it later, anyways. And by later I mean during their break. So they're deciding to not do work during class work time, so that they can talk when they aren't supposed to and get yelled at for it, and then lose their free time anyways. I don't get it! 

And why would anyone come to school without paper, pencil, or eraser? They end up asking for them every ten minutes or so. You would think that being so worried about it at school means that you may think about it outside of school. But second graders have the attention span of goldfish. 

Sometimes they think they're the only ones in the room and interrupt people, call out, and get mad when they know an answer and don't get called on. Sometimes they think they're the most important person to exist and everything they don't like is unfair to them – like writing three sentences or being disciplined for talking out during class. But sometimes they think no one can see them and that if they aren't listening to you then it excuses them from having to follow the rules. So they do things like walk around the room and talk or purposefully continue talking even when you're staring at them and asking them to be quiet. 

It also amazes me how many kids laugh or smile when they get in trouble. Are we manipulative from birth? Just shows me that even at such a young age, God's word is written on our hearts and we know when we do wrong. Because they know they're breaking the rules, they just don't care. I understand that they're children and haven't matured, but I don't remember ever being quite so disrespectful and my parents say I really wasn't that bad. Is it a cultural thing, then?
On a side note, the fifth graders are reading The Giver. In the book, each family is only given two children. This baffled all the kids in the class. Most of them have up to five siblings and Arab culture is to have lots of kids. What really amazed me is when one of the girls asked, “But what if God gives them more children?” You could really see them struggle with the concept of a world that had no war, but everything they do is constrained and they have no freedom. I just love that they thought about God in the context of a fiction novel, because it's so much a part of their life that it's hard for them to separate it.

So, living there had it's ups and downs. Some days were great and others I was really homesick. Over all though, I loved the women I worked with. They're an amazing group of Godly women. I also really got attached to their church and Bible study that the school supervisor runs. If I didn't have to leave the community there, I wouldn't have. Don't get me wrong, I was excited to come back to JUC and learn and take classes. But Jerusalem is such a tense city because of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, and Bethlehem is so laid back. I felt such a sense of freedom there, and Jerusalem just feels like a constant struggle. I also wasn't excited about getting reintegrated into a new social setting. I didn't talk about it too much last semester, but I really struggled with the group of kids that were here. First of all, I felt like most of them were kids and they were focused on social drama, puppy love, and politics. Which isn't something I resonate with at all. So I felt almost ostracized, which is difficult in a small school of 60 or so people where there's no where that you can be on your own. And, realistically, I knew that this semester couldn't be the same. But it was a fear.

Return to a Wonderland Absent of Wonder

So, the elementary school that I was working at closed for the holidays for about 18 days. Instead of staying in Bethlehem for that time, my family was generous enough to pay for me to come home for the holidays. Even more exciting than that, is that my grandparents were also going to be at my parent's house for the holidays and they didn't know I was going to be there. My flight was supposed to get in about an hour before my grandparent's flight was, but then my flight was late and their flight was early. I raced through the airport and got to baggage claim just 10 minutes before they did, said hi to my parents and boyfriend, and then said hi to them. I can't remember how long it's been since I had seen them, but it was amazing that I was able spend Christmas with them.

I spent my first week in Georgia with my family, and had a wonderful time seeing everyone. I can say that I'm 21 and have never missed Christmas with them, which is such a blessing. As you can see from my previous post, I was having trouble working out a lot of things like, why God wanted me in Israel, what that meant for me, how I needed to change my attitude about it and how my perspective was already starting to change... things like that. Going home didn't help that along at all. I think it only confused me more. There were definitely times when I wondered if going home was the right decision. Don't get me wrong, I am so thankful that I was with my family for the holidays, but I think it slowed down the progress I was making in figuring things out. Or that's how I felt at the time. In retrospect, I really needed that break from being in the Middle East and I needed the rest and support from everyone, but I also wonder how I would see things here, if I had stayed, instead.

Our church's Christmas Eve service was on the 23^rd, instead of Christmas Eve, and we were out for a family dinner that night. Not to mention, I would have felt weird going to a Christmas Eve service on any night but Christmas Eve. So, come the night of the 24^th, we went to a local Presbyterian service, instead. Can we say culture shock? My mind was flooded with so many thoughts and questions and judgments. Here's what I wrote on my bulletin during the service:

How much did this church building cost? How many of these people attend church regularly? It feels empty and lacking in joy. Do these people have any real problems outside created social issues? I understand it's all many of them know, but there's something unfortunate about that to me. There's something about our world that seems too easy and unrealistic. This is our land of “milk and honey” in an unbiblical sense. We live in a protected bubble of ease. Where is there room for God in any of this? O Come, O Come Emmanuel and rescue captive Westerners.

Just to decipher that a bit, this church was large and ornate and beautiful. Now, I've seen larger and more ornate church buildings before, but that's not the point I'm making. The point is that, in Jerusalem, Protestant believers often take houses and turn them into their churches and they really don't have much of a sound system or pews or acoustically sound stages or anything like that. They only have what they can find. I hadn't had the chance to go to church that often during my first semester, because we were gone every weekend, but I knew enough about being a Christian overseas to know that our Western mentality felt wrong. I'm not saying that they should deprive themselves of space that they need to worship in, but instead of upgrading a nice church into a nicer one, why doesn't that money go to missionaries, or an organization in need? Also, the church was packed full of people and I had to wonder how many of them were regular church goers. I admit that I'm guilty of not going every Sunday, myself, but that's not what I mean. I can go on facebook and over half the people will have listed their religion as “Christian” when they only go to church on holidays and they only open their Bible when they're down on luck or accidentally knock it off their book shelf. And the worship at the church was so solemn. Come on people! This is Christmas! Have a little joy! Instead of standing still, grabbing onto the pew in front of you, and maybe daring to sway back in forth, how bout really praising God and letting His love flow through you and out of you? I don't mean that we all have to get charismatic or gospel style, but at least feel something. Don't just say the words on the projector or hymnal because it's what everyone else is doing. God doesn't want that and it's painful to watch. We create our world so that we are in control of every motion and event that we can. It's like David Platt says in Radical, where we even set up church and make sure we have as much entertainment fascists as we can to bring people in and enough people tithing to pay the leader's bills and then some, that there's no room for God to work in that environment. It's so frustrating to me! If you can't tell by this little rant, hah.

Anyways, so those were my thoughts of being home. I spent the next week in South Carolina with my boyfriend and friends. I got engaged (yay!). And I didn't have too many other thoughts, not too much culture shock other than that it was really shocking to suddenly be around so many people that know me and love me and support me. It was also really weird to get into my car and drive places and have any sense of freedom. Oh, and I took a hot shower every day just because I could...

A Post from Christmas in Bethlehem

I spent my winter break mostly in Bethlehem, with a detour to the states for two weeks. The first two weeks of break, I lived with a family that is in charge of a Christian American High School so that I could work at the attached elementary school. When I got back from the states, I was moved into the apartments of the top floor of the elementary school and lived with the other single woman teachers. The next few posts are unposted updates from this time.

An unposted update from December 16th, 2011:

Five days and counting until I go home!

Yesterday, I had no working itouch or cell phone; I can't get either of my laptops to connect to the internet at the house I'm staying at; I was pretty sure I was doomed to cold showers until I got back to Jerusalem; I've gotten sick with a cold; the house has no central heating and is flooded with mosquitoes; I have several mosquito bites on my face, including my eyelid; I left my Bible at JUC.

Today, I slept in, helped one of the kids here make cupcakes, took a steamy hot shower, killed a few mosquitoes, helped clean the house, and found a way to charge my gameboy DS. It's the little things in life.

We are so spoiled in America. A year ago, I would have told you that I couldn't function without all of my electronics. Hear I am, now, perfectly content without them. I mean, missionaries talk about this kind of stuff all the time, but I always just smiled and nodded in agreement. I knew what they were saying was true, but, until you're really living it, it's hard to fully grasp or appreciate what they're saying. There's something I've heard said by people that live overseas: someone that visits for two weeks think they can fix the world's problems, people that stay for a few months know that it's complicated, and people that stay for a year know it's far beyond their comprehension of solving. It's true.

When I'm at home, I can take a shower whenever I want and I know the water will always be warm; I can eat because I'm bored, I can go to the store and generally know that I'll find what I need. Everyone there basically speaks my language and has the same agenda. Our only hardships are competition for jobs and social drama – which we create for ourselves. But life is so different outside our bubble. There seems to be much less social drama in Palestine because their time and energy has to be devoted to other things like feeding their family, making money, and fighting for freedom. Those kinds of basic things, that we take advantage of, consume their daily lives so that they have very little time for who's dating who or being so unsatisfied with their marriage that they have to buy a new car or spouse. They have to bond together in order to make it through their life.

And all of this is coming from the opinion of someone who was once a “non-comforming conformist”. I still roll my eyes at typical over-spiritualistic evangelists and Christians who only converse in christianese (Words used by Christians that the unsaved masses are unlikely to understand, making Christians seem exclusive. Typically found in youth pastors, I find). I don't want to sound like one of them because I strive so much to be different and I know that people like that can push people from church.

So then, what am I trying to say? What is my point?

I don't actually need all the things that I thought I needed. I'm more thankful for what we have at home, and yet also sickened by how much we have. I'm even more sickened by consumer western ideology than I was before I came to Israel. But, that can't be all I'm trying to say...

I think my point is that when you're where God wants you to be, His will is sufficient for all your needs. Here I am, in a culture that I don't necessarily mesh with or love, absent of a lot of my comforts, but I'm not miserable or depressed or anything. Not to say that any of this is easy for me, but I think I'm so in harmony with God's will for me at this moment that I have the capacity to handle it and find small joys. Just the fact that I took a hot shower today made me happy dance.

What's saddening is that I don't know how I ended up here. I mean, I told God that if He wanted me to stay in Israel, and if He provided me with housing, then I would stay. But I know me well enough to know that this won't happen again. Not like this. It seemed too easy. And I've prayed and responded to prayer like this before, but never felt this much peace about it. I already feel like this is what I'll be chasing after forever, but only achieve it 1/10 of the time. Like, making a recipe once right and never quite remembering how you did it so well that one time. And every time you make it, it's still never quite right. Then you finally get it right again, but you don't know what you did differently. How did I do this and how do I make it happen every time?

I am constantly reminded of Romans 12:1-2

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

In retrospect of all this, I shared this with a friend while I was in the states and he said that maybe this time was different because I was doing it for God instead of myself. I didn't want to stay in Bethlehem. I was so homesick and so tired of the poor social situation at JUC that I was ready to come home and change my major, even if it meant staying in school an extra semester. But, when God provided me housing, I couldn't tell Him no. And so, I was there for God. In no way for myself. But how do I replicate that every time?

Egypt: the rest of the story - days 5-8

So the reason that I've been so reluctant to post... When I got back from Egypt, I moved to Bethlehem the next day. The house I moved into had no internet. So, I had the last two posts written already, because I wrote them while we were in Egypt, but I had no way to post them until I either moved or went back home for a two week break. Which was fine, but that meant I had four more days to write about and no motivation to write them. Why did I need to? I couldn't post them anyways. Plus, my notes for those last four days were all on my itouch and my itouch bit the dust the day after we got back to Israel. So any interesting thoughts that I had at those sites, were gone. Then I went to to America, the week of Christmas, and was so overwhelmed with family and friends that I had even less motivation to update about Egypt. What's sad is that I have lots of interesting things to talk about in relation to my living in Bethlehem for five weeks, but I didn't feel like I could write about it till I finished talking about Egypt. And the more time that goes by, the less I wanted to update.

All that to say, I'm going to summarize the last four days in Egypt the best that I can. And I just discovered that my itinerary from Egypt is no longer in the trash box of my email. Hopefully my pictures will jostle my memory enough... We'll see how it goes...

Our fifth day in Egypt started at the Valley of Kings, famous for the discovery of King Tut's tomb which has granted us much of the knowledge of ancient Egyptian life that we know of today. I couldn't tell you a whole lot about the place, though. It was riddled with vicious vendors and Egyptian Antiquity Police who were stealing peoples cameras as soon as it left their purse or pocket. So I spent my whole time there coming up with new ways to be rude to people, and sneaking in pictures. I am happy to announce that I successfully took pictures of everything in King Tuts tomb:

List of insults for vendors, and their responses to me:

Me: “I told you no ten seconds ago, why would I want it now?”

Vendor: “Egyptian scarf, 5 pounds.”

Me: “I just told you no!”

Vendor: “Okay, 3 pounds.”

Me: “I'm not playing games, I really don't want it. I already told you know.”

Vendor: “You give me baksheesh.” (Which means “tip” in Arabic.)

Vendor follows me with some cat made out of “white basalt” - which doesn't exist, mind you. This guy kept following me after I politely told him several times that I didn't want it.

Me: “STRANGER DANGER!”

Vendor looks at me strangely, says nothing, but still gets closer to me and holds out object in my general direction.

Me: “HELP! I NEED AN ADULT!”

Vendor continues to hand me object.
Me: “I'm not allowed to talk to strangers. STRANGER DANGER!”

Vendor: “Do not like...” I think he meant to say that he doesn't like me.

Vendor corners and harasses one of my friends that is too polite to tell him to go away.

Me: “Hey, she obviously doesn't want it. Go away.”

Vendor continues to corner and harass her, now touching her arm and scaring her.

Me: “Hey! Leave her alone! GO AWAY!”

Vendor: “You stop talking!” Said in my general direction.

Me: “I'll stop talking whenever the heck I want to, I'm a free a woman. So is the woman you're harassing. Go away!”

And last... vendor forces object into my face.

Me: “No thank you.” I tried to be polite, sometimes. I at least tried to give them one chance.

Vendor touches my arm.

Me: “Haraam! (Which means “shame” in Arabic) That is inappropriate! You are not allowed to touch me! Be gone with you! Leave us alone!” He looked shamed after words. I felt happy and self-assured.

So, after King Tut's tomb we had tickets to visit three other tombs in the area. There are several tombs in the Valley of the Kings but only King Tut's and three others are opened per season so that the tombs aren't ruined. After sneaking in pictures in all the other tombs, I arrived in the last one and decided to take just a few more. I shouldn't have bitten the hand that fed me. One picture in a guy caught me, yelled at me in Arabic, grabbed another guard, and they proceeded to keep me from walking further into the tomb or exiting it while asking me for my camera. I told them for a good five minutes that I would put the camera away but I would not hand it over. I didn't know what they were going to do with it, or if they would ever give it back. There was no way I was giving them my camera. They finally let me be. I later found out that another student got his confiscated by the guards, and all of his pictures were deleted. So I'm glad I didn't give them mine.

After the Valley of the Kings, we went to Hatsheput’s temple. She was a fascinating woman. She created the “rebirth” rooms so that she could go into one for a week, come out, and say she had been reborn as the son of Ra. Being a man, now, she could rule as Pharaoh. Her temple was made of beautiful white stone and dedicated to Anubis, my favorite Egyptian god. I took pictures of Anubis and sat down with our tour guide the rest of the time, because it was hot.

We visited yet another temple, just before lunch. The only distinguishing factor of this one was the stone images of beheaded people at the gate. It apparently proved to the gods that the land outside the temple was safe. And I think we visited yet another temple after that, with the largest Ramses statue found:

Luxor was a fascinating place. By fascinating I mean that I never need to go there again. We had a little bit of free time to ourselves after visiting the Luxor temple and a few of us decided to go explore the markets and grab dinner before having to suffer through another sleeper train ride. So, we innocently began looking for quality Egyptian scarves. It didn't take long before hordes of men (not exaggerating too much, there, either) surrounded us and started begging us to buy things from them or come into their store or marry them. I've never been harassed verbally so much in my life. We're talking hoots, hollers, whistles, hisses, and pet names that I wouldn't let my fiance call me. I was genuinely frightened. Thankfully, a group of men from our JUC group caught up with this and they were suddenly all silent. The Egyptian men looked upon us with lust and disdain. It baffles me that women are such objects to them and deserve such little respect that as soon as a male joins their presence they no longer hit on us. I don't get it. Anyways, the JUC men kindly walked us to McDonalds so that we could grab dinner. Fun fact, did you know that McDonalds in other countries deliver?

Even though it meant getting on the sleeper train, we were all pretty happy to leave Luxor:

Our next morning started with a two our drive into the middle of no where, to stand on a mound of dirt called “Tell Yehudea”. It's significance is that it's a place named “Judah” in Egypt and may have been where the Israelites lived pre-exodus or post-exile. It was literally just a mound of dirt, though. And, of course, good ol' antiquities police followed us all the way out there and charged us money for wanting to stand on said mound of dirt.

Then we drove back into Cairo, two hours back, to look at the pyramids and the sphinx. They were pretty great, indeed. Since I was a child I've dreamed of going to Egypt and seeing the pyramids and learning about Egyptian mythology. I don't want to say it was anti-climatic, but I think that Egypt held a lot more interest for me as a child. Having been there, it's so overrun with rude vendors, tourists, and trash, that it lost a little bit of it's allure to me. That being said, I did still enjoy being there:

Because it took us so long to drive all the way out to our first site, we got stuck in Cairo traffic and missed going to the Cairo museum that night. So we all went to Starbucks instead :)

We were able to wake up early and go the next day, thankfully. I could spend two weeks in that museum and not see everything. I think the things of most interest were, of course, King Tut's death mask made of pure gold, as well as all the other objects he was buried with, and the room of mummies. They have a room with about 9 mummies in it, and the tallest one is 5'8”, I think. They were so small!

Then we rode into Sinai to go on jeep rides with Bedouins through the desert. That was pretty frightening. They practically play bumper cars with each other, out there. We got stuck in the sand once while racing our professor's jeep, and drove our jeep off a mini sand dune at another time. So we did all of that nonsense, to go surprise hiking (not the good kind of surprise) up a cliff to see another not reconstructed temple... then to go look at turquoise mines that have been completely farmed out. Meanwhile, I had to go to the bathroom and was car sick from the silly jeeps. Then we rode back through the desert, but this time in the dark – which did not make it more fun or less scary, so that we could eat a fairly traditional dinner with the Bedouins. That was amazing, actually. There's hardly any light pollution out there, so you could see all the stars. We sat under this tent-like covering on pillows and drank Bedouin tea (which is officially my favorite kind of tea) while eating chicken and rice and cooked vegetables, and singing songs around a fire. That was an experience I'll never forget.

But you know what will be even more difficult to forget? Having to wake up to climb Mount Sinai just four hours after arriving at our hotel that night. Yep, we arrived at our hotel, took a little nap, and woke up at 3 in the morning to climb Mount Sinai in 3 degree Celsius weather. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt, t-shirt, sweater, leather jacket, sweat pants, two pairs of socks, mittens, scarf, and hat. Of course, at this point, I had spent all my money on souvenirs I've dreamed of buying since I was a kid and therefore had no money for a camel ride. Ten minutes into the walk my body started over heating and I was having to strip off layers and find ways to carry them. Thirty minutes in I started hyperventilating and had a sort of panic attack – I have trouble breathing when I'm concentrating on something, which I never remember until I can't breathe anymore. It also probably didn't help that I was exhausted and hiking with no food in my stomach because of course we didn't get breakfast before we did this hike. An hour into the hike, after my mini panic attack, I started feeling quite sick to my stomach. Nausea turned into sharp stomach pains and dry heaving. Two hours later, I threw up off the side of Mount Sinai and crawled my way up to our meeting point where everyone was waiting for me. Thankfully, three other people had stayed behind with me to make sure I hadn't died. I was beyond thankful for the company in such miserable and cold conditions. Once we were all at our meeting point, it was only 900 more steps, which was supposed to take us 45 minutes. Well, one of the professor's wives was moving pretty slowly too and we stuck together. We would walk about three steps, and take a break. Sometimes we would even take five steps before taking a break. We talked the whole time, and decided at some point that if we didn't make it to the very top then that would be okay. It was a generally good time, and we made it to the top, at our own pace, and saw the sun rise.

That was basically the end of the trip. We sat up there for a while longer, walked back down to the buses, and the rest of the trip was just the ride back into Jerusalem. Nothing too interesting happened at boarder crossing, other than that I got my bagged checked. And I was more than happy to shower and sleep in a real bed when we got back to JUC.

Egypt Day 2/3: I have looked into the eyes of the gods and been left wanting

I’m writing this post three days after the fact because we haven’t had much of a break since we got here and all breaks should logically be filled with catching up on sleep since we have little time for that during the night. As Dr. Wright says, “We are chasing the sun.” So, we’re up and gone by sunrise and back well into the night. I am constantly reminded that I’m here for a learning experience, and not a vacation of any sort.

Our second night in Egypt was spent on a sleeper train following the Nile from Cairo to Aswan – the natural southern border of Egypt. It was my first sleeper train experience and, as my Grandfather likes to say, it was a “missionary experience.” My roommate and I shared a room that was no bigger than 5’x3’, the heater didn’t work, and the train stopped and sped up randomly through the night so that the door to the mirror swung open and slammed shut. It was… fascinating.

When we pulled into Aswan in the morning, we went straight to our first site which was an old granite quarry for an obelisk. The obelisk found there would have been the largest obelisk to ever be built, but there was a crack through the top. It seems that, once it was cracked, construction stopped just days later. It was interesting to look at, though. Obelisks replaced pyramids as a religious structure in the 5^th dynasty. I always used to think that pyramids were built for centuries in ancient Egypt, but it seems to be a strictly old kingdom practice. The point of a pyramid was for when the sun connected with the point it looked as if and represented the god Ra connecting with the earth. Obelisks obviously weren’t tombs, like the pyramids, but their point at the top still served the purpose of connecting earth with the gods.

Next, we went to our first temple on Phile Island. It was originally on a crumbling island of granite so that, years ago, they leveled a new island, broke the temple down into 1500 pieces, and transferred and reconstructed the whole thing. It seems to be an old temple to Isis that was reconstructed by the Greek Ptolemies when they came and ruled in Egypt’s last recorded dynasties. So, the temple is essentially Egyptian but with a Greek flair. For instance, instead of the column caps being just palm trees or just papyrus or lotus, the Greeks made composite column caps and mixed all three. Also, in order for a Greek to be able to rule Egypt as Pharaoh, he had to be reborn as an Egyptian. So, next to the temple is a bath house where the Greek man wanting to become Pharaoh would shave his head and bathe for a week or two while convening with the gods to be “reborn”. Here, we have obelisks replaced by parallel rectangles on either side of a door so that the sun meets just above the door and the sun rays are like Ra’s arms surrounding the temple door. This was the common practice for religious sites from here on out. This is also the time period in which people started being buried under ground, instead of in pyramids and such. At the entrance of these temples, the Pharaoh is depicted as sacrificing something to Isis so that the Pharaoh can name himself as the guardian of Egypt. (Here's the temple I'm talking about):

Just for a little background in the history of the gods of Egypt: Isis is the goddess of motherhood and is married to Osiris, the god of the underworld. Together, they had a falcon-headed son, Horus, the god earth. Horus’ wings represent protection and his eye has healing powers. Horus married Isis’ best friend, Hathor who is represented as a calf and is another goddess of motherhood. Anubis is the pet of Osiris, and is the god of mummification and protects people while guiding them to the afterlife. It’s a lot of complicated information, but this is my favorite part of Egyptology because it plays a part in all of Egypt’s ancient history.

After Phile Island, we came back to the hotel and ate a quick lunch so that we could run down to the Nile and catch a boat to some island. I’m not sure what the island was, but we got to ride camels! I’m pretty pro at riding camels. The guy that was supposed to be guiding me just handed me the reigns, and “yipp”ed my camel to go faster. So, in a matter of seconds, I had to learn how to ride a camel and hold on for dear life because camels can canter pretty quickly. It was frightening and exhilarating, all at the same time. We rode the camels to Saint Andrews monastery, where Saint Andrew sought solitude in the wilderness. I couldn’t tell you what else is important about it, though, because I was far too excited about riding the camel back to the boat. Yep, I can ride camels like a true Egyptian.

After the camels, we took the boats to a Nubian village. This has been the best part of my trip so far. We spent an hour or so with a Nubian family. I don’t think there’s any politically correct way to say this, but Nubians are real Africans. They are the self-proclaimed true Egyptians. They live in little huts and make their money by farming and selling homemade goods. The family we hung out with also keeps crocodiles as pets. Or maybe they were alligators. Anyways, I got to hold one. They’re awfully cute when their mouths are rubber-banded shut and they can’t bite you. Then we drank hibiscus juice with them and a man from a neighboring house came over – a cute little black man with missing teeth and a guitar. He played songs about our names and made us dance to them. It was a really good time.

That was the end of our night. I really enjoyed Aswan. The weather was nice, and the Nubian influence there is amazing. I hate to say this, but I’m really tired of getting hassled by Arabs in Israel and Egypt. But Aswan, because it’s so far south, it has a much more African influence. And the people are nice and considerate and act like respectable human beings.

We had to be and on the bus by 6:30 the next morning to spend a day exploring temples. I am so sick of temples due to that day. We visited the Komobo temple, Ed-fu temple, Karnack temple, and the Luxor temple. They were all really fascinating at first, but after a while they all start to blur together. I’ll do my best to distinguish them and make them interesting for you.

Komombo means pile of gold and was devoted to appeasing Sobek, the crocodile god of the Nile, and Horus. So, people would bring in piles of gold to appease the Nile god. This is another temple that was rebuilt and used for the Ptolemies. There is a calendar chiseled into the wall here. The Egyptians had followed a lunar calendar for a long time, but the lunar calendar doesn’t follow the flood of the Nile. Because life is centered on the Nile in Egypt, the lunar calendar didn’t really work for them. So they invented the solar calendar. Every day, there is a holiday in which something must be given to the gods at the temple. So this calendar, at Komombo, names every day of the year and then lists the holiday that is on that day and what must be brought to the temple. The Egyptian calendar follows 10 days a week, 3 weeks a month, 4 months a season, 3 seasons a year, and 360 days a year. And the Greeks, which gave our Western culture everything we have today, were in Egypt around this time. So, it’s plausible to reason that we may be highly influenced by Ancient Egyptians.

I can’t emphasis enough just how much religion controlled the lives of these people. No one could become a Pharaoh without it being passed by the counsel of gods. The people had to pay taxes to the temple to “appease the gods”. Even when the gods are depicted in the temple, they are drawn holding an ankh. An ankh is a symbol that represents the key to life. And the Pharaohs had to be blessed by the gods to be given the ankh. As fascinated as I am with Egyptian mythology, I am so glad I’m a Christian! God gives life freely to me. Looking at those pictures of those gods, I just felt like they were holding life hostage from the people and the thought made me feel uncomfortable and left me wanting and desperate. Yep, so thankful that I have God.

Last fascinating thing from Komobo, we learned about medicinal practices of the Egyptians. Okay, I have to go through this whole spiel to get across what awesomeness I’m about to hit you with. So be patient. Head injuries: CAT scans were invented quite recently and they are only popular in America. So what do people in other countries do when they have internal head injuries? Well, there are two indicators of internal damage. One symptom is blood shot eyes, and the other is numbness on one side of the body. When this happens, it means either too much pressure has built up inside the brain or that there is internal bleeding. When there is too much pressure in the brain, the easiest way to fix this is simply with elevation. But when there is internal bleeding, a surgeon needs to open up the brain and drill a hole into the skull so that the blood can pour out of the skull. Fun stuff. Well, this is where it gets kind of cool. The equipment that surgeons use for that surgery, are the same exact ones that the Egyptians used! The Egyptians were advanced enough to know how to cure head injuries! Okay, I was fascinated.

Anyways, after Komobo, we went to the Ed-fu temple which was kind of boring and dark. The only interesting thing was that there was ancient paint. And I’m fascinated when a site is still painted. It is beautiful, and it gives us a picture into what the place was really like:

Then we went to the famous Karnack temple in Luxor. Karnack was pretty amazing. It was built and expanded upon by every Pharaoh from Thutmose III to Shishak. Karnack forms the corner of a triangle between the Hatshepsut temple and Luxor temple. People would travel between these three temple, offering goods to the gods. The walkway leading into Karnack is lined with Ram-headed sphinxes, which represent the god Ammun (a creator god). The temple has a hundred something columns within it, styled at the top with opened and closed lotus flowers. The closed lotus flowers always sit in the shade, as if you’re relaxing in the shade of the god; the open lotus flowers always sit in the sun as if they are growing in the rays of the god.

There is actually something Biblically exciting at Karnack. Shishak records his war invasions into the land of Canaan and writes of going up against cities on a war path to Jerusalem. We know from the Biblical record that Shishak came up against Jerusalem, but Reheboam decided to just submit to Shishak and become a vassal state to Egypt. So, on Shishak’s wall that lists the cities he conquered, Jerusalem is not listed. Some historians want to say that this is proof that the Bible is lying, but there is an easy explanation for this. Shishak’s wall lists all the cities around Jerusalem that he conquered. These cities are on a direct path to Jerusalem. But Shishak didn’t conquer Jerusalem. Jerusalem just agreed to pay tribute to them so that there would not be a battle. It makes sense that Jerusalem’s name isn’t listed on the wall, since there was no actual fight there. What’s really exciting about all of this is that this is one of the first exact chronological links that we have between Egypt and Israel. It’s a foundational base on which we can factually structure Egyptian and Israelite time lines. Okay, maybe it’s not that exciting to all of you who are sitting at home and never thought twice about the historicity of the Bible, but it’s extremely exciting for biblical historians. It also should be exciting for apologetics, since Shishak’s wall seems to prove that a Biblical account really did happen.

After Karnack, we settled into our hotel where I had a really interesting dinner conversation. I should begin by saying that I really do like the college that I go to, but I wouldn’t say that I’m in love with it. I feel no exceptional personal attachment to it. And I’ve never really thought of it in comparison with other colleges because my only other knowledge of other universities is based on the one semester in which I attended an all girls secular school. Which I know is not enough of an experience in which to judge CIU. That being said, this particular conversation forced me to think about why I like it. I was sitting next to two other students, both of whom attend reformed Christian colleges. I really don’t know what “reformed theology” is. In fact, I have no concept of theology other than that people seem to get into petty arguments about whether we are predestined or have free will (by the way, Paul talks about both as facts so they both are facts. Just thought I’d get my opinion on that matter out of the way) or if using birth control is a sin. Theological arguments always seem so silly to me because we waste so much time arguing about it, when we could be putting all that energy towards… oh… I don’t know… worshiping God or something worthwhile. My roommate here has taken 5 theology classes because her college is based on some sort of theological foundation. My school only offers two theology classes. That’s it. Just two. She’s not even done with all of her classes! So, my roommate and one of the other students were having a really deep discussion about theology, using words like “CRC” and “OPC” and a bunch of other acronyms that went completely over my head. When I obviously didn’t know what they were talking about, they began asking me about my school and why we only have two theology classes. Well, CIU is a missions based school. Our slogan is “To know Him and make Him known”. We offer other majors, of course, but the great commission of Matthew 28 is what drives the foundation of our college. We are essentially a non-denominational school that believes in the “unity of scripture”. They brought up the point that this can be dangerous because then people tend to pick and choose what they want to believe from all different theologies and then there’s no cohesion to their beliefs. I can see where they’re coming from, but then they’re assuming that just because our school doesn’t claim a denomination that everyone on campus is non-denominational. Which isn’t true. I am in no way indicative of the rest of the student body at CIU. I’m actually probably in the minority as far as theological knowledge goes. Not to mention, just because we’re missions based doesn’t mean that we ignore other subjects. CIU just wants to make sure that their students understand the importance of missions, and how it’s integrated into the church and our daily walk with Christ. All that to say, I really like my college. I am just not built for theological nonsense. I just want to understand the Bible in its original context and then disciple other people with that knowledge.

As long of a day as this was, it was not quite the end. At 7 that night, we walked over to the Luxor temple. I could tell you about the Pharaohs that built it and the gods and stuff, but it’s really only interesting if you know anything about Ancient Egyptian history and even then, it was just okay. Although, I’m sure it was a lot more exciting at night than during the day. The most significant thing about it is that this is the temple where the “rebirth”ing rooms began that were later developed by the Ptolemies. Two Pharaohs used it previous to the Greeks, because they were only half royal blood and needed to be reborn full blooded so that they can rule. Funny how even back then people corrupted the political system in order to get what they wanted.