Jordan Field Study Day 4: Bathroom Stops and Boarder Crossings

I thought that I would go ahead and finish up the last day of our Jordan trip because it was short and because I leave for a week long trip to Egypt tomorrow. So this is really the only time in which I will have time to post this. I imagine when I get back from Egypt, I will do a few posts about that. From here until next semester, I will be living with a family in Bethlehem. The husband and wife are the principles of a local Christian high school, and they have two young boys that love to play video games. They also like Star Trek. So, I imagine that my winter break updates will be reflecting on exciting things that I learned this semester in other classes, that I never talked about, reflecting on the semester as a whole, and the adventures I have in assisting with a large 3^rd grade Palestinian class. I'm sure the stories will be endless.

Anyways, back to Jordan. Our trip from Petra to the Medea Plateau was long and tedious. By long and tedious, I mean that it was an hour and a half and I had to go to the bathroom worse than I have in my entire life. Well... I was stuck in the Lincoln Tunnel of New York City for two hours once when I was about 12 years old... I nearly wet myself then, but this was almost just as bad. This was the situation: I didn't have to go when we left Bozrah. Not that it would have mattered, seeing as there were no bathrooms and I didn't see a decent place outside to go to the bathroom. Plus, there were two little Arab boys running around and I imagine I would have been scarred for life if they had ran into me while I was peeing all over some archeological site. Little did I know that our hotel was so far away and that there was actually a group of people that had to go to the bathroom, and they were switching off and keeping guard so that everyone could go. But me, being the solid introvert that I am, immediately went back to the bus as soon as I took the pictures I wanted. So I never had the chance to know that this potty group had formed. When I got on the bus, our professor told us that we had an hour and a half bus ride with no bathroom breaks. I passively aggressively asked, “No potty breaks?” Implying that I really had to go. She just smiled and shook her head. Minutes later, while I'm dancing in my seat, she walks to the back of the bus to see how the other girls' potty-venture went. She came back and told us that it was fine. I, once again, said, “Oh, I wish I had known that was happening.” Again implying that I really had to go. And she just smiled. I danced in my seat; I hummed; I shook my legs up and down; I tapped my feet. The professor was sitting right next to me and she was blissfully unaware that me, who is known for immediately passing out on the bus, was wide awake and practically jumping up and down and yelling to get her attention. So I finally said, “How long till we get there, because I have an emergency situation.” The girl sitting behind me had been in my position before, and started telling me how she felt my pain. All the while, our professor just smiled and laughed and seemed unphased by my distress. Eventually, the tour guide heard of my problem and was able to get the bus driver to take a detour and get us to our hotel thirty minutes faster. I've never flown off of a us so quickly.

As if a long day at Petra and traumatizing emergency bathroom situation wasn't enough, this was supposed to be the worst hotel. Supposedly, the girls that had gone the previous year woke up with cockroaches in their hair. I wasn't really looking forward to that. But, I think they must have been over-exaggerating or they must have stayed at a different hotel. It wasn't awful. The rooms were clean, the beds were tilted funny but they were made, and there was hot water. Of course, every time you ran the shower, it took a good 30 seconds for it to fully turn on, and then it would slow down to a trickle again, and then it would turn off and return to just the bathtub faucet. It was like a game. So it took a long time to shower, but, who cares? It was hot. This is what my Grandpa would call a “missionary experience.”

All that aside, I had a really great night's rest and was ready to tackle our last day so that I could leave and return to JUC. I never thought I could miss Jerusalem so much. Our first stop was within the city, at Karak Castle. It looked like a pretty cool Crusader Fortress, but I couldn't tell you a thing about it. Our tour guide talked the whole time, and it was so cold and windy that I just could not force myself to pay attention to him.

We then went to Dibon, the capital of Moab. After the exodus, this is where the tribe of Reuben was supposed to have settled. Anyone remember what Reuben did that he shouldn't have? He slept with his father's concubine, which was a serious power play in ancient times. When a son no longer felt like his father could run the family, a son may lay with his father's concubine to attempt to take over. This happened right after Dinah, Jacob's daughter, was raped at Shechem. Jacob decided not to do anything about the rape, because they probably had peaceful connections with Shechem. But Reuben and his brothers took matters into their own hands and slayed the whole town. So, when Jacob was about to die and was blessing his children, he told Reuben (Gen. 49:3-4):

“Reuben, you are my firstborn,

my might, and the firstfruits of my strength,

preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.

Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence,

because you went up to your father's bed;

then you defiled it—he went up to my couch!”

Jacob basically told Reuben that he was wrong for such actions. Therefore, the very thing that he judged his father for – being wavering and unable to control and care for his family – now he would have the same for the rest of his life. This describes the land of Moab. Moab was in between Edom and the Medeba Plateau. The Plateau is very similar in geography, but much larger and flatter and, therefore, easier for farming and travel. This Plateau is supposed to belong to Reuben, but many people wanted the Plateau. And so, the Reubenites were never really able to hold onto it.

We then made our way over the plateau and up to Mount Nebo, where Moses looked out on the Promised Land before passing away. This was truly a touching place to be at. From the heights of Mount Nebo, you can look out across the Rift Valley and look upon Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Jericho. Now you can't see all of Israel, but you can see a good deal of it. Through Jordan, we had looked at the Abrahamic covenant fulfilled in Jacob and his children, as well as the Mosaic covenant, looking out over the land that the people were promised. What was so touching about this, for me, is that both Abraham and Moses were promised such amazing things, but neither of them saw their fulfillment. They just trusted God anyways. Everyday, I assume that I'm doing something because God wants me to and I'll eventually know what that reason is. Never do I think that I may never know what that reason is. God may ask me to do some major things with my life without showing me or telling me why. Couldn't tell you how that fits into my life yet, because it's a large concept to try and process. But, it's an interesting thing to think about.

After Mount Nebo, we had another hour or so to kill because the graduate students were running late. So we went to the major mosaic distributor for Jordan and made pottery:

After such fun, we went towards border crossing, which had the potential to be really awful. Thankfully, it was call to prayer and we were able to pass about 12 buses that were pulled over so that all the passengers could pray. Border crossings was the most unorganized thing I've ever experienced. First, you have to unload all your baggage and form a barricade of people through the waiting line so that nobody cuts in front of you. They seem to think that we're all dumb Americans and that they can just cross in front of us if they ask us to move. Then you give your baggage to a guy behind a counter, along with your passport. Then that guy sets your passport on top of your baggage amongst a field of other bags with passports sitting on top. I tried not to take my eyes off my passport the whole time. It seemed too easy for someone to steal it. Once you get your baggage, you wait through another line that funnels into a single file so that you can go up to a counter with one person checking passports and judging your level of threat. I was the third to last person in our group to go. There were two lines formed: one for our group, because it was so large, and one for everyone else. They seemed to be alternating passport checks with one person from each line. So, after the person next to me had been checked, I ran up to have mine checked. But some Muslim lady with her two kids tried to cut in front of me. After an hour of this nonsense, I was not having it and I didn't let her pass. The guy just gave me a look and took her passport and talked said something to her in Arabic. Then he looked at me, put a sticker on my passport and circled something. Little did I know that I was the only person to be considered a threat. Go me. I thought for sure, as I was sitting in the waiting room all by myself, that I was going to be stripped searched and interrogated for hours. Thankfully, they just took me into a room the size of a closet and searched me with my clothes on. It still felt invasive.

Anyways, that all sums up Jordan. I'm looking forward to Egypt, but not the 15 hour drive through the wilderness of Sinai tomorrow.

Jordan Field Study Day 3: Indiana Jones Made it Look Cool

Day three of our Jordan adventure had so much potential, for both good and bad. Let me preface the actual day trip with a story of our 4 hour drive to Petra.

We left the Palace of Tobias in Ammon just before dark, to trek 4 hours in the bus to Petra – supposedly with no bathroom stops. Being the intelligent traveler that I am, I had my first “wadi potty” experience before boarding. A wadi potty is much like finding a tree in the middle of the woods, but with a lot less trees for coverage. It's more like, “Where can I find the largest rock to hid behind that also happens to be surrounded by other rocks for coverage?” It's a lot more difficult than it sounds. But I made it work, and proudly got on the bus to fall asleep. Apparently, no one else thought of this, and my intelligent strategy was for nothing. For, two hours later, we ended up pulling over at some souvenir shop because all the girls were about to implode from having to pee so bad.

So, we arrived at our hotel very late into the night, ate a decent dinner and attempted to go to bed early, because we would have to be getting up at the butt-crack of dawn to walk to Petra from our hotel. Yes, I did indeed say walk to Petra.

Not that it was a very long walk. But, at something like 6:30 in the morning, the last thing that you want to do is walk anywhere. I kept telling myself that it would be worth it because I would be walking where Sean Connery and Harrison Ford had walked! I'm talking about Indiana Jones the Last Crusade, for those of you who don't know. I thought it was going to be magical. And, at first, it was. I guess that most tour guides want to spend at least two hours walking down the long path that leads in to Petra. Oh, did I mention we had a tour guide with us for this whole trip? You can't tour anywhere in Jordan without an official Jordanian tour guide, it's against the law. I think they just want more money. His name was Aladdin and enjoyed telling all of us to “Wakey wakey, time to get more sleep” every time we didn't pay attention to him on the tour bus. Buckets of fun. Anyways, so our job, as students was to walk as quickly as possible, through the entry path, so we could get to the Treasury – the place that Petra is known for. Maybe you've seen it:

As I said, it kind of exciting to run down the path, occasionally stopping to take pictures. Here's a few of us on a rock that we deemed “Pride Rock”. Our photographer wasn't very good. If it was more zoomed out, you could see that it actually looks like Pride Rock from the movie The Lion King.

Unfortunately, as I was racing to get ahead of everyone so that I could take a picture of the Treasury without students in the picture, my Camel Back decided to leak everywhere. It's not the first time it's done this. At least this time it had a legitimate reason to leak. Typically, it leaks when I set it down on the ground or lean it against something or just to spite me. Well, I lost a good half of my water in the process and, as you know from my other blog posts, it's not like I could just drink from the water fountain in Jordan. But I wasn't thinking that far ahead. I just wanted a picture without any intruders.

After our tour guide spoke for a while at the Treasury, we were allowed another 4 hours to explore Petra. Honestly, we couldn't have walked the whole thing if we had two weeks. We had two sites to see: The high place, where they did sacrifices (150 steps up the side of a cliff) and the Monastery, with a beautiful view over the whole Jordan Valley (800 steps up the side of a cliff). Oh, and not only do they have so many steps going up to each site, but they are on two completely different mountain tops. But I was determined! I was going to have fun and see everything!

Well, I made it to the High Place fairly easily. Here's a picture of the view off the top:

I was with a group of two guys and three other girls. We hung out for a little while, and started climbing back down the way that we came up so that we could head towards the Monastery. On our way down, disaster struck. First, I fell and slid down a bunch of steps, potentially hurting my camera. It has a pixilated crack in the view-screen, now. Then, a Muslim lady said that if we climbed back up and took a left at the coffee shop, we could climb down the stairs on the other side, look out over a theater, and still make it to the Monastery. We went wrong when we decided to listen to her. We got lost for two hours, Technically, we were still on a recognized path, but it was pretty sketchy and a lot harder to hike. And we had no idea where we were going. I suddenly had to go to the bathroom really bad, and I ran out of water. It was a horrifying experience.

Finally, some man directed us to the foot of the mountain that lead up to the Monastery and I was able to find a bathroom. Content with this, I was still ready to climb up to the top, not even remembering that I had no water. It was half way to the first set of stairs, while walking through a pit of sad that took more effort to walk through then I have ever experienced, that I started to realize that maybe this wasn't such a good idea. But it wasn't until another 100 steps when I knew it wasn't a good idea. Then I went into tunnel vision where I would jog up a set of steps, try and catch my breath, jog up another set, try and remember to breathe. Meanwhile, not wanting to let on to everyone that I was with that I was in a lot of pain. I didn't want to look lazy or out of shape in comparison to them. Just after we were half way to the top, my cycle of jogging and resting wore on me and I started hyper-ventilating. At that point, I knew that if I drank any water that I would just vomit it up anyways.

All drama aside, my mini panic attack forced me to rest enough that I made it to the top and I'm not sure that it was worth all the trouble. Here's what it looks like:

It's kind of cool, I guess. I spent a few minutes there and turned my sad tired self around to drag my feet down all the steps and back to the hotel. I definitely had expended more energy than my body had.

After Petra, I slept the rest of the day until our one and only other stop, Bozrah. Bozrah was the capital of Edom. I'm sure you've heard of the Edomites. They gave Judah a lot of trouble during the exile because they wanted Judah out of their way so that they could prophet from trade. Edomites are the descendants of Esau. They're land is deep in the Negev and constantly pinched for resources. Their only chance of survival is dependent on shepherding and trade. Not that they should complain, they got filthy rich off trade because they were connected to a road that lead the to coastal trade with Phoenicia, copper trade with Egypt, and the spice trade in Asia. Bozrah was beautiful, and a decent end to an otherwise awful and exhausting day.

Jordan Field Study Day 2: Romans and Mysteries

I know that this post is long over due, but this month has been quite hectic for me. I've had three ten page papers and 3 finals since coming back from Jordan, and, as much as I like keeping a blog, school had to come first.

So! Without any further delay, day two of Jordan:

That morning, in Ammon, we didn't have to drive too far because our first stop was within the city. Kind of like visiting the “historic” part of any city in the states, we stopped in ancient Ammon. Most of biblical Ammon has been built over with beautiful Roman architecture. I know that I've been getting a little tired of Roman stuff because I typically care much more about Old Testament sites, but this place was pretty cool. I mean, look at these pillars!:

How did they build that? It's not like they have cranes or computer technology or anything. Sometimes I don't think we give our ancient cultures enough credit. Anyways, as much as I liked exploring the Roman remains, lets get down to the important stuff. According to Genesis 19, we know that Ammon's people came from Lot's daughters. And by Lot's daughters I mean, when Sodom and Gamora fell they decided to sleep with their father to keep the family line going. So Ammon is both the son and grandchild of Lot. I always used to make fun of my mom's genealogy for being a bunch of inbred quakers, but I guess they were just being biblical. Hah! I kid! Seriously, it's a little gross. But Ammon really did get the short end of the stick, as far as land goes. In the midst of the beautiful Gilead area that is so full of farm-able country land, prosperous in trees, Ammon got a little bowl of land with less profitable resources and not much room for expansion – not that they didn't try. We read of countless attempts by the Ammonites to expand up towards Damascus and West into Judah in the book of Judges and in the book of Samuel, during the reign of Saul. Also, Solomon's son and successor, Rehoboam the idiot king was a son of an Ammonite woman. And, as if they didn't cause enough issues in the beginning, they were also most likely some of the pagan women that the Israelites married during exile that Nehemiah told them to divorce. Thanks for nothing Ammon. This is why you don't inter-marry!

After learning about all that loveliness, we were allowed to explore a museum at the site. It was interesting. There was turkish coffee and some really pretty painted pottery. Also, some plastered skulls and another skull that had been lobotomized. Just what I want to see first thing in the morning. I suppose it was worth the trip just for the caffeine boost. We had stayed at a 5 star hotel the night before but they couldn't make good coffee. Go figure.

Then we went to Jaresh, another Roman site. Noteworthy things of mention:

Hadrien's arch -

A really well preserved and reconstructed arch. This thing is absolutely huge.

And the temple to Artemis-

It was mostly a lot of walking around and “ooh”ing and “aah”ing at the architecture. I guess it was cool, but I did not need to spend several hours looking at the whole thing.

On the way to our next stop, we pulled over by the side of the Jabbok River to get a preview into what we would be studying on day 3 of the trip. It was beautiful. Check it out:

This is where Jacob crossed on his way back into Canaan to start taking the lands for the tribes of Israel. It also eventually became the boundary marker between the tribes of Reuben and Gad. But, I like to think that it's more famously known for where Jacob wrestled with the angel of God and was renamed Israel. From birth, Jacob and Esau fought. Coming out of the womb, Esau pulled back Jacob so that he could be born first. They were the exact opposite. Esau was a wild hunter and Jacob was a civilized person who stayed at home and took care of matters there. Esau impulsively gave up his birth right for food, while Jacob deceived his father for the birthright blessing. A blessing that reflected on his future nation – wealthy and resourceful. When this happens, Esau reacts angrily and causes Jacob to flee from the land and seek his future wife. For the next several years, he works and toils for the wife whom he loves, Rachel. By the time God tells him to return to the land of his father, I'm sure that he feels as if he's been struggling with man his whole life. In reality, he was struggling with trusting and relying on God. From the point where God renames him, he seems to fully accept God as the one and only god.

Our last stop of the day is known as “Iraq”... not the country Iraq! Haha. No, it's actually a biblical site in Jordan that just happens to be named Iraq. But I thought it was a funny name. It's actually an old pleasure palace in Ammon, close to Jerusalem, that was owned by the Tobias family. Now the Tobias family is seemingly first mentioned by Josephus, but they seem to all ready be a well-established family in Ammon by the time he mentions them. So, who are they? Well, looking back in the Old Testament, there is a Tobias of Ammon mentioned in Nehemiah that opposed the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Why, though? Why would this Ammonite care so much? The family is mentioned previously in Ezra as one of the priestly families who tried to return from exile, but couldn't. See, a lot of families dropped their family names in exile in Babylon in order to conform to the Babylonian culture more and grow in the ranks among the wealthy people and royalty. And when they tried to return to Jerusalem, they could no longer prove their family history. Without which, they could not be considered a true Israelite. The Tobias family, is one of those. So, if they had been a priestly family pre-exile, then it makes sense that they would want to carry on their wealth and stature in Babylon by changing their last name and embracing Babylonian culture. Maybe they opposed the rebuilding of the temple because they had once been part of the priests but were not allowed back. But let's delve back even further than the exile. There's an Ammonite family of “Tob” mentioned in 2 Samuel 10:6 that was hired to fight against King David, and, even further back than that, in Judges 11:1-9 is the “land of Tob” in Ammon. So, there seems to be a family that is well established in Ammon that later tries to come into Jerusalem as a priestly family that can't prove their Jewishness. The question is, are they Ammonite or Isrealite? This is why I want to study genealogy and cultural backgrounds of the Bible, to try and figure out mysteries like this.

Day 1: A Little Left to be Desired

          I just need to preface the next four entries that I was not at all excited about this field study.  First of all, I hadn’t even ever thought about Jordan as a country until about a week and a half ago.  Then, our professors warned us that we couldn’t eat anything uncooked (like fruits, vegetables, or salad), the meat may or may not make you sick, and drinking the water is absolutely out of the question.  So then I ran and stocked up on snacks because it sounded like I was going to come back starved and dehydrated.  So I asked what kind of sites we would be seeing, hoping I could get excited about that, but apparently Jordan doesn’t care too much about Old Testament archaeological remains.  So none of the remains are reconstructed or kept up well unless they’re from a Roman time-period.  The last straw for my patience, was hearing that we had to up and at the bus at 6 in the morning to go through boarder control.  I was praying to get deathly ill for a day or two just so I wouldn’t have to go.  Some people may say that this makes me an ungrateful brat.  I just know where my interests lie, and it did not sound like they lie in Jordan.  The only two redeemable qualities were that we were going to Petra (shown in Indiana Jones) and there was a Starbucks at the first place we were staying at.  I’m almost out of coffee, so Starbucks sounded pretty good to me.

          Stupidly, I stayed up late the night before leaving so that I could work on a paper.  I have three ten page papers due at the end of the month and if I could just get the rough draft of one of them done before the field study, I knew I would be a lot less stressed.  But at 12:15 in the morning, three and a half pages done, I called it quits and went to bed.  So I had to wake up five hours later to wake up and make it to the bus on time.  Usually, the graduate and under-graduate students are on different buses because there are so many of us that we need two different groups.  Unfortunately, we were just taking a two hour ride to the border crossing before splitting up.  So we were all packed on one large bus, shoulder to shoulder, for two hours, after most of us had very little sleep.  We were all a little cranky.

          Border crossing wasn’t that bad, but when I sat down on the tour bus – after we had split up from the grad students – I sat down to realize that a carton of pineapple yogurt had burst in my purse.  First of all, I hate pineapple.  That’s why I hadn’t eaten the yogurt in the first place.  I was hoping to pass it off to someone else.  Second of all, not only did the yogurt now line the inside of my purse, but it got all over my gameboy and my pokemon game guide.  Yes, even the pokemon game guide.  My day was officially in ruins.  I worked hard to buy that silly little book, and it’s slowly helping me to catch them all.  Of all things to get covered in yogurt.  Of all things! 

          I worked on cleaning that out while we drove to our first stop – Succoth.  Now, I always thought that Succoth was just a Jewish holiday to celebrate the harvesting of the fruits and to pray for winter rains.  Everyone camps outside in little tents for a week and hangs out with their family.  Apparently, it’s also a place.  But, of course, there was so much wind on this particular morning, that I couldn’t hear a word our professor was saying.  All I know is that it was important for trade, Solomon used it to supply building materials for the temple, and the people that lived there only lived there in the winter and spring, in little tents.  So it sounds like there may be some connection between the site and the holiday.  This is also where I realized that my camera battery was stowed away in its camera charger, inside my suitcase, underneath the bus.  Not that there were any ruins to take pictures of, anyways.  Could the day get any better?

          Apparently, it could.  Our next stop, Pellah, had a clean bathroom for me to wash my bag in, and cheap Turkish coffee.  It’s the little things in life.  It also had a really nice view.  But Pellah doesn’t have a lot of Biblical connections.  Probably because it was a major place for trade and so Israel never really controlled it, because everyone else wanted it.  So I just sat down on a shaded porch, sipping my coffee, looking out over the Jordan valley, and watched everyone else rush to some Roman ruins that looked like every other Roman ruin I have ever set my eyes on.

          Our lunch stop was at a large Roman site called Jabesh.  I think the coolest thing about Jabesh is that everything is made of beautiful black basalt.  Basalt may not sound pretty, but when you live in a world of sandstone and limestone, basalt is a nice contrast.  What fascinates me about it, is that basalt is very hard and very brittle and the Romans carved amazing Corinthian columns and theaters out of it.  I can’t imagine how much work and effort was put into it.  I only wish I had my camera to take pictures of the theater there. 

          After lunch, we only had one more stop – Ramoth Gilead, which was really just a field in the middle of nowhere.  But!  We got to listen to the story of King Ahab being killed by the Ammorites from 1 Kings 22.  The situation with the Ammorites is that they always want Israel’s land and Israel always wants their land. The only thing that divides their land is the Rift/Jordan Valley.  I’m sure it seems fair, to both sides, to just reach over the valley and take the land on the other side – along with all its wonderful resources and extended trade routes.  Well, apparently Israel and the Ammorites were in a time of peace when King Ahab’s people basically said, “Hey, don’t you know that Ramoth-Gilead is ours?”  So Ahab consults Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, and Jehoshaphat promises to follow him into battle if Ahab asks a prophet of Yahweh.  And Ahab just whines and says, “But they always tell me stuff I don’t want to hear!”  Silly Ahab, that’s because you’re far too concerned with making money and not about pleasing God.  Anyways, he decides to ask a prophet of God and he tells Ahab that if he goes up against the Ammorites, that he will surely be killed.  So, Ahab thinks that he’ll be sneaky, disguise himself, and go into battle anyways.  When the Ammorites find Ahab on the battle field, Ahab screams and the Ammorites think, “Surely this man is too cowardly to be the king.”  And they move on.  But a stray arrow flies through the air and pierces Ahab in between his armor and he dies on the way back to Samaria.

          With Ramoth Gilead being our last stop of the day, we drove to our hotel which was next to Starbucks!  It also happened to be next to a Little Caesar’s Pizza, Papa John’s, Pizza Hut, and a KFC.  Jordan seems to be trying to westernize themselves, I think.  Anyways, Starbucks was amazing – other than that they didn’t have any chai tea… and couldn’t add espresso to it, even if they did.  So I sat down with a Caramel Macchiato, listening to Frank Sinatra, and checking my facebook.  Just like home.

That’s when I realized, I kind of miss home. 

          I hate to say it, but I think I may be a little attached to my American culture and heritage.  Though I despise my generation and what it's making my culture to become.  Though I hate the postmodern worldview.  Though I hate the corrupted government.  There's something about it that I miss.  I miss having the freedom to drive in a place where people use their blinkers and stay in their lane (mostly).  I miss walking into a Starbucks and listening to Frank Sinatra while reading a book and drinking hot coffee.  I miss having the freedom to walk places without getting hit on.  And though I want it to stay out of my church's ideology, I even miss the American dream and our can-do equality attitude about everything.

Day 2: Justice and the Gates of Hell

           Day 2 started out much better than day 2. My camera worked, we didn't have to jump a gate, and it was decently cold outside! And I had 2 cappuccinos before we left the hotel. Caffeine and good weather can turn any potentially bad situation into a good.

           Remember how I mentioned that there are three cities that Solomon fortified during his reign? Well the third one is Hazor, which is were we started our second day on the field. So I have officially been to all three sites and seen all three excavated Solomonic gates. Pretty cool stuff. Other importances of Hazor: this city was huge, back in the day! There's an upper acropolis of 25 acres and, in the ancient Canaanite days, it spread out along the valley an extra 175 acres. The little town of David in Jerusalem was only 10 acres. Of course, it helps that Hazor is the only city that people hit when going from the Galilee up into Damascus and onto Mesopotamia. So we're talking a major international influence. Now this only lasted until the 13^th C, and from there on out only the top 25 acres were settled and used. Archaeologists have found a destruction layer in the city, dating to the 13^th C. And we're not just talking that the city was taken over or something, this was some major destruction. To put it into context, Hazor is the seam between the Rosh Pinnah (an area of basalt just above the Sea of Galilee) and the Huleh Basin (an swampy area below Dan). Hazor is built of the basalt from the Rosh Pinnah Sill. The destruction that happened there in the 13^th C was so intense that it cracked the basalt. I'm not sure what temperature that is... but I'm sure it's pretty crazy. So the question is, what happened here? We all turned to Joshua 11. After reading the story and plotting it out on a map, I'm not sure what the Canaanites were thinking. The Canaanites had bases all throughout the Galilee area, from the Galilee to the coast. Now, if Joshua was coming in from Jerusalem with a tribe of measly Israelites just out of their wilderness wanderings, it would make sense to keep all your men at your bases and pick off Joshua's people one by one until he reaches Hazor – if he even does! Right? Well that's not what they did. Instead, all the Canaanite chiefs piled up on top of Hazor and waited for Joshua to come with all his men. And it's not like Hazor has any real defenses. The city is on flat land. They had to build a mote to try and have any sort of protection. So, of course, Joshua destroyed them. Go Joshua.

           After Hazor, we drove North along the Jordan River to Dan. Now Dan wasn't originally called Dan. But the Dan tribe was having trouble taking their land from the Philistines in the Sorek Valley, so the Bible says that they came up an “innocent and unsuspecting people” and took the city for themselves and named it Dan. I sometimes get the feeling that Israelites were a little twisted in their thought process. Dan is considered the Northern boundary for Israel. You read it often in the Bible as, “From Dan to Beer-Sheva”. The gate at Dan has an altar outside of the gate and a large patio like area that may be a trading enclave from Ahab and Omri's time. And, when you walk in through the gate, there is a line of stone benches and a pedestal for a seat. Why are their benches and a raised seat in the gate? Because the gate was often the only entrance into the city, the elders would sit on the benches and welcome guests. I say welcome, but really it's more like... “Here, welcome to my city. Let me show you around and make sure you don't plan to do us any harm.” It's probably not too different than having boarder crossing police stationed at the front of every city. This is also where court cases were heard, and also where our conversation got really interesting. How is justice pictured to us Westerners? As a blind woman holding a scale. But that's not really how things work in the Bible/ancient days. The culture back then was more of a survivalist thing. Cities were built so that people could unite and protect themselves against outsiders, as well as support each other in food and health. So if one person did something stupid like... anger an outside and cause all their fields of food to be burned down (I'm drawing from the Samson story)... then that person needed to be killed or thrown out of the city. This sounds harsh but, because of that one man's stupidity, the whole town had to potentially starve for a year. Stupid people had to go (man, I wish things still worked that way sometimes). So, court cases were always heard in the gate because that's where all the elders sat and everyone in the city could gather there and hear the case. Unlike today's society where we have anonymous people judging us for our supposed crimes, everyone who was judging you knew you and your character. They were judged in the open air for all to hear. Anyone could come to your side and aid you, or preach against you if you had a known bad reputation. Everyone needed to hear the outcome of the case because they didn't have police to keep people accountable. So everyone had to keep the person being charged accountable for whatever their punishment was. It's all very communal, as was the whole of the ancient world. But this is the Biblical model that's given to us. The example our professor used was from Deuteronomy 22:28-29, which basically says that if a man rapes a virgin woman, then he must pay the full bride price and marry her and is not allowed to divorce her. Again, this seems really weird to us today. But, when put in an Ancient Middle Eastern context, it makes a lot of sense. By being raped and defiled, no other man would be able to marry her. Her honor would have been stripped from her. She would become a burden on her family and would birth no children to take care of her in her old age. It would almost be better if she were dead. But, if the man married her, then he would have to pay the full bride price (no getting off for free, here), and then would have to accept her into his home and care for her. She would be fed and have a home. And, once she had kids, her honor would be restored to her and her children could look after her thereafter. Not to mention, everyone in the city – including her Dad, brothers, uncles, etc. - would be watching the man to make sure that he never hurt her again and that she was happy and taken care of. Biblical law seems weird to us, but it's often a commentary on known ancient law that was already in place.

           Our last stop was Caesarea-Philipi. A couple of interesting thoughts from here. At Caesarea-Philipi there is a large cave that runs so deep into the ground it was often referred to as an abyss. From this “abyss” flowed a spring from the run off water of Mount Hermon. And on top of this spring was built a pagan temple to the god Pan (who looks like a goat). Now, the pagan Greco-Roman culture here, looked at this cave/abyss as the gateway to the underworld. It basically held back the things that lie below. And it is here, where Jesus asks the disciples “Who do people say that I am?" And they said,

"Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."  Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. ” (Matthew 16:13-20).

           The word that Jesus uses to call Peter the “rock” of the church, is actually the word for a pebble or a building stone. Where as, the word that He uses to describe the rock of God and the church later in the gospels, is the word for bedrock. So, in the context of being in front of this giant cliff face with an abysmal like cave carved into it, they would have known that God is the rock and the foundation of the church and the disciples are the building blocks that create it. And when Jesus speaks of “the gates of hell” he's referring to the cave. One of the reasons that pagan cultures often placed the underworld so close to them, like they did with the cave being the “gate of the underworld”, was so that they felt more comfortable with death. But Jesus is telling people that they need not fear death because there is life after death. One of the roles of a Rabbi was interpreting scripture. Whatever their interpretation of the scripture was, became factual law. When Jesus tells them that whatever they bind on earth will be bound in heave, He's telling them that they have the authority to interpret scripture because of Jesus. I never understood that passage until now.

Galilee Day 1: New Perspectives

          This weekend we had a four day trip to the Galilee, and, just as I expected, I really enjoyed myself. I don't know if I liked it as much as going to the Negev because there are so many amazing cultural and theological things to learn, but I liked it all the same. It was very relaxed.

          I started the day by attempting to take a picture of the Jordan River and discovering that my battery had not charged the night before. Good times. And the place that we stopped at needed to be opened by a gatekeeper with the key, but he never showed up. So we jumped the fence. That really was good times. We walked along the Jordan and up a hill (isn't that everywhere in Israel? Haha) to Beit-Sha'an. This city is at the junction of the Jordan River Valley and the Jezreel Valley. What that basically means is that a bunch of international trade routes cross here. Egypt was all over this place early on, before they entered an intermediate period and lost their kingdom to the Pheonicians and then the Canaanites. The most Biblically important thing that happened here was the death of Saul, Jonathan, and their men. I think most of us know this story. If not, you can check it out at 1 Samuel 31. Basically, Saul decides to go up again the Philistines here, he is no longer in God's will, and kills himself when he realizes that he's lost the battle because he doesn't want a group of uncircumcised sinners to kill him. So he falls on his sword and the Philistines take his body and hang it up on the wall of Beit Sha'an to further humiliate him and his loss. A couple of interesting things are going on here. Beit Sha'an is far into the Northern Kingdom and out of Saul's region of reign. So what is he doing here? It's been suggested that Saul was trying to unite the tribes of Israel – like David later goes on to do. So he was probably going on to do something smart for a change. Saul gets a lot of crap, but I think we should give him more credit than we do. I think he occasionally knew what he was doing. Anyways, interesting thing number 2: Why did the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead come and take down Saul's body? Jabesh-Gilead was not in Saul's kingdom. Well this ties back to Judges 21. So, there's that whole story about how Benjamin just gets utterly destroyed because they messed with a Levite's concubine and then all the tribes reigned war on Benjamin for it. It's an interesting story, if you ever have the hankering to read a slightly demented story from the Bible. Anyways, so there's this remnant of Benjamin left, after this war, and the people don't want to completely kill off the tribe of Benjamin. So they start looking to other tribes for wives. They have two options: the dancing virgins of Shilo or women from Jabesh-Gilead. All this to say that, Saul is a Benjamite. It's possible that he had a great-great-grandmother or something from Jabesh-Gilead. Another reason the people may have come and taken down his body is that Saul saved their city once. So he had some fairly positive ties with the people.

          At the foot of Beit-Sha'an was a Roman period city called Scythopolis. There wasn't a whole lot of biblically relevant things there, but it was really interesting to walk around. Maybe my favorite site to explore, other than Massada.

          Then we went to Megiddo. Two neat things about Megiddo. One: it's one of the cities that Solomon fortified during his reign. So now I've been to Gezer and Megiddo (two of the three cities). Two: In Revelations 16:16, John the Apostle writes that the “last battle” on earth will be at a place that, in Hebrew, is called “Armageddon”. Which, in Hebrew, sounds like “harmegiddo”. Basically, John took that word and transliterated it into Greek, which is how we get our word “Armageddon” today. There are a couple of problems with this, as always. “Har-megiddo” literally mean “mountain of Megiddo”, and there is no mountain at Megiddo. Also, when looking at the site, it doesn't make sense for a large battle to take place – it's large and open and would be really easy to overthrow. So one solution, and the one that probably makes the most sense, is that the “g” in “armegeddon” is a greek transliteration. This is going to be a little difficult to describe to non-Hebrew scholars, but I'll give it my best. The Greek letter gimmel (which makes the “g” sound) may not be a transliteration of the Hebrew letter “g” but of the Hebrew guttural sound “aiyn” which has not transliteration in Greek. I think the only other language that makes use of this sound are other Semitic languages like Arabic. Making the word “har mi-od” instead. Which means “the mountain of assembly” which is a phrase used often in prophetic literature to refer to Jerusalem. Fun stuff. I know that was a lot of language terms thrown around, sorry about that.

          Then we went to Mount Carmel, which is where Elijah destroyed the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18). Interesting background on this story that helps it make more sense: Baal is the fertility god of the Canaanites. He is often pictured as riding on a bull (because bulls represented pure force and power in the ancient world) or sometimes as the bull itself and has a wife, Ashura, who is perpetually pregnant – sounds fun, doesn't it girls? So anywhere that was abundantly green and well watered was associated with Baal to the Canaanites. Well, Mount Carmel is close to the coast and close to the Jezreel Valley. So it has all the Mediterranean storm weather coming in and watering it, as well as the Jezreel Valley, which is well watered by Jordan River Springs. This place is incredibly green and fertile. The Canaanites actually saw it and decided that it was Baal – ancient peoples didn't differentiate between the god and the nature the god created; to them, they are both the god. Basically, they're a bunch of nature worshipers. And here comes Elijah, representing a God that refuses to be embodied by a picture or earthly thing and claims that His unseen God is the one true one. So he comes in, and destroys the prophet's of Baal. And how does God destroy them? With fire and rain – two examples of nature. Well, King Ahab's wife, Jezebel (who's father was a priest of Baal before becoming a king, or whatever important person he was) wasn't very happy with Elijah because he's just destroyed the god that she worships and follows along with all her prophets. So she runs after him, and Elijah hides. This is where we have the story of Elijah sitting down and being overwhelmed with depression. Is it any wonder why? The God that he represents destroyed a bunch of nature worshipers with nature. I would be feeling a little doubtful too. I mean... what makes God any better if He's just going to use nature too? That's when God silences Elijah's surrounding (in a not so quiet setting) and shows Elijah that he is not in nature but is outside and above it. If there isn't a sermon in that, then I'm in the wrong field of study.

          Our last stop of the day was the Nazareth Ridge. We didn't actually go into the city because it's overrun with a Christian/Jewish population now and it's a very large city. So, we sat up on the ridge that looks over the Jezreel Valley. Nazareth, while close to the Jezreel Valley and all the Gentile cities and international trade and corrupt lifestyle of Samaria, it is not connected with any of them. The ridge just outside the city makes it almost impossible for them to be connected to anyone. And the inhabitants were priests that had left Jerusalem, because the temple had been corrupted by the Hasmonean family, and so they were living a stark conservative Jewish lifestyle while awaiting the Messiah. Mary's family was from this group of priests, and Joseph was from the tribe of Benjamin. So we get the feeling that most of the people in Nazareth weren't natives. There really aren't a whole lot of reasons to settle there, other than that there's a well. Other than that, they don't have any income from trade and it's not good for agriculture. And, from this ridge, they could literally look down on all these sinful people that were mixing with the international Gentiles and pagans. At the same time, though, a lot of their Jewish history had happened in this area. The story of Deborah and Barak in Judges, Elijah and the prophets of Baal, Saul and Jonathon’s death, and many others. So what was their worldview possibly like? Well, they're in a very isolated place. So they were probably a little xenophobic. And they lived the righteous way while they were surrounded by degradation. So maybe a little self-righteous too. And proud of what little they had. Maybe they were even seeking redemption for their purity in such surroundings. So, here comes Jesus, who then comes along. He reads them a passage from Isaiah about the coming Messiah and says “this time is now” and everyone gets excited! This is the redemption they were looking for! But Jesus tells them that he has come to save the people that are in darkness, and the Jews are thinking, “Well that's us! Our temple has been overtaken and we've been pushed to this place that is enveloped by sin.” Of course, that isn't what Jesus means, though. Who is in more darkness, but the Gentiles? And then he goes on to list how Elijah and Elisha and the prophets before him helped Gentiles, and were hated in their hometown for it. The people automatically go from loving him and believing he's the Messiah, to hating him and throwing him off the ridge. And the Bible says that Jesus just “went on his way”. Kind of puts it all into perspective, doesn't it?

Day 3: Revolts, Waterfalls, and Death

I know you all have been waiting in anxious anticipation to hear about the third day of my trip to the Negev. My favorite day of the whole trip, though there was very little learning.

We left our hotel about about 7:45 in the morning to venture down the long and winding road from modern-day Arad to the desert palace and fortress of Masada. Long and winding road it was. I don't know if I have every been that car sick in my whole life. The g-force of turning in a vehicle is too much for me to handle, and we were trekking down the side of a wilderness mountain to the area of the Dead Sea. And, of course, we left right after breakfast. Not a good way to start the day. Then we got there and had to walk up the Roman siege ramp to the top of Masada – which, I'll admit, looked a lot easier than walking up the snake path. So, for those of you who don't know about the history of Masada, let me try to briefly justify it:

We have a short biblical excerpt referring to David fleeing to “the fortress” by the Dead Sea and En-gedi when he was running from Saul and his army. Many scholars attribute the fortress to be Masada.

As you can tell from my previous posts, Herod really loved his desert palaces. Masada is one of his many. It's right next to the Dead Sea – where, obviously, there is next to no life or fresh water – and Herod, being the show off that he is, builds this huge beautiful palace with an aqueduct and plenty of fresh water. What's interesting, is that Herod likely never even visited this place. He just built the palace, supplied it with huge stores of food and water, and then never went or stayed there. It had bath houses, living quarters, store rooms, three levels, and some of the most well preserved mosaics and painted plaster that we have today.

Well, fast forward to the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 70 A.D. This is where it gets really interesting. There's this historian that we have from this time period named Josephus. Now, Josephus was a little bit of a coward, a suck-up, and greatly enjoyed exaggerating his stories, but he is still used as a great general historian for ancient times. Basically, Josephus was captured at another revolt site and, so that he wouldn't be killed, told the general of the army that he had a vision that he would one day be Caesar. So, of course, the general was like, “I like this guy”, and let him live. And Josephus was the one who recorded the events at Masada. As the story goes, a group of Jewish zealots camped out at Masada. It was the place of their last stand. Archeology shows us that they were even making plots of land to grow food, meaning that they were probably planning on holding out there for as long as possible. So the image is of all the Jewish guys on top of this mountain in an old beautiful palace with Roman soldiers camping at the bottom and building a siege ramp to the top. Josephus tells us that the Jews had so much water that they would stand on the edge of the mountain and poor water on themselves, because the Romans had to walk all the way to En-gedi for water (which I'm guessing is about 20 km.). Once the siege ramp was finished, the Romans brought their battering rams and siege chariots to the top and tried to bring down the wall, but something about how the wall was made meant that when they pressed against the wall it only hardened and became tougher. So, the Romans got smart and set the wall on fire, but the winds changed and blew back on the Romans. The Jews cheered thinking that God had saved them. Then, the winds changed again and blew back on the Jews, finally bringing down the wall. This is where the story gets a little sketchy. Josephus tells us that this event happened at night and that the Roman soldiers went back down to their camp and were to come back in the morning. That night, the leaders of the Jewish group got together and decided that they would rather die there than submit to Rome. So they wrote their names on bits of pottery and drew lots. They picked 10 men to go and kill the women and children (so that the children wouldn't be sold into slavery and so that the women wouldn't be raped by the soldiers), more men were chosen to go and kill the men who killed the families, one man would be left to kill those men, and then that last man would fall on his sword and commit suicide. Josephus says that when the Romans entered the camp in the morning, it was eerily quiet. Supposedly, then, a widowed woman and two orphaned children were found and told them the story of what happened. Here's some odd things about this story: though this wasn't your normal group of Jews, it still was unlike Jews to commit suicide; not enough skeletons were found at the site to corroborate the story; the women and children that were left behind were related to the leaders, and even though they had no immediate family to look for them to kill them it is still hard to believe that they would go unnoticed; and why would the Romans bring down the wall and then leave it there to come back in the morning when they had been trying to take down this wall for months and the whole time they were being mocked by the Jews – I would expect them to be mad! The last little piece, is that Josephus told almost the exact same story for two other sites. And, when he was captured by the Romans originally, it was because he had failed to fall on his sword and commit suicide. I'm thinking he may have been feeling guilty and so retold the story through his guilt for other sites. That being said, lots were uncovered at Masada with the names of the leaders written on them. So, who knows what really happened?

If you can't tell, Masada was my favorite site. There's still preserved original paint and mosaic there! And it's beautiful. I decided that if I was going to hide anywhere in the Negev, it would be Masada.

From Masada, we went to En-gedi. En-gedi is a desert Oasis across from the dead sea. Imagine miles of dry hot land, and along the most dry and dead part of it there is a spring of living, green, wet goodness. There's no good way to express how truly amazing it is. Waterfalls of cool fresh water and plant life surrounding it. Scholars also say that David probably stopped here when fleeing from Saul – and what a better place to flee to? Absolutely beautiful. So we stopped there, at lunch, and swam around in the springs.

Then we went to the Dead Sea. What a difference! To go from cold living water to the lowest and most dead place on Earth. I didn't really want to swim in the Dead Sea, but everyone talked me into doing it. I'm glad I did. It was worth trying once. I didn't know this previously, but when you swim in the Dead Sea, you just float. Due to all the minerals, nothing can physically sink in its waters. I can only equate the feeling of it to swimming in kerosene. It was luke warm and kind of thick and oily. If you didn't know that you had any cuts on your body before, you do as soon as you step in the water. I was suddenly acutely aware of some scratches on my legs and arms. Highly uncomfortable. I stayed in for about five or ten minutes and then took a twenty minute shower, haha. It was interesting. I think my skin is still dried out from the experience.

Our last stop was at Qumran, which I would have been much more excited about had I not still felt so uncomfortable from the Dead Sea water. It was enjoyable to walk through the little town there and see the caves.

This weekend I have another field study. We're going to Galilee to visit places like Damascus, Capernaum, and Nazareth. It'll be cold there! I'm pretty excited.