Peter, Paul, and...Jesus?

We dubbed today St. Peter day because we were just all over St. Peter sites today. First, we went to Capernaum, the main hub for the ministry of Jesus. There is a synagogue there and Peter's house is also there. How do we know it was Peter's house? Well, we don't people, just shut up and keep reading! Ha! We really don't, as with most of these sites. But, it's fun to think that at least we were close to where Jesus and the disciples walked, even if it's not the exact spot. We were at least in the same city!

After Capernaum we went to the traditional site of the feeding of the 5000, where that really cool Byzantine mosaic is located. You know the one, it's everywhere - there are two fishes and a basket. If you don't know it, I'll post my picture of it and you'll go, "ohhhhhhhh yeah, that one!"

We then walked over to the site of the great catch of fish in John 21. You remember the story, right? The disciples are out there fishing, the resurrected Jesus says, "hey you bozos throw your net on the other side of the boat" (the Van Smith translation). They do, and lo and behold they catch a whooooole lot of fish. Yes, believe it or not, someone decided where that spot is located! They call it the Primacy of Peter site, because in that story Peter is seen as the prime disciple. Or, something like that. People have waaaaaay too many theories about this stuff.

After that we went on a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee where the disciples fished. Mostly Peter, James, and John. Yet another Peter place! I must admit, it was pretty surreal to be out on the same sea as Christ and the disciples. Just awesome! No one walked on water though, so that was a little disappointing.

We then ate lunch, and of course we just had to eat some St. Peter's fish! That's the main fish from the Sea of Galilee. It was farm raised, but hey, at least we ate it by the sea!

My favorite site of the day was after lunch at Beit She'an. What an incredible site! Honestly, I'd never heard of the place, but I'm SO glad we went there! This is the largest ancient city we've been to on our trip. After digging down through the tel, it is apparent that the site has been occupied since at least 5000 BC! Juuuuuuuust let that sink in for a second...I said that's over 7000 years ago people! When we climbed to the top of the tel, I was amazed to find hieroglyphs from the Egyptian period.

The Greco-Roman city thrived there for hundreds of years after the first century, so the city was quite large. It has many columns, a bath house, and an amphitheater that is still mostly in tact. They even do live shows there today it's so well preserved. The site is very close to the Jordan river. So, since I was there, does that mean I was Van down by the river?

Tonight we heard a mini-sermon from our professor where we are staying, which is on the mountain where the sermon on the mount took place. And, appropriately enough, we read the sermon on the mount! The fascinating part about the sermon is that Jesus completely changes how we as people should understand power. We hear power and think of military might and physical strength, or perhaps someone who is boisterous and speaks with power. Jesus says, nah, real power, which comes from God, is about meekness, gentleness, and peacemaking. It's not that those things are weak. On the contrary, those things take incredible strength to accomplish. At the end of the sermon on the mount Christ says to seek first the kingdom of God. How do we do that? By being more Christlike - with humility, meekness, by bringing peace, and by thirsting for justice/righteousness.

OK, on to the pictures. That's the only reason you came anyway... Oh, and here's some music for your listening pleasure. Appropriate line in this song. You'll see if you listen closely.

 Ohhhhhhhh, now I understand. Reading the first 4 gospels didn't spell it out for me, but this sign does! Thanks city of Capernaum! You're a lifesaver! 

What is believed to be the house of Peter. For some reason, people build churches on/over every freaking site, which is really annoying! I don't think Peter's house deserves veneration. But I digress...

The synagogue at Capernaum. Now, now, settle down people, it didn't look like this in the first century. This is from the fifth century. Byzantines FTW!

I found this mosaic leaned up against a wall behind some shed. Hey Earl, where should we store this 1500 year old mosaic? Oh Billy Bob, just lean it up against that shed over there. But hey, I like it because it has a heart shaped flower. And heart shaped flowers are awesome!

Alright, alright, there ya go. The famous mosaic of the fish and loaves from Tabgha. Now do you remember it? It's probably the most famous Christian mosaic. This is the best picture I could get, because they don't let you go anywhere near it! I had to hold the camera above my head to take this one. This is from a Byzantine era church from around the 300s. Yay Byzantines! 

The entire floor of the Tabgha church is mosaic. I really love this border. 

The church was rather small, so it wasn't all it was quacked up to be. 

Need another song? Here you go. My kids and I listen to this song A LOT! And all three of us sing it at the top of our lungs when we do! 

See? The whole church floor is a mosaic! It's about the life in the sea, which is right outside. That snake looks poisonous! Fly away little crane, fly away!!!

The Sea of  Galilee! I was literally standing in the water. 

Same crane from the mosaic? I say yes. Fly away little crane, fly away! 

Or could it be the holy crane of St. Peter? 

Perhaps the crane didn't fly, but I did! I CAN FLY!!! 

Oh I forgot to mention we saw this 2000 year old boat that some person found in the Sea of Galilee. It dates to the first century. It was stuck down in the mud for 2000 years. Awesome! I kid you not, it's made of 12 different kinds of wood. Do with that what you will.

OK, on to my favorite site, Beit She'an! 

The amphitheater! How awesome is this?! I was standing up on top of it. Probably shouldn't have been up there, but, you know how photogs are ;-) 

The side of the stage of the amphitheater. Now that's just cool!

Walking down the Cardo (main street) of the ancient city. The Romans called it Scythopolis. As you can see, in typical Greco-Roman style, there are columns on either side of the street. Corinthian style on the right and Ionic style on the left. Also, there are sidewalks on both sides, laid out in mosaic, just like we already saw in Sepphoris (if you read that blog that is). You can see behind is the tel, or mound of civilization that dates back from 5000 BC. That's a lot of layers of civilization! 

The Cardo from above. I'm standing just on top of the hill, right next to the entrance of the amphitheater. You can see the sidewalks clearly in this picture. 

As you get to the end of the Cardo, you'll find the cross street called the Decumanus. As you can see, they leave some of the city as they found it so you can see what it looked like when they found it. Those columns all stood originally on the left side of this street. The entire city was destroyed in one fell swoop in the mid-700s by a giant earthquake. 

For this picture I simply turned around from the above picture. The Cardo is now on my right and the Decumanus is straight ahead. Those columns are from the ancient temple built for Dionysus. 

One of the tops of the columns from the temple, a Corinthian style. 

I'm now looking straight down the Decumanus toward the Cardo. Now, look closer. There's a column on the left that has fallen. It's connected to that arch. Follow the arch around and it's connected to the next column, and so forth and so on. The entire structure fell straight down and landed almost as it would have been standing up! 

Remember those giant columns from the picture above? From the temple? I'm now looking down the Cardo from the opposite side and the temple is in front (the staircases). 

What the temple would have looked like.

I climbed up the tel behind the city and took this of the Cardo. The temple is on the bottom left.

Hieroglyphs found on top of the tel from 1500 BC of Ramses III. Incredible!

 The sun was directly behind this Ionic style column. Photo op! 

This concludes our broadcast day. 

Arabian Nights

So I've had the opening song to the movie Aladdin stuck in my head all day long today! My children have made me watch Aladdin at least a thousand times. Not only that, but they also make me listen to the soundtrack in the car wherever we go. And of course, like any good father, I just have to sing along with them. At the top of my lungs. I mean, it's not like I know most of the words anyway...well, ok, I know all of the words. The other day I was listening to my headphones on the bus, and my player was on shuffle. I got about half-way through the "genie song" (as the kids call it) before I realized that I'm a grown man listening to the genie song! Ha!

Why am I singing the opening song to Aladdin? Because IT'S HOT!!! The heat really is intense! That's why! Other than that, I've got nothing else to say for myself. Aw who am I kiddin, Aladdin is awesome! And let's face it, you definitely ain't never had a friend like me! Now if I only had that lamp and a magic carpet...and a talking monkey. And that beautiful princess...but I digress...

If you know me really well, you know for a fact that you've definitely never had a friend like me for real! I apparently dropped my overnight bag in the parking lot yesterday. They brought it in during dinner, and I grabbed it. The Dean was sitting at my table and he said, "Van, that's your bag?" I said, sure it is. I know so because check it out - I then proceeded to pull out my "redneck teeth" from the bag and put them in and look around at everyone as if there was nothing at all wrong. Ha! He said, "Van, you are absolutely crazy, you know that? You're crazy!" I mean, who else do you know that carries redneck teeth, not only in their overnight bag, but all the way to Israel? This guy, that's who!

I have absolutely NOTHING interesting or thought provoking tonight for you people. Uh, my bad. However, I do have a lot of interesting pictures of my goings on today. Hazor, Tel Dan, some beautiful waterfall, and Caesarea Philippi filled my day with gladness, so I shall fill yours with, uh, something or other. I'm trying to keep one step ahead of you people. Or is it one jump ahead? Well, oh look, here's some pictures, and here's some lovely music to listen whilst you view. I hope these pictures move you!

This is Hazor, an ancient Canaanite city that is thousands of years old. Solomon fortified the city during his reign. This is one of the oldest sites we have visited so far. Why do they call these places "tel"? Because it's an artificial mound of stuff. See that dirt on top? Or that field across from this ruin? That's what it looks like without digging. Then you start digging and the further you dig down, the further back in time you go. So, the bottom layer is thousands of years old. People for centuries would find an abandoned city and build their new city on top of it. This is exactly what Solomon did at Hazor. 

Our next stop was Tel Dan, another ancient Canaanite city that was refortified by the Hebrews. There is a natural spring there that just pops out of the mountain! The water is crystal clear and very cold. It's awesome! 

This is the fortified city part of Tel Dan. You can see the really large round-ish stones, those are the Canaanite walls. Up the wall there you can see some square ones, those are the Hebrew additions to refortify the wall. That stone on the ground laid out there was the "parking lot" for chariots that pulled up to the gate. Did they have to pay by the hour? 

This is a giant stone used for as the olive press in order to get the oil. This was found at Ceasarea Phillippi, our next stop. 

When you're in the desert, water is of the utmost importance. But Van, I see trees! Yes you do, because at the foot of that giant cave there is a huge spring! This is right beside the ancient city of Ceasarea Phillippi. You have water, you can have a city.

The spring. It's huge! The water is crystal clear and very cold here too. Simply amazing. It's about 110 in the air, and the water is very cold. Awesome! Let's go for a swim! Wait, you can't because you'll get arrested! Against the law here. Dog....

Look! The water just comes out of the ground, right out of the rocks here! I wonder, I'm in the Holy Land, right? Is this Holy Water then? 

Remember that cave? Well, the ancients built a little temple area to the Greek gods here around the end of the 1st century. Some of the stuff is laying around, like this column. There are also some temple areas carved right into the cliff. 

Like this one...

A close-up of the one above...

Or this one...All of these are either to Pan or Zeus. I mean, take your pick right? Wine god or the god, whichever. There was even a temple to the sacred goats. Yes, goats. 

From the caves at Ceasarea Phillippi, you can walk down that spring, which turns into a river and find this along the way! How awesome is this?! A beautiful waterfall in the desert. Talk about a change in temperature. It was downright cool under the trees down by the river. This is Banyas waterfall. 

UH-MAZING! I was getting wet, and I loved every second of it! 

The base of Banyas falls. 

How's this for a view? This is the view from the top of the falls. So you have an idea of where this is - that is Lebanon behind me, and to the right is Syria. This site is in the Golan Heights, very close to both borders. Since this was a war-zone not too long ago, there are mine fields all around here, marked with barbed wire fencing. Don't go in there! 

I Have Seen the Top of the Mountain

People I'm not gonna lie to you - this place is HOT! I'm in the middle of a desert I tell you! And yet, even in this desert I am amazed at how many flowers there are. How in the world do these flowers grow with no rain for months? Well I'm not sure, I just know it's bizarre.

Today we traveled from Jerusalem up to the Sea of Galilee area. We took a look at the city of Sepphoris, and it was spectacular! There are tons of mosaic floors around the entire city. Almost every house we came to had a mosaic floor. There was one particular house where the mosaic was humongous. On one side of it was "the beautiful woman," which most people refer to as the Mona Lisa of Galilee, because she's not necessarily smiling, but she's pretty. And by the way, who in their right mind thinks that Mona Lisa is pretty? But I digress...

Sepphoris = awesomeness. I finally had to stop taking pictures of the mosaics, because they were everywhere. Even the sidewalks were mosaic! The U2 song Where the Streets Have No Name (go ahead and click on the link, because you know you're already singing the song in your head you might as well hear it :) wouldn't apply in this place, because the street were named by mosaics on the sidewalk. Awesome!

Coincidentally, Sepphoris was probably the place where Joseph and Jesus worked, because it's right across the hill from Nazareth where they lived. Sepphoris was being built by Herod Antipas (Herod the Great's son) during Jesus' lifetime and it required tons of workers. They probably would have worked there, seeing as how (and I warn you, I'm about to ruin your childhood) they were craftsman. Carpenters? Not likely. The Greek word actually means craftsman (go ahead and cry, you know you just died a little on the inside ;-). This is a desert people! I haven't seen a real tree in about 500 miles (besides Olive Trees which are very small). Just where in the world are Jesus and Joseph going to work as carpenters with no wood?! Everything in this entire country is made of stone. So, most likely, Jesus and Joseph were stone craftsman who helped build Sepphoris (go ahead, stick your head between your legs and cry like a baby).

We then went to the cliffs of Arbel, which overlooks the Sea of Galilee. I have four words for you people - in cred i ble. The view is spectacular! You can see the entire Sea from high above, from beginning to end. Absolutely breathtaking! Speaking of cliffs, if you've read my blogs before, you know that me and heights..well, we just don't see eye to eye. Imagine standing 1000 feet above pretty much anything with no rails and looking down. Fear just doesn't describe that feeling; however, I got that picture dangit! You see what I go through for you people? I put my life on the line! I'm out on the front lines taking it! I strike fear in the hearts...ok, I took that metaphor too far. But you get the picture. Scared.to.death! But the pictures and the view were WELL worth it!

We made our way down to Galilee, and it is absolutely a completely different world! This is the place where the majority of Christ's ministry took place. We are staying on the Mount of Beatitudes, which is the site where Jesus mostly likely gave the Sermon on the Mount. It overlooks the Sea of Galilee and it is one amazing view. There are gardens on the site, a convent, and a chapel. We walked around in the garden tonight after dinner, and it was amazing what we didn't hear! Unlike Bethlehem and Jerusalem, there were few lights, it was cool with a nice breeze, there were no car horns, no dogs barking, no idiots yelling in the street - what we heard was the birds and silence.

Can you imagine for Christ and his 12 disciples (or was it 11?) what it must have been like to go up to Jerusalem after sending 3 years in this paradise? Peace and quiet turned into madness! Except that we took the opposite route, and now we're peaceful. Which reminds me of my relationship with Christ. How many times in our lives have we been in a place where all we hear is background noise? Horns, people screaming, dogs barking - and then Christ brings us into a place of peace. I walked around the premises tonight by myself and it was serene. I needed that peace and quiet after 2 weeks of hustle and bustle. That same truth applies to our lives no matter where we are. Christ takes the hustle and bustle and makes it quiet again. He gives us peace in the midst of life's insanity. Remember that as you pray today and ask for peace. Shalom ya'll.

The amphitheater at Sepphoris

 The view from the amphitheater. Sepphoris is set on top of a mountain, so the views were incredible. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden! 

This is the entire ginormous mosaic I mentioned earlier. Near the bottom center you can see the beautiful woman. The entire mosaic is a story about Dionysus, the Greek wine god. 

The beautiful woman/Mona Lisa of Galilee. Ain't she purdy?

This is the Cardo (the main street) in Sepphoris. You can see the ruts in the rocks from the wagon/chariot wheels. Also, look on both sides of the road - those are the sidewalks, and both of them are completely made up of mosaic tiles all the way down. How long did that take to lay down?! 

The mosaic sidewalk. Amazing!

Close-up of one of the mosaics in a random house. Each house is like this! As you can see, the floors on all sides of this house are mosaics as well. Serious craftsmanship at work!

Close-up from the "Nile Room." I put this one up because this comes from a humongous mosaic depicting life around the Nile river. You probably recognize that Greek word up there, right? Yes, it says "AMAZON" 

My favorite mosaic from the Nile House is the Centaur! How awesome is that?

Looking out over the city of Sepphoris. Every single house has a mosaic practically, so you can see how many there are!

Looking out over the Sea of Galilee from the Cliffs of Arbel. Stunning!

Another view. Across the Sea is Jordan.

The cliffs! I literally leaned out over the rocks to take this picture. Scared me to death! Terrified! But hey, I'm the photog for the group, I simply have to get the picture. To me these were the cliffs of insanity!!!