Jan 13, 2020 | Nancy’s Holy Land Trip 2019-20, Uncategorized
On the Northeast side of the Sea of Galilee, we are entering the area of the Golan Heights…where all the conflict was happening round about the 1990s, among other times. There are still mine field signs right by the road, so one doesn’t want to go wandering off on one’s own just there. Yikes!
This area is east of Capernaum, where Jesus began his ministry, where Peter’s house was, and the first church there, etc. This is the place were there were tombs that were roamed by the wretched refuse of society, like for instance the demon-possessed man. There were no chains that could hold him, and he was quite the public nuisance, so they banished him to this area on the northeast side of the Sea of Galilee. If a young archaeologist were inclined to search among the minefields of this area, perhaps remnants of the tombs would be found, but as it is, no one is going to go poking around up in these hills for the ancient burial sites that are indicated to be there by Scripture.
If you remember the story of the demon possessed man that Jesus healed from Mark 5:1-20, you might remember that the demons that were possessing him were many, and they called themselves “Legion.” Legion begged Jesus not to send them to the pit, and instead asked to be driven into a nearby herd of pigs which then ran off a cliff and were drowned. This is the area that this happened in. The exact hill is not known, but it is not hard to imagine this story when you see this landscape.
It is steep, and a drop-off straight to the water. The green grassy area at the bottom of this hill would have been underwater at the time of Jesus, as the water level is lower than usual now. Right by where we stopped to look over this cliff, there were the remnants of an old bunker used by snipers to shoot at local fisherman, nice, huh.
Here is Evan standing on top of the bunker.
And there is your random land mine warning sign. This area was cleared as an overlook, but…you know…not something you see every day.
For some perspective, from this lookout on the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee, we can see where we were this morning, Mt Arbel…the drop-off seen across the water.
How pretty is that!
So to wrap it up for this site…Mark 5:20 speaks of the healed man telling his story in the Decapolis. The Decapolis is a collection of 10 cities of this region, all a part of the Roman Empire and ruled by Herod the Great, and then his sons: Herod Antipas, Phillip the Tetrarch, and Herod Archelaus. One of those cities of the Decapolis is Hippus or Sussita which is the area of Kursi, right where we were standing, and another is Bet She’an…you’ll hear more about that spot later…stay tuned!
Jan 13, 2020 | Nancy’s Holy Land Trip 2019-20
We get off the bus and enter the walkway down towards the Sea of Galilee…another site built right by the water.
We are immediately greeted by peacocks and other migratory birds as we’re walking toward the spot where we will eat our box lunches picnic style.
Of course, Evan and I aren’t as hungry as we were after the Pizza Hut yummies, but we enjoyed the scenery immensely and shared some of our tastier morsels with the local feline contingent. They were most grateful. All in all, a beautiful place for a picnic.
Pastor might have been trying to engage the peacocks…
And check this out, like the biggest Ficus I’ve ever seen.
Then we walk this cool almost like tunnel of flora and fauna to the entrance of the Orthodox Church on the grounds here.
If you remember the last Orthodox Church we visited, they are characterized by artwork on every possible surface.
An entrance like this…opens into a room like this.
Eitan explained to us that on the wall that only the priest can enter, the first picture on the left will be Mary, the first picture on the right will be Jesus. The second picture on the right will be John the Baptist, and the second picture on the left will depict the person or group specifically being honored by this particular church. In this case, it was the 12 disciples. This church was a Russian Orthodox, which means they will speak Russian for the liturgy and it will be the same worldwide. Same for a Greek Orthodox. I didn’t know that.
I was particularly intrigued by this story of satan depicted…
The red river flowed to hell (the part behind the nun). The part in the shadow of the door looked like this…
That is satan with Judas on his lap, about to be eaten. Very graphical story-telling. There was a man and what appeared to be his son in the church while we were there. Eventually, we were able to glean that he was actually receiving last rites. It was moving to see, but had we known what was happening, we would have gladly left them in peace for this. Still an active church, on such beautiful grounds.
Next up is a drive around the north end of the Sea of Galilee toward the Golan Heights near the Jordanian border. We would ultimately drive all the way around the Sea, but we were able to make a stop near Kursi. What happened here? Keep reading….
Jan 13, 2020 | Nancy’s Holy Land Trip 2019-20
I was surprised by just how moving this place was for me. When we were told where we were going, I thought it would be neat, but we really have seen a lot of ancient ruins by now, and they all look kinda the same. The story is what makes them so special. This place was different for me though. The ancient ruins we saw here, along with the story of course, were really special for me. Yes, I cried. I’m welling up just telling you all the story.
We pull up in the parking lot and get off the bus.
Eitan takes care of our entrance into the area, and we walk in and sit down on this big stair-step like seating area. This is a new place even for pastor, as this is a recent find. A builder wanted to build a hotel on the Sea of Galilee shores, and (nightmare for Israeli builders…) they run into ancient ruins. This means that the government will come in and just take the land away, halting building for archaeologists to assess what is there, and ultimately usually changing everything the builder had planned. It’s good for us though, because of what they found. The ancient city of Magdala, modern day Migdal, is really cool.
So we sit in the seating area facing none other than the ancient synagogue. In front of us there is a huge stone (replica) encased in glass. 
This is like the logo of Magdala.
Check the menorah on the end. We know because of the three feet on the base that this is a picture of the menorah from the first temple…meaning, OLD. This is the teaching stone from the synagogue. In ancient times, the synagogue wasn’t a place of worship. It was more like a community center where people who traveled through the town could stop and teach and talk about other parts of the world and bring new ideas to a community. There was two rooms in this synagogue, one that could hold maybe 15-20 people, and another that could hold maybe 30 or so, with an open area with the teaching stone and seating around the edges. Check it out.
You can see the first smaller room closest to the camera, and the teaching stone in the further, larger room toward the back. The walls and all the seating here are original. The original teaching stone was taken to the Israeli museum. Our guide Eitan says that of all the places in the Holy Land, of all the historical and traditional places that things happened, that this is the place we can be most rest-assured that Jesus was, and where Jesus stood. He would have taught here, right by this teaching stone in the synagogue of Magdala, for sure. I can imagine Mary Magdalene hearing the new teaching coming from her synagogue, and the redemption she heard in His healing words. I was so moved here…see, it’s making me cry again. I can’t give any better explanation than that for the power this stop held for me.
Another thing that I thought was kinda cool. There are many anti-bird tactics being used to keep birds out of the synagogue area for obvious reasons. These birds were not deterred.
You can kinda see all the little pins up there to keep them from landing. And here too.
They were right above and beside the teaching stone. It’s so funny, because that was the only place there was birds, like they wanted to be close to Jesus’ spot! I’d want to be close to Jesus too! Silly, but I thought it was interesting anyway.
On the other side of the synagogue was a Main Street with shops. One of the shops was a fish salting market. After all, Magdala was a fishing town right on the Sea of Galilee. There were small bowl-like ruins found out front of the store, to show what was for sale.
And there were bigger holding tank-like troughs inside the store.
Very cool to see this aspect of the lives of those who lived here then.
Back behind the ruins was built, of course, a church. Since this is a modern find, it is a modern church…and beautiful in it’s own way.
There are 4 small chapels on the main floor, each with it’s own mosaic depiction of a bible story. Here is the healing of Jairus’s daughter, that happened just down the road in Capernaum. Connecting the 4 chapels was one large foyer kind of area with a fount in it.
You can see a couple of pillars in this picture. There were 6 of these pillars, 5 of which had the names of important women in Jesus life, like, of course, Mary Magdalene. 
One of the pillars was blank. Our guide Eitan explained that this is for all women, who are so important to Jesus. Reminds me of a chapter of a book I read called “Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes” that talks about how much Jesus cared for and provided for women in His life and in His Word. Well, ya, of course I cried…you’re getting the theme here, right?
Here’s me with my pillar. : )
On the other end of the foyer was a beautiful sanctuary.
Behind the boat was a pool, what do you call that when the edge of the pool is not visible….zero-something. Right behind it is the Sea of Galilee. So so so beautiful. On the walls were paintings of each of the 12 disciples. Interesting to see how they portrayed Judas compared to the others.
No halo, looking down and forlorn, and carrying his 30 pieces of silver.
In the basement of this space was another worship area, modern and beautiful, with the nicest bathrooms we saw all trip, by the way. Check out this backdrop.
The story of the woman who touched Jesus garment for healing. This mural was taller than a person and a eighth of the way around a circular room. Very cool.
That pretty much sums up our excursion into Ancient Magdala. Did you like it? Mmm. One of my favorites for sure. After we left here, we did the supermarket and Pizza Hut, and then headed down the road to Orthodox Capernaum.
Jan 13, 2020 | Nancy’s Holy Land Trip 2019-20
I can’t remember if I talked about Mr Arbel on the first day we toured or not. We walked along the valley on day 1 I believe, looking up at the caves that people lived in, in Jesus’ time. Bedouins and Jews lived in the mountains between Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee. I mean IN the mountains. Check this out.
These holes in the rock face are caves. We were hoping to be able to hike to see them on this day, but the weather was uncooperative. As it was, for me this was a blessing, because I never would have made the hike with how I was feeling. Two hours hiking straight up would not have happened for me. So at the end of the day, of Day 2 now as I go through my pictures to find this shot, we saw Mt Arbel from the bottom.
On Day 9, Hasim, our stellar driver, drove us to near the top of Mt Arbel. Wow, what a view.
Here’s another view of it as we approached in the bus.
Then we parked the bus and climbed the black trail with the orange dot…we know what that means, Jesus trail…to the top of the mountain. Look at this view.
This is the northern end of the Sea of Galilee.
This is a nearby peak called “the Horns of Wheat.” One of two “horns”, if I’m remembering correctly. 
You can also see Mt Tabor, the Mount of the Transfiguration, from here.
There’s me and my sweet boy with Mt Tabor in the background. This trip is easily the most agreeable to being photographed he’s been in his entire life.
So in this picture, if you look closely at my shadow where my shoulder is, you’ll see a brown spot…that is a cooney. That’s what they call them. It’s a kind of rodent looking critter that roams around up there on the rocks. Our guide Eitan tells us that genetically they are related to elephants, but I think they look more like brown over-sized guinea pigs. I’ll see if Evan has a better picture of them than I do, I’m sure he will, he was quite enamored with them.
This is our guide, Eitan, giving us a history and geography lesson. We also had a devotion and some time to sit and reflect alone with God in nature in this breathtaking environment. Yes, I cried. I cried every time I got time enough to think about what was happening and where I was. Sakes.
On the way down to the bus, we noticed this mosaic mural depicting what happened here in the time of the Romans. Sad story. The Jews that were living in the mountain were not going to give in to Roman rule so easily, and they fought them. This mountain with its system of caves was a fortress and not easy for the Romans to attack. Ultimately, the way they found to attack the people living in the mountain was to lower their best soldiers over the side of the mountain from the top, from where we had just been standing, and attack them from above. The story goes that the people of the village would rather die than be captured and sold as slaves (the fate of the women and children) or killed, (the fate of the men) and so this father threw all 14 of his children off the mountain to their deaths before jumping himself. I cannot imagine.
Here is the example rebuilt to show how the Romans got their soldiers down the face of the mountain. Lowering wooden baskets of soldiers via a lever and pulley system. Eitan says that people who enjoy rappelling and rock climbing claim this as the first time known that humans rappelled off the top of a mountain.
The pace of the hike extension slowed dramatically from the previous touring pace. We still saw lots, but were able to take some time at some locations and spend time reflecting, praying, and listening to God. I enjoyed that aspect quite a bit. This was a beautiful place to rest and revel in God’s awesome creation.
Our next stop still stands out, after seeing everything we saw, as one of my top three stops. Migdal. Ancient Magdala, as in Mary Magdalene. Wow.
Jan 12, 2020 | Nancy’s Holy Land Trip 2019-20
What a busy day, Day 9! Lots of cool stuff to talk about today. One of the highlights was off the tour path…Pizza Hut! After a busy morning of touring, we got to stop at an Israel supermarket. Evan and I got some cereal, some Coke, and some Oreos to get a little taste of home. Right about now we were getting a little home-sick for some American food. I must admit, it will be awhile before I buy hummus again.
This was an unexpected, fun treat. We enjoyed seeing what grocery shopping is like near the town of Migdal, just over the hill from Tiberias.
Random sheep thing by the trash can. He’s cute!
And then…Evan spotted the Pizza Hut and couldn’t resist.
He got three slices, but with my money, so he had to share one. Best piece of pizza I ever had. Not because it was anything special, just because we were so hungry for it! And coupled with the Coke and Oreos we got from the grocery store….oh man. That was sooooo tasty!
Yet they had this dish pictured on the wall. Maybe it’s just a picture of toppings, now that I look at it.
We had lunch after our Pizza Hut yummies not long after that at the Orthodox Capernaum. We had many new friends interested in what we didn’t want to eat. Evan the cat-whisperer was in his element. Awww. Cute putty tat. She brought several of her friends over for snacks as well.
OK, time to get busy describing this busy, and beautiful, tour day!
