Christian Jerusalem
We first went to a Franciscan church which had a nativity set up on the left as we first entered. It was a nice place with different colored marbles pillars. Of course like all Catholic or related branches it had the 14 stations of the cross on the sides (These). Our professor pointed out that the 1st of the 4 advent candles had been lit that previous Sunday (one candle for each Sunday till Christmas). An unconfirmed thing was said that Orson Hyde stayed at the hostel which is a part of this church. I asked a professor what was meant by a symbol I had scene at several of the churches we've been to. Turns out it was the Franciscan Crossed arm symbol - The Franciscans being the appointed Custodians of the Holy Land. So that was cool.
Next was a pretty cool experience actually. Mind you these are all within the Old City walls. All locations I'd walked by many times. This site was in a random door which I know I'd never thought to go inside. Our group went up and inside a small simple one room church. A Syrian women explained the long tradition she and many Syrian Christians have of holding to Aramaic the language which Christ likely spoke during his life. She sang the Lords prayer in Aramaic to us - it was amazing. This church had a downstairs room which was supposed to be the upper room of the last supper.
We went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre A sight I have been to on my own twice before we came here as a group. Though I did understand a bit more about the church from the guided tour. This church is built around where there used to be tombs and where there used to be a Rock thought to be Golgotha. Both are still there but they are substantially covered up by the church itself you see. The tomb where Christ is said to have laid was cut around and exposed so that it was more like a tomb room - then a grand church built around it (within the larger building). So it's hard to picture that there were tombs here etc. but I got a little more of a sense that its actually as likely as a spot for his crucifixion and burial as any other place. I just wish whoever built it had retained more of the actual layout rather than what they did. A different church we also went to preserves the remains of the gate which apparently is the one Christ may have gone through if we accept the Holy Sepulchre as the place of his burial.
Then finally for this day we went to a church to sing some hymns. There was a sweet garden area that was very lovely.
The next day we had the sweet experience of going to the Orson Hyde park and consecrating some oil for the healing of the sick. I learned that not just Orson but many apostles and prophets have been at that very spot. Very interesting stuff. Also I read part of the prayer that Orson had originally prayed there as recorded in a letter back to the Saints who were not yet in Utah.
Then Post Second Temple Stuffs
This happens to be our last full day field trip. Our first stop was Masada where a sect of Jews, the Sicarii - nasty bunch, during the Revolts took up their last stand and in a final battle with the Romans ultimately lost a horrible loss of the Romans breaking through their wall (which was thought impossible). This causes illogically those Jews to commit suicide rather than to become the slaves of those Romans. Apparently there is a movie of this battle and apparently it's a big deal but I sadly had not seen it. This entire city is on a plateau and that is why it was thought to be impenetrable. We went up to it not through the hike but instead took a gondala all the way up. Mine was the first group through and so at the top and around a corner we all pretended to be dead trying to imitate the scene the Romans must have seen coming and and finding all of these Jews dead. We went to Herod's palace at this location and it had some beautiful vistas. though there was really hardly anything left of the palace. I happened to see a byzantine church there and it was a pretty cool site.
Next was a wonderful experience in the dead sea. Listen it has more than salt in that water. In Madaba there is a ancient mosaic depicting happy fish near the Sea of Galilee but then a sad fish swimming away from the Dead Sea - perhaps a better name for the Sea would be the Sea of Death. Anyways I had a time using no effort to stay afloat. Sometimes I would freak out and think I needed to tread water for some reason but I totally didn't need to. You see you float no matter if you want to or not you can situate your body straight up and you will not sink - no movement necessary. It's hard to imagine. I look at the pictures I have of our group there and they're smiling for the picture and all. Truth is though they all are in absolute terror of getting the slightest bit of water in their eyes or mouth or anything else. Because the water literally hurts you if you do get it any of these places. I never would have associated the water in these pictures with pain before this experience. Anyway... if you're ever around the dead sea I would definitely recommend you take a dip. It was interesting for all its lack of enjoyableness. Haha
Next we went to a Nature preserve named En Gedi which was cool. it had lots of small waterfalls - I saw some Ibex and some more rock bunnies. There was this awesome waterfall at the end - super cool. But there on the left are some caves said to be the caves in which one of them Saul was hiding from david and had his skirt cut by him.
Finally we stopped at Qumran - an awesome site because of it's view of one of the caves where some of the scrolls were found. There was a short video at the beginning which mainly raised then shot down but left the argument opened about that John the Baptist might be associated with these Essennes. It's just a theory really and I don't know if it's true at all but to each their own. We saw where they copied tons of scripture and where they ate in total sacred silence. Also there were many mivkots all throughout that area so they could ritually purify themselves. Pretty awesome if you ask me. That was that. Have a good one ~
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