It was a hot one today in Israel! Traveling with a group from Norway, it was easy to see their melting point, which came about three this afternoon in the heat of the day. It was well into the nineties, and everything Biblically significant suddenly wasn’t nearly as important as jumping into a cool pool, which thankfully, our hotel provided.
We started off our day today, “walking on water” as Kaleb said, since technically, we were walking on a boat that was on the water. There are a lot of boat companies that take tourists out on the Sea of Galilee because of it’s obvious Biblical significance but also to demonstrate the type of fishing via net casting mentioned in many Bible stories. We were out there a good long while and even stopped and just worshiped God with singing. It helped that the captain and his crew had musical instruments on board and were also accomplished singers. The boat captain has been doing these tours for decades and after hearing so many people praying and singing to the Lord while out on the boat, he actually thought there might be something to the whole Christianity thing, and he made a choice to follow Christ, so he was a cool guy to hang with for a while. He’s converted many popular Christian songs to Hebrew words, so we sang some of those today – and I bought his CD so I can try again at home. He says he’s the only Christian boat company on the lake. Being out on that lake was fairly surreal while we sang praises to our Lord. Very memorable, for sure.
The boat trip took us to the far north end of the lake – to a new museum at the water’s edge that’s been built since I was here in 1996. Back then, the “Jesus Boat” had just been discovered under the mud of the “Sea” because of a draught situation. It’s planks were finally sticking out after two millennium. They had just excavated the boat fifteen years ago but now have built an appropriate shrine over it and they show a pretty good movie they made while trying to get it up out of the muck. The gift store there does a good bit of business, too. The boat is from the days of Jesus so it’s easier to visualize all those Bible stories about Jesus being in a boat.
I asked out tour guide about what happens when people buy land they hope to build on, but then discover ancient ruins under the surface. It’s easy to believe something could be found around here, no matter where someone dug a hole. He said the government employs a fleet of archeologists that go to every site that’s been given a permit, just to check on it, because even though they are required to stop construction if they find something, no one ever does because there is just too much to be found. So the archeologists just try to determine if the site is “significant” before it gets totally destroyed and they might do an emergency dig to see what they can salvage, or if it’s significant enough, they will stop the construction altogether and the land owner loses out.
At the northern most end of the Sea of Galilee there are some remains of the many little towns mentioned in the Bible. The only still-alive town, of course, is Tiberias, where we are staying. It was built when Jesus was 19, so he was certainly here, but the Bible never says so. It’s odd it’s the only one still standing.
The bus drove us from the boat museum just up the hill to the Mount of Beatitudes, where we then walked down it, to the sea. That hillside is where Jesus gave the famous “Beatitudes” speech. Halvor, our guide, stopped us along the path to read right from the text. When I was here before, the hillside had cut grass, so all of us on that tour were able to sit down at the top of the hill and our guide went to the bottom of the ravine and just spoke in a normal tone so it was easy to see how Jesus could teach over five thousand at once without a modern sound system. Sound travels up. Today, there is a banana plantation growing in that ravine, so the demonstration was not possible and Kaleb was pretty disappointed about that.
Along the shore line north of Tiberias is the area of Magda, where we ate very tasty falafels for lunch. That’s where Mary Magdeline is from, which isn’t far from the area of Capernum, where Peter lived. No one has built any shrine over Mary’s potential home (strange, but true), but Peter’s home has a church built right over the top of his place, complete with a glass floor so everyone can see down into where the Catholics believe the first Christian church assembled. The ruins of a synagogue right next door still has enough things restored it’s easy to imagine Jesus teaching in that place. Those ruins, however, are from 300 years after Jesus died. The actual place Jesus taught lies under the floor of where we stood since they built the new synagogue over the old one. Still, very impressive – and the entrance way to it has been uncovered so it was actually possible today to see exactly where Jesus stepped. Woo hoo!
Capernum is also the town where the lame man was lowered through the roof to Jesus, and where Jesus fed the five thousand. Our guide is very good at explaining some of the significances and little nuances in these Bible texts. Italian Catholic monks have built a monastery in honor of Jesus asking Peter if he loved him (three times) at Capernum. A German Catholic group has built a church over a church that was built 300 years after Jesus died in honor of Jesus feeding the five thousand. They even incorporated the original tile work from that very old church, into their new one – it’s the famous motive around here – with the design of the loaves and fishes. The Greek Orthodox built a church over the spot where they believe the military guy lived that asked Jesus to heal his servant. Everyone wants a piece of the action. So Capernum is rich with Bible stories and significance. I guess if it weren’t in ruins, we’d never be able to visualize anything, as the foundations allow the imagination to complete the picture. Kaleb and I picked up a few rocks and shells from the Sea there, as well as a little water. Free souveniers!
We were all significantly toasted from walking around the Capernum area so Rune made an executive decision to take a dip in the Sea. We went back to our hotel and everyone changed into swimsuits, only to discover the local beach access by our hotel is closed because the water level is too low. How that matters, I’m not sure, as there is still a whole lake’s worth of water out there, but the hotel pool worked out just as well for all of us. It’s nice traveling with Norwegians, since they MUST have time to just relax. Americans would be going from early morning until late night with no rest for the weary. Norwegians have a difference cadence and it works well for me in this heat – otherwise, I’d be chomping at the bit to see what’s around the next corner.
Before dinner, Kory, Kaleb and I walked into the heart of Tiberias, noting all the dilapidated buildings, gorgeous blooming flowers and little lizards scampering out of our way. Kaleb was thrilled to buy a new flavor of Tic-Tacs he found at a grocery store we stopped in. Kory bought some wine and dried fruits and I bought some hummus and chips. Yum. Dinner was so good at the hotel that we didn’t need any snacks afterwards, though.
Our group met in the lounge for an hour after dinner for more social time that is really more like Rune-entertaining-us-with-his-crazy-stories time. Tonight it was all about his bachelor party and the fact he was nearly killed by his friends from one of the pranks they pulled. They bound his hands and feet and threw him in the fjord. They had divers under the water, ready to save him, but the current took him away before they could get to him, so God was surely there as he was able to free himself before he drowned. His sister asked me if Americans do that kind of thing before a bachelor gets married. I had to tell her we do a lot of crazy things, but that sure isn’t one of them.
I had Kaleb stay in the room and write in his journal of our travels, as we met with the rest of the group and our guide tonight, out on the lawn. The hotel was quite cold from the air conditioning but the temperature was just perfect outside down by the lake. We all asked questions about spiritual, Biblical, political and economic issues dealing with Israel and their struggle to stay a nation. Our guide has his opinions about things so it was good to hear them, plus he’s really quite the Bible scholar so he’s able to wrap a lot of current events around a Biblical context and have it make more sense. It was time well spent.
When we got back to the room, Kaleb was zonked out on the bed with the laptop at his fingertips, like it was his last wish to type “good night” to me before he could no longer keep his eyelids open. Stakkars, gutt. It was a full day for us all.
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