Jan 9 – On the Road to Jerusalem

Today we end in Jerusalem but there are many important sites to explore before we lay our heads to rest.
The first of sites is the historic fortress of Masada. This mountain top settlement was fortified by Herod the Great to protect himself from his enemies either being the jews or the many threats he was so very paranoid of. Herod himself actually never utilized the fortress but it was sed by his family when he was forced to go to Rome and seek help as the Parthian army was attacking. Masada is most famous for it's role in the Jewish revolts leading tot he the taking of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. The Zealots had fled the city of Jerusalem and made their camp in the mountain of Masada. Here they stayed for close to three years while the Roman army practically built a mountain to get finally capture the close to 1000 jews taking refuge there. In what the jews consider an act of honor and nobility the leader of the zealots led his followers to a mass suicide. When the romans finished building their giant ramp (mountain) and took the city they found what was left of the Zealots.
This was a remarkable site to visit seeing the technology of what it took to live completely secluded on a mountain top on the coast of the dead sea in the middle of the desert. It's just crazy to think about the construction to begin with but to also consider the part of Jewish history this site carries adds so much weight. I couldn't imagine what would be going through my head as tens of thousands of Roman troops would be camped at the foot of the mountain building a mountain size ramp to come and finally finish us off. This site is equivalent to a Gettysburg or a Valley Forge for the Jews and I can most certainly understand why.

After Masada we just drove down the street a few minutes to Qumran. This site is where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. This town was a meeting place for the Essenes. This was a very conservative group of Jews who thought the religious authorities in Jerusalem were leading Judaism in a secular direction as Hellenism (the greek culture) was “sneaking” into their religious life. As a result they secluded themselves in the desert, scrupulously followed the Law and waited for the Day of Judgement, for the Messiah. They were eventually forced to leave Qumran as the Romans were taking Jerusalem but they hid what was most important to them; the Law, the Scriptures. These manuscripts were hidden up until 1947 when a shepherd was in the area and a sheep strayed into a nearby cave. The shepherd tossed a rock into the cave to startle the sheep put and in doing so broke some pottery in the back of the cave. This pottery contained the first of over 4,000 pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The manuscripts found contain every book of the Bible except the book of Esther. These are so important because these are first century writings of the Bible, further confirming the integrity of the Bibles we are reading today.

We finished at Qumran and drove a stones throw away to the shore of the Dead Sea. Here we swam, or floated if you will. It was an amazing experience. Everything anyone has told you about the experience is true. I reclined and read the latest edition of Relevant Magazine. My friends with cuts were in a great deal of pain. It's a bit slimy. You can simply stand up in the middle of the sea and you will just sit there not having to put forth any effort to keep your head above water. We pretty much just drifted around for a half an hour. I got some water in my mouth and it tasted absolutely dreadful. After a few minutes my lips started to burn. The Dead Sea is 27% salt. It was so cool!
One thing we fond was that the Dead Sea has been receding drastically over the past 30 years. Because of the evaporation pools and the salt mines for salt and the cosmetic mud, it is estimated the dead sea may be no more in as little as 50-70 years. This just blows my mind and can't imagine this is an acceptable outcome for either the Israeli or Jordanian nations.

Next we made our way to Jericho. We not only experienced what is claimed to be the oldest city in the world but also our first experience with the contrast between Palestinians and Israelis. This was not a conflict of individuals ot anything of the sort but of governments. Jericho was by far the worst archeological site we had been to. It was obvious they did not have the funds the other sites had to preserve and continue to dig. The site was amazing because it was the oldest we have seen and the oldest we will see. The ruins date back to the Bronze Age (3300-1300 BC). We were also able to see ruins from Jericho in the time of Herod the Great.

Tomorrow we move around the city of Jerusalem. I'm so very excited!

Tomorrow we see:
-Mt. of Olives
-Gethsemane
-The Upper Room (The Room the the Last Supper)
-David's Tomb
-Bethlehem
-Church of the Nativity
-Field of the Shepherds
-Sanctuary of Bethfarge
-Chapel of the Ascension

grace and peace,
_joel