Caesarea Maritima
Caesarea by the Sea
Today was our first full day here in Israel, and we got to see a lot. Our first stop was Caesarea by the Sea, a port city built by Herod the Great. During the time Christ was teaching, Herod the Great's palace here in Caesarea was home to Pontius Pilate. This palace, built into the Mediterranean Sea, contained a freshwater swimming pool and was surrounded by a Theater (used for stage plays), a Hippodrome (chariot racing track) and Roman Baths. One of the most striking things about this site was the fact that the massive Hippodrome that sits behind the Palace, went completely undiscovered until the 1990's when the national park authority tried to put in a parking lot and discovered that it lay almost directly under the surface of the sand. Discoveries like this are nothing new for Israel, as an ancient Christian church was recently found on the grounds of a maximum security prison. (Pilgrims to the site could not understand why they were not allowed inside the prison to see the preserved church).
Caesarea by the Sea
Today was our first full day here in Israel, and we got to see a lot. Our first stop was Caesarea by the Sea, a port city built by Herod the Great. During the time Christ was teaching, Herod the Great's palace here in Caesarea was home to Pontius Pilate. This palace, built into the Mediterranean Sea, contained a freshwater swimming pool and was surrounded by a Theater (used for stage plays), a Hippodrome (chariot racing track) and Roman Baths. One of the most striking things about this site was the fact that the massive Hippodrome that sits behind the Palace, went completely undiscovered until the 1990's when the national park authority tried to put in a parking lot and discovered that it lay almost directly under the surface of the sand. Discoveries like this are nothing new for Israel, as an ancient Christian church was recently found on the grounds of a maximum security prison. (Pilgrims to the site could not understand why they were not allowed inside the prison to see the preserved church).
This Photograph shows Herod the Great's palace on the left (with the columns) and the Hippodrome center right. When Paul was arrested in Jerusalem (Acts 23) he was transferred to Caesarea and was probably held here (for 2 years!) before he appeared before Herod Agrippa (different Herod) and was then sent to Rome for trial (Acts 24).
Leona and Mardi, a fellow pilgrim, standing in the Theater located in Ceaserea by the Sea, built by Herod the Great.
Megiddo
Jezreel Valley & the Mountain of Armageddon
Our next stop was the ancient city of Megiddo. This site, which looks very much like a large green hillside, is the Biblical site for the battle of Armageddon in the book of Revelation (Revelation 16:12-16). The city of Megiddo has been inhabited and destroyed so many times over thousands of years that modern archeologists recently cut a large cross section out of the hill itself, discovering that 21 different versions of the city have been built on top of the ruins of each other over the centuries.
This was a strange site for me to visit because it displayed for me one of the most amazing and bizarre aspects of the Holy Land: the almost effortless intersection of the cosmic and the casual. Here was a field, the Jezreel Valley (out the left side of the bus) and a hill, Megiddo (on the right), whose past held the stories of 21 different cities filled with people, and whose future holds the location of the most epic cosmic battle that the universe will ever know. Yet, today, it is just a hill and a field on the side of the road. The video below shows exactly what I mean. Listen as the guide describes this hill as we drive by in the bus.
Our tour guide, Gila (which means "Joy" in Hebrew), describes Megiddo.
Nazareth
Jesus' Hometown & the Well of the Annuciation
The next stop for our group (of 26 people) was both the modern and ancient city of Nazareth (the hometown of Jesus). I say that we visited the modern and the ancient Nazareth because, located behind the Nazareth YMCA is a reconstruction of a typical farm from the time of Christ's childhood. We watched as actors dressed in traditional garb performed carpentry and weaving using the same methods that Christ's family and neighbors would have known. This visit culminated in a worship service in a reconstructed synagogue, where we were reminded what happened to Jesus when he returned to his hometown to preach to the neighbors and friends of his childhood (Luke 4:16-30). In the time of Jesus, Nazareth was very much a backwoods kind of town, today it is one of the largest towns in the area with hundreds of thousands of people calling it home.
This synagogue was built to resemble the type of synagogue
Jesus may have grown up and eventually preached in.
Jesus may have grown up and eventually preached in.
Rob standing where the grapes would go in a real 2000 year old wine press in Nazareth.
The Nazareth of today.
While in Nazareth we visited one of very few sites that experts believe with certainty that Jesus visited. This is the community well in his hometown of Nazareth. This site is located today inside of a Greek Orthodox Church and is believed by them to be the site where Mary received the message from the angel Gabriel that she would give birth to God (Luke 1:26-38).
The well where Mary was told she would give birth to Christ.
Cana
The site of Christ's first miracle
We finished up this busy day by visiting the site of Christ’s first miracle: Turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11). The site is now a Roman Catholic Church (they were having mass when we arrived). We quietly went down to the basement, where the ruins of the original church are still preserved, and Leona and I joined together with the other married couples in our group in a service of recommitment of our wedding vows. Before we left, we were able to see what jars that were filled with water (and later wine) may have looked like. They were huge! That must have been a lot of wine!
We finished up this busy day by visiting the site of Christ’s first miracle: Turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11). The site is now a Roman Catholic Church (they were having mass when we arrived). We quietly went down to the basement, where the ruins of the original church are still preserved, and Leona and I joined together with the other married couples in our group in a service of recommitment of our wedding vows. Before we left, we were able to see what jars that were filled with water (and later wine) may have looked like. They were huge! That must have been a lot of wine!
Imagine this thing filled with wine!
So far this trip has been incredible, and it has only just begun. Tomorrow we visit the Sea of Galilee and visit some of the sights of Christ’s miracles. Thank you for all of your prayers.
-Rob & Leona
Awesome blog first! Is my 2 day i read and is exciting and fun and tear breaking! Congrats on vows remev is such a special place! then i imagine that wine and oh! boy what kind of party they have then!
ReplyDeleteIm of course amaze about the armagedon fields! kinda cool to be there at least once in lifetime, and the fact that so many cities was there before is just stunning!