Today was our last touring day of the trip. Tomorrow morning, we will board our tour bus for the airport, leaving “bright and early.”
I am still on my one-day Facebook suspension for God-only-knows-what. Facebook probably does not like posts about Israel. Who knows? I certainly can’t determine what they are all upset about. Regardless, the upshot of this latest development is that it will take me longer to get the pictures up for the end of the trip. Thanks for your patience, and please, pray Facebook doesn’t suspend me permanently. The social media really does drive a lot of traffic to my website.
Our last stop on our two-week tour was the Mount of Olives. We went up to the summit in front of a hotel, and looked across the Kidron Valley at the Eastern Wall and the Eastern Gate specifically. Then, we walked down the Mountain to a site called Dominos Flevit. It is a church, run by the Roman Catholics. We went there for three reasons. The first I want to highlight is that the Ossuary of Simon Peter Bar Jonah was found to have been entombed here in either 66 or 67 CE, in a section of the cemetery that had been used between 30 and 70 CE. Simon Bar Jonah was how Simon Peter (or “Peter”) was known. AND, the ossuaries of Mary, Martha and Lazarus were found next to him. A chiro was found near SPBJ’s ossuary. A chiro was an X with a P in the middle of it. This was the seal of Peter used by the Roman Church, in the early years after it got going.
The Catholic Church had for centuries asserted that Peter was buried in Rome, but the truth of the matter is that Peter never even WENT to Rome, much less died and was buried there. When James the Just (the same one who was half-brother of Jesus and who was the first “bishop” of the followers of Jesus, and who also wrote the book of James in the Bible…) was murdered, Simon Peter returned from Babylon and took over that position until his own martyrdom in either 66 or 67 CE. He was killed during the first war between the Jews and the Romans, that same war which included the destruction of the Temple and that ended at Masada. As a friend of mine put it, he died with a sword in his hand and his tzit tzit on the corners of his garment. (My friend was quoting the historian and church leader, Eusebius.)
Well, this is probably more history that many of you want, but one of the experts in this matter was on the trip with us. He related to the group that the ossuary was discovered by two Jesuit archeologists in the Christian section of this cemetery in 1953. In fact, they discovered about 500 ossuaries, in about 70 caves. The Pope at that time traveled to Jerusalem to see the artifact and agreed wholeheartedly that it was the ossuary of Peter. At that time, he asked the men to hold off on publishing their discovery until Rome could “manage” how it would be announced and so forth. They were told by the Church of Rome to “keep it quiet”. Well, Rome “buried” it, if you’ll pardon that atrocious pun… An article was written by the Church about the ossuary, and the remains within, in 1958. Essentially, the article covered the discovery up. At that time, Rome had had plenty of time to roll this out and “put their spin on it”, shall we say, but at that time nothing had been announced. Nor has anything been announced in the years since. Furthermore, the ossuary has been confiscated by Rome, and when you inquire about it, you are told that it is being kept in a “secret location”. Apparently, when it was found, it had been vandalized, resulting in the stone of the ossuary having been cracked. It’s taking Rome quite a while to restore it, isn’t it? See, the Roman Church has a vested interest in Simon Peter, “the first pope” as they call him, being buried in Rome. To suddenly declare otherwise would be admitting to having made a huge mistake. It would be both embarrassing AND costly.
The most recent photos of the ossuary of SPBJ were made in 1961, UNTIL one of my friend’s associates, a renowned archeologist and biblical historian held the ossuary in his hands. Color photos were made at that time.
Reason #2: In that same church complex, Dominus Flevit, is believed to have been on the location where Jesus stopped on His way to Jerusalem and spoke the words we find recorded in Matthew 23:37 - - -
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!”
And, the third reason we went there today was to discover the location of the Red Heifer offering. Now, mercy me….I could write pages and pages on this topic, but I will restrain myself, for your sakes…If you want more information, you can search my blog for the topic “red heifer”, and previous posts I’ve written about it will show up in the search.
The red heifer offering is not one of the regularly-performed offerings that took place in the Temple, on the altar. Instead, there were several differences. There were only 9 red heifer sacrifices recorded in the history of the Jewish people, from the time the Lord God commanded it be done, in Numbers, chapter 19 to the time the Temple was destroyed the last time, in 70 CE. The rabbis say that when the 10th red heifer appears, and the 10th red heifer offering is made, Messiah will come. Curious statement, isn’t it?
At any rate, there are many machinations going on today to prepare for the next red heifer sacrifice. Why does that matter? Because you can build a building and call it the next Jewish Temple, but without the ashes of that red heifer, offered on a specially prepared altar on the slope of the Mount of Olives, the Temple cannot be put into operation.
Here are just some of the restrictions that make this offering exceedingly difficult to carry out:
The heifer must be purely red, with absolutely NO white hairs at all.
The heifer must not have been ridden, led or touched inappropriately, or it will be disqualified. The same goes, of course, for it getting any disease and so forth.
An authoritative Sanhedrin must be in place, as well as a High Priest, who can certify the red heifer as meeting the extensive list of conditions.
The priest who slaughters it must be at least 17 years old and have been raised his entire life in a corpse-free environment. That condition alone, and all that is done to achieve it, will absolutely boggle your mind….
So, the actual spot where the red heifer offering was made has been determined by surveying the land, finding remains of the necessary mikveh and other structures. But, most importantly, the location must be high enough up on the mountain to allow the priest to see from that location through the Eastern Gate and then straight into the Eastern doors of the Temple. What’s tricky here is that there is a lot of debate about where the Temple was actually located. Most authorities agree it was located on the spot where the Muslim Dome of the Rock stands today; that is not a unanimous agreement, however. And, where the Temple stood dictates where the Red Heifer Offering would have taken place.
If you are more interested in this fascinating topic, The Temple Institute has a downloadable book called, “Mystery of the Red Heifer”, by Rabbi Chaim Richman. Check it out!
After we left Dominus Flevit, we walked down a very steep and narrow road, past the entrance to the Garden of Gethsemane, to meet our bus.
For the rest of the day, we shopped, ate, laughed, reminisced, re-visited our favorite parts of the area around our hotel and/or the Old City of Jerusalem. And, we packed, which was quite the feat, given all the shopping that was done by our group! My goodness….I was a “lightweight”…
Tonight, after dinner together, we each received a certificate from our tour group, certifying each of us as a Jerusalem Pilgrim!
What a blessing these last few days have been!
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