Day 7, Israel 2023

As we set out this day, our tour guide mentioned Ohalo Manor, on the Sea of Galilee - - a nice hotel, if any of you are thinking of making a visit and looking for a place to stay in the Galilee.  {The photo at the top of this post, however, is not of that hotel.}

First, we visited one of the places where the new moon was declared each month by the Sanhedrin ….. Agrippina, a very high peak.  We hiked a short hike there, and the view was incredible!

Bet She’an - - a national park - - was our next stop.

This was a magnificent set of ruins.  It is famous for many reasons, but biblically, one of the most prominent facts about this ancient city on a high hill is that Jonathan and Saul’s bodies were hanged on the city wall here.

There’s an upper city and a lower city of ruins. The lower city was built later, by Alexander the Great, after he conquered this city and the whole land.  The city is so ancient that it was inhabited and ruled by the Canaanites, the Scythians, the Philistines, the Jews, the Greeks and finally the Romans, when it was known as Nysa-Scythopolis.  (Trying saying that 10 times very quickly!). Bet She’an was a major pagan city, especially for the Scythians. There was a temple to Jupiter on the highest summit.  It was a major hub for the vicinity until it was destroyed in the 8th century, CE.

As we drove into the complex, we saw the well-preserved remains of a gladiator arena.  I regret I did not get a photo of it.

One of the major features of the lower city, where we did most of our exploring, was a  huge theater, which seated 7000 people.  The theatre was in the shape of a half-moon. It is the best preserved, ancient theater, thus far discovered in Israel. It was built at the end of the second century CE on the remains of a first century theater. Today, visitors have a view of the tel, the biblical mount.  But, in ancient times, walls shielded the audience from the distractions of the city streets.   The rear wall of the stage was approximately 21 meters tall, about the height of the top row of seats.  The group asked me to sing in the ampitheater.  My soft voice could be heard all over the structure.  Amazing acoustics!

  

The “main street” ran east to west, was broad and paved diagonally with stones, so as not to cause unnecessary wear and tear on chariot or wagon wheels.  The street was lined with huge, segmented columns, built with male/female ends which helped them be more “earthquake proof”.  Indeed, most of the columns are still standing.

 

Lining the main street, just on the other side of the long row of tall columns were shops.  In front of the shops was a walkway for the shoppers.  All the major walkways were covered, to protect not only from rain, but mainly from the scorching sun.  It was a very hot day there today.  Our guide became a little ill from the heat.  She is just barely over the flu.  We were quite concerned about her.  While giving her time to recover, we noticed a famous Israeli archeologist who was in the plaza.  His name is Eli Shukron, and several of our leaders had their photos taken with him.

People from Hebron, Bet She’an and Haifa  were not allowed to read from the Torah publicly, because they spoke differently, with regional accents.  And, for the purity and preservation of Torah, it had to be read with correct pronunciation, or otherwise scribal errors could creep in.

Galileans did not say “Yeshua” for instance.  They said “Yeshu”.

Community bathhouse…

Little brick pillars supported the raised floor of the hot rooms. Hot air circulating through this underground space heated the marble floor and the room above. Outside the building, fire was stoked in a furnace by slaves.  Hot air was moved under the floors and through clay pipes in the walls up to the chimneys on the roof. The floors and walls became so hot that the heat could be dry as in a sauna, or steamy, as in a Turkish bath.

First, you went into the changing room, where you left your clothes on the shelf, hoping nobody would take a shine to them and take them home. To work up a nice lather before washing it all away in the bath, you might take some sort of exercise like wrestling or weightlifting. Then, you went into the hot room, the caldarium, and without lifting a finger you would find yourself sweating like a marathon runner!  In lieu of soap, you would rub oiil on your body and scrape it off with a stick called a strigil. After all that steam in the caldarium, you relaxed in the tepidarium. That was the warm room. Finally, you would enter the cold plunge baths or swimming pools for a nice dip to close the pores, followed by relaxing time by the poolside. A small fee could engage the services of a trained masseur, barber or hairdresser. Scholarly lectures took place here, and business deals were often closed here. Roman bath houses were akin to the golf courses of the first millennium, CE.  They were key to Roman social and business life.

We can’t leave these ruins without me telling you about the public toilets.  I’ve posted a photo of those.  There did not appear to be any partitions or even any separations between male and female washroom areas.  If you look at the photo on my Facebook page, one would arrange one’s “cheeks” between each marble seat, so that waste would flow down to trough below.  In front of the trough was a smaller sluice that would be running with flowing water.  That was for the washing of one’s hands afterwards.  A bit inelegant to describe, but fascinating nonetheless.

The city was destroyed at night by an earthquake in 749 CE.  No skeletons were found in the downtown area, except for one. That’s how we know it occurred at night.  The one skeleton was found in the temple, clutching a large urn.  And the coins in the urn the skeleton in the temple was holding prove the date.

We did not drive far after leaving Bet She’an before stopping at a lunch stand run by two war heroes of Israel.  Both these brothers are friends of one of our tour guides. One of them was hit in the face with terrorist fire from an AK-47. He was not expected to survive, but due to many fervent prayers to God, no doubt, his life was spared.  His family was told that if he DID survive, he would be “a vegetable”.  But, he is just fine. What a miracle!

The area of Jordan that borders the Jordan River is the only tillable land in that country.  So, they farm the heck out of it.  Once you get across the mountains that rise just behind these plains (The Jordanian Highlands), Jordan is desert, clear up to Iraq.  In Israel, there are very, very few privately-held farms.  Most are communal, either by kibbutzim or owned and leased by the government to farmers for 99 years.

We drove past the crossroads of Adam Bridge and Shechem (Nabulus).

This is where Yeshua and other people entered the heart of the land, journeying from the Galilee, and then moved on over to the Jordan, crossed it and continued on past Mt. Nebo and Mt. Gerazim to Jerusalem.

Driving on, we are almost to the desert.  The lush green of the Galilee has changed to dry, dusty, sandy soil, and smaller hills.  We are now in Palestinian territory, the West Bank, as we head toward the Jordan River for our next stopping point, Qaser Al-Yahud (“Crossing of the Jews”).  The official bridge that spans the Jordan, linking Israel and the country of Jorden is called the Allenby Bridge (or the Arabs call it the Hussein Bridge).  

Four specific events are believed to have happened here:  

***The people of Israel crossed over the Jordan from the wilderness, with Joshua and Caleb, after which Joshua erected the 12 stones;

***Elijah was taken up in a whirlwind here and Elisha inherited the double portion of Elijah’s anointing.  According to Jewish tradition, Hillel the Elder was the last one to have the anointing of Elijah.

***Na’aman was healed of leprosy here by Elisha, the prophet, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

***Some believe Yeshua was baptized here by John the Immerser.

Then, it was on to the Dead Sea, the lowest point of the globe, 1300 feet below sea level!  On the way, we passed over the dried up Kidron River riverbed.  It lies in a canyon that extends from the Dead Sea all the way up to the Kidron Valley in Jerusalem.  The prophet Ezekiel prophesied that in the last days, a river will bubble up from under the altar in the millennial Temple, and will flow all the way down to the Dead Sea.  And, that the Dead Sea’s waters will be healed!  Now, 35% of the water of the Dead Sea is minerals and salt.  Not even a microorganism can live there, at present!  The Dead Sea covers the ancient sites of Sodom and Gomorrah, which are believed to be at the south end of the sea.

The sound end of the sea is very shallow, only a few feet, and in some places can be walked all the way across.  There is a man-made channel that Israel has created to supply this end of the Sea, or it would completely dry up.  And, most of the resorts are down at the south end.  In the north end of the Dead Sea, the waters reach a depth of 1300 feet!

Lesson of the shittim (acacia) tree:

The 40-foot tall timbers of the Mishkan were made of this tree; this was by commandment by God.  The problem is that the acacia tends to look like a scrawny, short tree, not impressive, nor does it look like you could ever get a 40-foot beam from it.  However, appearances can be deceiving.  The truth is that the acacia puts down a tap root, and it grows deep below the ground before the tree starts to grow above ground.  In fact, 2/3 of the tree grows underground.  So, in order for the Israelites to have to get a long enough beam of wood to construct each beam of the Mishkan, they had to work hard to dig it out.  

So, where is the lesson in this little tale?  Well, studying the Scriptures is a similar endeavor.  If you want to find the riches, you have to dig them out.  

We drove through the fringes of the En Gedi area on our way to our hotel on the Dead Sea. This is the area where David hid out, when running for his life from King Saul.  We could see ancient caves in the cliffs.  Tomorrow, we will go explore there.

But, by about 4:00, we arrived at the beautiful David Dead Sea Resort and Spa.  I was unable to book a spa appointment, because I dragged my feet a little bit and all the appointments were gone.  Lots of fun was had, though.  First, I went to the freshwater pool for a few minutes.  Then, it was on to the indoor/outdoor saltwater pool.  In fact, the salt water in that pool is the actual water of the Dead Sea.  I stayed in there for about 10 minutes, and then went to the actual Dead Sea.  As mentioned earlier, the waters there were very shallow, not even above my knees.  And, there were big “rocks” underfoot (I had on water shoes), which looked like big chunks of salt.  It was amazing.  However, I liked the saltwater pool much better, and so went back there.

Let me try to describe the character of the water of the Dead Sea.  It is a murky blue green.  And, it is almost impossible to keep your legs vertical in it.  They want to bob to the surface like two long corks!  Furthermore, the water is oddly OILY.  And, it’s warm.  Or, at least it is at this time of year.  When I came to Israel the first time, it was at the end of January and in the low 60s.  I had no desire to get into the water at that time.  It is recommended that the time in the salt waters not exceed 20 minutes.  And, right after you get out of the water, you should shower the salt off your skin.  Otherwise, it can actually burn you.  Freaky stuff!

We are about to head down to dinner and then to end the day.  I’m going to post a photo of the Dead Sea from our 11th floor balcony, at the top of this post, and then post the rest of the photos from today on Facebook, at the usual place - - Resplendent Daughter Ministries page.  As I’m finishing up this post, I’m sitting in the beautiful lobby of the hotel, because in my 11th floor room, the internet is not strong enough to get this type of thing done.  It’s funny, because the nearby bar is playing retro music from the 1970s.  Lionel Ritchie, Kool and the Gang, etc.  LOL