Yesterday and today was spent mostly in Galilee. We walked down the hill where Jesus (supposedly) preached the Sermon on the Mount. We also stopped in Chorazin ("Woe to you, Chorazin! If the miracles done in your city had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago!").
Yesterday we also spent time in a restored Jewish village of the 4th to 6th century A.D. The style of the buildings was similar to those in the 1st century. One thing I found interesting was the building material. Everything in ancient Israel (at least, everything that has survived) was built of stone. Near Jerusalem they used white limestone, but in Galilee they used good old basalt, just like we find in Oregon. The area around Galilee has lots of volcanic stone, so this village was built out of the same rock you see in the wall behind the pulpit at Parklane Church. The only difference is that it had been chiseled it into rectangular blocks. We saw similar stonework in Capernaum. There's a 4th century synagogue there that dates to the 4th century A.D. It's made of white limestone. But the foundation, which dates to the first century (in other words, the time of Jesus) is made of basalt. Thus we can be pretty sure that Jesus worshiped in a synagogue that was made out of lava rock.
By the way, the same complex of Capernaum ruins contains what may be a room in Peter's house (mentioned in Mark 1, where Jesus healed his mother-in-law). It may seem ridiculous that a specific synagogue and a specific house can be identified after two thousand years. However, Capernaum was not that big and there are only so many places where things can be.
We are back in Jerusalem this evening. The weather contrast between Galilee and Jerusalem is remarkable. Jerusalem is cool and dry; Galilee was hot and humid. It's only 80 miles from the one to the other, but you go from one world to the next. Of course, if we were to go straight east out of Jerusalem, 15 miles down to Jericho, it would hot and dry--and probably 105 degrees. This country is remarkably small (8 thousand squares miles compared to 97 thousand square miles for Oregon), but there is a great deal of contrast.
However, if you're looking for consistency in the midst of contrast, all you have to do is look for the presence of the military. There are soldiers in many of the places we go. For example, the Jaffa Gate (a main entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem) is just down the street from our hotel. There are always soldiers at that gate, and they carry guns, casually slung over their shoulders. Up in Galilee, we were awakened one morning by the sound of Israeli jet fighters zooming by overhead--13 of them, we were told later. Later that day we were up along the Israel-Syria border. There, the soldiers were from the U.N.--peacekeepers I guess you'd call them. They sat in white SUVs--Africans who happened to be playing Guns 'N Roses music on their sound system. The continuing conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians plays a huge role here. I will try to blog about that another time.
We've been in Israel for 2 1/2 weeks now. In just a few days we will leave for Rome and the next stage in our travels. Israel has been great and there's still more to see, but we are starting to set our sights on newer horizons.
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