The Holy Land

A trip to the Holy Land gave me a wealth of opportunities to explore the significance of place. Israel/Palestine is one of the most contested parts of the world, the focus of struggle between competing groups and their ideas for millennia. Why is this? It is surely partly an accident of geography. This small area of land stands on the route which joins three continents, Africa, Asia and Europe. That has made it a place to be fought over, a place through which armies necessarily needed to pass on their mission to conquer and control, a place whose shores, at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, were bound to become significant trading ports. At one end of the Fertile Crescent it was significant agriculturally too. This area has been called the Cradle of Civilisation, with a vital impact on  Europe, North Africa and the Near East. 

No wonder it also became a religious battle ground as different tribes brought their gods and goddesses into the struggle for control over its land. The Hebrew Bible, what we would call the Old Testament, is full of stories about this land and its places. Abraham is called from his home in Mesopotamia to come to this land, given it by God, who promises his descendants will fill it. A few generations later, though, it looks as if the land will be lost again, as Joseph is sold into slavery in Egypt, and his family later follow him there as economic refugees. The story of Moses and the Exodus is a story about the journey back to this Promised Land, and the books  of Joshua and Judges tell the stories of the conflicts with those who already inhabit it and their Gods. The writers of these stories assume that this land, because it has been promised them by God, is uncontestably theirs. There is no awareness that the Canaanites who live there might have any entitlement to it as well; these books are uncomfortable reading to modern eyes, but reflect what would have been a normal attitude at the time, that possession was nine tenths of the law. If you could enter and defend land, it was yours. The Israelite claim to this land had the added strength (in their eyes at least) that their God had given it to them. 

These Old Testament stories were almost certainly drawn together into the form we have them now, however, during the period of the Babylonian Exile. Once again, the Israelites were far from home, taken into exile by Babylon in 586, and remaining there for several generations. Jerusalem was in ruins, Solomon's Temple destroyed. Would they ever return. The "history" books of the Hebrew Bible were not just records of what had happened to their nation, they were also shaped as reminders to these exiles that God had been with them before when they had been far from home, so, if they turned to him they might hope that he would bring them back again, in a second Exodus.

The land - Holy, Promised - can be seen as almost a character in its own right in the narrative of the Hebrew Bible. The stories it tells cannot be divorced from their settings.

The same is not true of the New Testament. Indeed, part of the essence of its message is that God's love is for everyone, of every race and nation, Jew and Gentile. By the time the Gospels and some of the later epistles were written the Temple either had been or was about to be destroyed and the people of Judea - Jewish and Christian - were scattered across the globe in a diaspora which did not end until the twentieth century. The legacy of this in Jewish thinking was a longing for return to their geographical homeland - "next year in Jerusalem" was the prayer at the Passover. But for Christians, the rupturing of the bond with the land took faith in a different direction entirely. As the break with Judaism grew deeper, Christians chose to prioritise not the geographical place from which their faith had sprung, but their distinctive interpretation of the idea of the Kingdom of God. God was at work, said Jesus, in ordinary people's lives, wherever they were, as they forgave one another and were forgiven, as they built new communities where there was neither Jew nor Gentile. He had been a Messiah who had "no place to lay his head" (Luke 9.58). He had foretold the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in AD 70 and had said that instead there a new Temple would be raised in three days, a place of encounter with God in his crucifixion and resurrection initially, and then in the Body of Christ, the gathered Christian community. 

For several centuries Christians did not take much interest in the physical places where the stories of the Gospel had taken place, though they did fairly quickly come to regard the burial places of their martyrs as sacred places. It was only when Constantine adopted Christianity as the religion of his empire in the early 4th century that the tide turned. His mother, St Helena, is credited with locating the site of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, and kick-starting the idea of Christian Pilgrimage, though she seems to have been drawing on local memories of these sites which had been handed down through the generations.

In the seventh century, conflict erupted again, as Islam claimed Jerusalem as a holy site, the place from which Mohammed had ascended to heaven, but in truth there has rarely been a time when there has not been conflict in this beautiful, fascinating, tragic land. 

Anyway, enough words. Here are some pictures of our trip!

Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. The Kidron valley outside Jerusalem is filled with Jewish graves. It is traditionally believed that when the Messiah comes at the end of the age, he will enter Jerusalem from this valley, so those who are raised here will have the first sight of this moment. 

The Western Wall of the old Temple complex by night - an atmospheric, prayer laden place. 

The tear-shaped "Dominus Flevit" church, on the site where it is said that Jesus wept over Jerusalem.
The city is framed in the window behind the altar of the chapel. 

An ancient olive tree in the traditional site of the Garden of Gethsemane. This tree is one of several on the site which are old enough to have been there at the time of Jesus. 

This stone is the traditional site where Jesus knelt to pray in Gethsemane.

The site of the Pool of Bethesda, where Jesus healed a man lying by the side of the pool. You have to climb down a long way to find water, but it is still there! 

I can never resist a statue of my name saint, St Anne, traditionally the mother of Mary. This church, next to Bethesda is allegedly the place where Mary was born. 

Outside the Ecce Homo convent, the site of the Roman headquarters, and the governor, Pontius Pilate's house. This was the place where Jesus was interrogated by Pilate, and presented to the crowd who bayed for him to be crucified. "Ecce Homo" said Pilate - behold the man. 

Jerusalem roofscape, from the Ecce Homo convent. The golden roof is the Dome of the Rock , the site of Mohammed's Night Journey to heaven, in the Al Aqsa compound on the site of the Jewish Temple destroyed by the Romans.  

Beneath the Ecce Homo convent excavations have revealed the 1st Century floor of Pilate's headquarters, the floor on which Jesus would have stood to be interrogated by Pilate, and where he was imprisoned and flogged. 

The church of the Holy Sepulchre. The traditional site of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, discovered by St Helena. 

Many Christian groups share this building, each having their own chapels. This sounds like a recipe for many squabbles, and so it has been...

A rock cut tomb, an alternative site for Jesus tomb in a chapel in the Holy Sepulchre.

And yet another, much more recent, claimant for the title of the burial place of Jesus, the Garden Tomb. I was not at all convinced by the claims made for this site, which felt rather contrived!

Excavations at the Shepherds' Fields site outside Bethlehem.

The chapel on the traditional site of the annunciation to the Shepherds.

There are several small chapels cut out of the rock. We celebrated communion here. 

Bethelehem is also the site of the story of Ruth, a Moabite woman who accompanied her Israelite mother-in-law back from the land of Moab, and was eventually spotted bu Boaz as she gleaned grain in his fields. Impressed by her courage and faithfulness he married her. Their son was the grandfather of the shepherd boy, David, who became Israel's greatest king. 

On to Bethlehem. Our guide, Sam, outside the church of the Nativity, with its tiny entrance door, deliberately made small so that armed men could not ride their horses into it!

Pillars inside the church, decorated with saints and angels. 

The altar above the place of the nativity.

Descending into the site of the nativity, a cave beneath the church.

To touch the traditional site of the nativty, marked by a star, you have to bend down low - in a hurry, as there is a vast crowd waiting to do the same! 

The traditional site of the manger!

In the cave of the nativity

St Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin, lived in a cave next to the site of the nativity, now covered with a grille.

St Jerome, and, in the background, Mary, in the cloisters of the church. 

St George is the patron saint of Palestine - we found him defeating dragons everywhere we went.

Jerusalem from another angle. 

In the enclosure at the Western Wall reserved for women, a quarter the size of the mens' section... The women praying there were very welcoming, and it was good to be able to touch the wall and pray standing shoulder to shoulder with them. 

At the site of the High Priest's house, a set of steps which date back to the first century, which Jesus would have been led up or down on the night he was arrested as he went from Caiphas' interrogation to that of Pilate. 

This is the site of Peter's denial, when he declared out of fear that he did not know Jesus three times, as Jesus had predicted, before the cock crowed. 

Looking down into the dungeon in the High Priest's house, where Jesus would have been held. In the first century the only access was through a hole in the roof. The prisoners would climb or be lowered down, and the ladder then removed. 

The hole in the roof bears early Christian graffiti - crosses which can just be seen in this photo. It was identified as the site of Jesus' imprisonment from an early date.

The road out of Jerusalem. The Judean desert, in which Jesus spent 40 days and nights fasting at the beginning of his ministry, begins immediately outside Jerusalem. The city is on the westward side of the watershed, but over the hill, it is bone dry. 

The Dead Sea, with salt deposits visible around its edges. Removal of water upstream and climate change mean that it is rapidly shrinking. It is predicted that it will disappear completely over the course of the next century. 

The cable car up to Masada, King Herod's desert fortress, which saw the end of the final act of resistance against the Romans after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

The view from Masada over the impossibly hot and barren Judean wilderness.

Looking down on Herod's fortifications. 

Of course we floating in the Dead Sea while we were there. An odd experience. As well as being unusually buoyant, the water feels silky to the touch because of the high concentrations of minerals.

On to Qumran, by the Dead Sea, where hundreds of scrolls, hidden by the Essene community in the first century in caves in the area. Many of these "Dead Sea Scrolls" provide us with the earliest records of books of the Old Testament, as well as details of this ascetic community's life. It is sometimes suggested that John the Baptist may originally have been an Essene - the Essenes practiced ritual bathing very frequently. 

The excavations at Qumran

One of the caves in which the scrolls were hidden. The first scrolls were discovered when a shepherd boy threw a stone into a cave while searching for his goats, and heard it hit a pottery jug in which the scrolls had been stored. 

An Essene mikveh, or ritual bath at Qumran.

In the shadows in the centre of this photo you may be able to make out some buildings cut into the rock. This is the monastery of St George of Choziba, on the old road from Jerusalem to Jericho, on which Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan was set. Anyone who found themselves injured and stranded in this barren and baking desert would not have stood a chance of survival without help. For someone to walk by - let alone a priest or a Temple servant - would have been the height of callousness. 

Donkeys in the wilderness. There were Bedouin encampments here and there in the wilderness - hard to see how it could be made habitable, but they did so, following an ancient nomadic way of life which would have been similar to that of the early Israelites. 

An early morning trip to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on the Day of Pentecost found it almost deserted. It was 6.30 am though!

No one in sight on the passageway beside the church. 

The stone of anointing, the traditional place where Jesus' body was anointed for burial,  just inside the entrance of the Holy Sepulchre. Pilgrims pour rosewater and precious oil on the stone, and rub cloths on it. 

Deep in the bowels of the church is the Chapel known as the "Invention (finding) of the Cross" which marks the location where the "true cross" was found by St Helena. It was magically still and atmospheric down here. 

In the chapel in which the rock on which the cross rested can be seen, through the window behind the altar. 

The rock on which the cross rested. 

The Ethiopian Orthodox shrine. 

After my early morning excursion to the Holy Sepulchre we went on to St George's Anglican Cathedral for the Pentecost Communion service. Anglican congregations from all over Israel/Palestine had gathered for this service. Most Christians in the area are Palestinian, so most of the service was in Arabic. 

The courtyard of the Anglican Cathedral. A lovely place to sit and chat over refreshments.

Inside the church. It could have been a C of E church or cathedral in the Home Counties...

But there were some distinctively local features, like this baptismal pool, which was eerily similar to the mikveh I had seen at Qumran. 

St George

And again...

Traditional Palestinian red and white embroidered hangings reminded you you weren't in England!

One of the traditional sites claimed to be where John baptised Jesus. It is situated in the middle of a minefield. The River Jordan marks the boundary between Israel and Jordan. 

It was a narrow, muddy, shallow river. That's the state of Jordan on the other side. We could have crossed the river in a couple of steps, if it hadn't been for the armed guards on both sides! We renewed our baptismal vows here, and took advantage of the coolness of the water as well!

The minefields around the site of Jesus' baptism.

Somehow this notice seemed to work on many levels. Yes, the border with Jordan was ahead at the site of Jesus' baptism, but maybe Baptism always marks a border for us, between one life and another...

Jericho, and the actual tree, so it is said, up which the tax collector, Zaccheus, climbed to get a better view of Jesus, according to Luke 19.

The Mount of Temptation, allegedly.

And the gift shop at the site. We stayed outside, not wanting to be led into temptation...

The Sea of Galilee, from our bedroom window in Tiberias. Capernaum is in the distance. 

The ruins of Sepphoris, just a few miles from Nazareth, which can be seen in the distance. Sepphoris was destroyed by the Roman Governor Varus around the time of the birth of Jesus, because it was the site of a revolt against Roman rule. The Romans then had it rebuilt. As a "teknon", often translated as carpenter, but more accurately "builder", it is highly likely that Joseph would have worked on the rebuilding works, perhaps accompanied by his son/apprentice, Jesus! 

Wonderful mosaics at Sepphoris

The Roman ampitheatre - maybe some of this is Joseph or Jesus' work.

A mikveh, or ritual bath at Sepphoris, very reminiscent of the baptismal pool in St George's Cathedral and at Qumran.

More marvellous mosaics. Sepphoris was eventually destroyed by a series of earthquakes. You can still see the dents in the mosaic floor where masonry fell onto it. 

Nazareth town well ( a modern structure). Ancient stories relate that the Angel Gabriel first appeared to Mary at the well in Nazareth to make the annunciation that she would bear Jesus. She was so shocked that she ran away, so he had to appear all over again at her home. 

The ancient church marking the spot of the well.

And the well itself, now inside a Greek Orthodox Church.

In the church at  Mary's well. 

The modern basilica of the Annunciation has dozens of murals , contributed by natins around the world, depicted in their own native style.

We arrived in time for the Angelus at Midday. The modern basilica surrounds the remains of the traditional house where Mary lived, and where Jesus grew up. 

This is, allegedly, the home of Mary, Joseph and Jesus. (Though I rather doubt she had a stonking great altar in the front room...)

A Japanese Madonna

More ancient remains preserved under the Basilica

This is the site of the synagogue in Nazareth where Jesus preached his first sermon, which can be found in Luke 4, announcing that through him God was bring healing to the sick and freedom to the oppressed. 

Although the synagogue has been rebuilt as a church, the stones were reused. Maybe these stones heard Jesus' words...?

Nazareth McDonalds, where Jesus would have popped in for a burger? Couldn't resist it...

A couple of men fishing in the Sea of Galilee, just outside our bedroom in the hotel. Their families joined them for a picnic later, though I don't know whether they caught anything. 

Sunrise over the Sea of Galilee - beautiful, but I was very aware that this looks towards the Golan Heights, a place which has been bitterly fought over. 

The little harbour at Tiberias. Small fishing boats set out from here in the early morning. 

The church at the traditional site where Jesus appeared to his disciples after the resurrection and shared a lakeside breakfast with them, having told them where to throw their nets for an enormous catch. It is also said to be the place where Jesus declared to Peter that he would be the leader of his church, so it is also called the church of Peter's Primacy. 

Jesus said to Peter, "you are Peter (which means Rock) and on this rock I will build my church. This church is, literally built on the rock. 

Looking across the (still as glass) Sea of Galilee towards Tiberias, a view which, modern buildings aside, Jesus and the disciples would have been familiar. 

Capernaum, where Jesus lived after he had left Nazareth (the people of Nazareth rejected him after he had announced that he was  God's Messiah). This is the site of the synagogue of his time, in which he taught and healed. 

Capernaum synagogue

The spaceship like building is the modern church in Capernaum, built over the traditional site of Peter's Mother in Lawe's house, where Jesus seems to have stayed often, and where he healed Peter's mother-in-law. Peter came originally from Bethsaida, further round the lake, but seems to have lived and worked in Capernaum, presumably with his wife and her mother. 

You can look down into Peter's Mother-in-law's house through the middle of the church.

Peter

The church at the traditional site of the feeding of the 5000 at Tabgha

The floor was covered in beautiful 5th Century mosaics. I particularly liked this jaunty looking quail! 

We celebrated Communion at the site of the feeding of the 5000, looking out over the Sea of Galilee, singing "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind" during the service, with  its line "In Sabbath rest like theirs who heard/ beside the Syrian Sea, the gracious calling of the Lord." 

The Church of the Beatitudes, above Capernaum, on the traditional site of the Sermon on the Mount.

We ate "Peter's Fish" - tilapia - caught in the Sea of Galilee. According to the Gospels, Jesus told Peter to look in the fish's mouth where he found the Roman coin needed to pay Caesar's tax. It was, frankly, rather full of bones - but we could hardly leave Galilee without eating Peter's fish. 

A boat trip on the Sea of Galilee. It was so still that it was hard to imagine the storms that the Gospels describe, but apparently they can blow up out of nowhere and transform this stillness into wildness. 

The excavated remains of a first century boat, like the ones Peter, Andrew, James and John might have fished from, on display at a nearby kibbutz.

A model of what the boat might have looked like. 

On the way back to the airport, we stopped at Caesarea Maritima. This was part of the Roman aqueduct, which brought water from Mount Carmel to Herod's palace on the coast, an amazing structure. 

The remains of Herod's Palace, now mostly underwater. Caesarea Maritima was once a huge port and palace complex, but was gradually destroyed by earthquakes and the sea. 

The remains of the audience chamber in which St Paul was judged governor before he was sent to Rome to be tried by the Emperor

The huge site of Caesarea Maritima is still being excavated.