A Walk around the Old City [Tuesday, August 28, 2012]

Today we went to Jerusalem! I just couldn’t believe it! It was so much fun! It was also a 7.8 mile walk! I love the profs here and I’m just so blessed by how welcome they make us feel!

Our main thought today was whether we are praying for peace in Jerusalem. Not in the sense that we are disobeying God if we don’t pray for peace in Jerusalem, but that there will finally be peace in Jerusalem when the Lord returns and so we should long for His return and in that way pray for peace in Jerusalem as it talks about in Psalm 122[A Psalm of Ascent].

I am pretty sure that there are 35,000 people in the Old City. We entered through the Jaffa Gate and the first place we went in the Old City was the Petra Hostel from which we could see many sights. The Dome of the Rock was in the distance with the Mount of Olives behind it. There were also two gray domes which were the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It is the best candidate for where Christ was crucified and buried. The tradition that Christ was crucified there goes all the way back to 325 A.D. There are actually first century A.D. tombs in the church and so it could well be the place where Christ was crucified and buried. Also, in Jesus’ day this site was located outside the city.

Behind us was David’s Citadel which the Crusaders thought was David’s palace. They were mistaken, but the foundation stones date back to the time of Herod the Great. Also, the current walls of Jerusalem were built in 1537 A.D.(just a little fact for you all!) Also another interesting fact was that the Roman Emperor Hadrian renamed Israel to Palestina when he defeated the Jews, this is because of their enemy, the Philistines. I had never known there was a connection between Palestine and the name of the Philistines.

Another possible place for the crucifixion is at the Garden Tomb, which we viewed while walking on top of the city wall. The city wall was awesome and it felt like we walked on it forever! So fun! Charles Gordon had a theory that has now been around since the mid 1800’s that the hill looked like a skull and so it could be Golgotha. The tombs there are actually from the 6^th century B.C.  and look like benches with headrests. No archaeologist will think this place is a possible crucifixion site.

From the wall, we saw the Rockefeller Museum where the Dead Sea Scrolls were first housed and were taken away to a safer place during the war of independence.

We then looked toward the Mount of Olives and remembered that Christ will return the same way he left, which is coming to the Mount of Olives on a cloud which we see in Zechariah 14:1-11. The Kidron Valley is between the Mount of Olives and Eastern Hill. One of the verses where the Kidron Valley is mentioned is John 18:1 where it tells of Jesus walking through the Kidron Valley on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane on the night He was betrayed.

One interesting thing is that all of the walls in Jerusalem have changed except the Eastern Wall whose boundaries have always remained the same. This is because it is right up to the Kidron Valley and if they moved at all, the wall would fall into the Valley.

We saw the pools of Bethesda which have 5 roofed colonnades and were the place that Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath in John 5:18. In this passage, Jesus is claiming to be God which is amazing! There are two Pools of Bethesda, the Northern and Southern pools which are separated by a divider and we were actually able to go down and see a cistern. There were Byzantine column bases standing on top of where the pools once were.

After this, the group sang “Give Thanks” and “The Doxology” in St. Anne’s church, and heard a duet of “Before the Throne of God Above” by Abraham and Lauren. We went to the Struthion Pool after that and were able to go below the stone pavements, or lithostrotos and see the pools and more stones. This is one possible place where Jesus could have been handed over to be crucified. The process would consist of 6 trials with a final sending off by Pilate. One problem is that in Jesus’ day the stone pavements were not there so there was no covering on the pools. This could not be the place where Jesus was sent off and it was more likely by Jaffa Gate. Herod had a palace there and this is possibly where Pilate stayed.

After we went to the pool, we visited the Western Wall which was an awesome experience! Jews have been praying here since 70 A.D. when the temple was destroyed. This is the original foundation of the temple mount and people are so respectful of it. They put written prayers in the wall and they back away from the wall without turning their backs to the wall. We left the Western Wall area and saw a Mikveh, and Lauren demonstrated the ritual cleansing an unclean person would undergo to become clean.

Our last stop was Zion Gate which is on Mount Zion. In the Old Testament, Zion is referring to the city of David, not the mountain. There are bullet holes in Zion Gate and those were made by Jordan during the War of Independence. There is also a city wall where they attached a bomb and when it blew up, only one stone of the wall fell out. In my opinion, that is a fun fact.

We then went back to Jaffa Gate and Moshe, our bus driver, picked us up and took us back to the Moshav. We ate dinner, cleaned up, and went out to play Volleyball. After that, I ate some grapes from the Biblical Gardens while doing my homework. It was an amazing day and I am so thankful for the blessing that has come in the form of IBEX. I love the group and am daily encouraged by seeing their love for God that pours out through their actions, words, and lives.