The day was focused around visiting places Jesus frequented, and then meditating upon and discussing the Scripture passages which reference these places.
The day began for me with a wake-up call from a low-flying squadron of Israeli fighter jets screaming overhead toward the border with Syria. It is assumed that the Israelis are preparing for an attack upon Iran, though with all that is happening in Syria and Egypt, one cannot be sure the threat is so distant.
Our last stop for the day was high up in Galilee overlooking a pass leading to the Sea of Galilee. Here too we were greeted by the Israeli military, this time a heavily armed attack helicopter. The pass was used by all the kings and armies of antiquity, as the land of Israel was the only bridge between great empires to its North and South, and the port of lucrative trade in all directions as well. Israel still is "the Land Between," only now the target, not just the battleground.
The weather has been unusually windless, which makes the heat from direct sunlight draining. I'm drinking lots of water, but maybe not enough since I've been having some low-grade headaches.
After breakfast we boarded our bus and drove to the other side of the lake and visited What tradition claims is the location of the sermon on the mount. There are many spots in the area that would fit, but this spot for whatever reason is claimed to be the one. It is built up for tourists and has a late-romantic Italian Catholic chapel over the site. There are a lot of pilgrims coming from all over to see this. It doesn't impress me. I prefer the places where tourists aren't going so much, places that reflect what life was actually like in Biblical times.
Thankfully, we have great teachers with us who are leading us. John Monson, my Old Testament prof, grew up in Israel and knows it, it's language and history like the back of his hand. He is truly a native, and it is fascinating just to see him interract with our driver and other natives. The middleastern way of relating and communicating is so loud and expressive. Odd for someone who is of Scandinavian roots as he is, and what a contrast to my last several days in Northern Europe. The bus driver doesn't want to keep driving into the evenings, which has kept us on a tighter schedule than John would like, and has led to an odd-couple sort of relationship. Our driver is actually bossing us around a little, and calls John when he thinks we should have already returned to the bus! By western standards John is certainly deficient in time consciousness, but by mideastern standards it seems to me he may be felt to be lacking as well!
We also visited Capernaum, and got a look at what is almost certainly the walls of Peter's house and therefore the place where Jesus would have spent a lot of time. Here there is also a chapel and also the ruins of a Byzantine chapel both built upon it. The Catholic chapel is a modern UFO-like structure hovering above the site. It has a glass floor over Peter's courtyard which in my photos looks like a buch of big fieldstones. We also saw there the reconstructed ruins of a synagogue, the foundations of which were from Jesus' day.
Chorazim was also visited, a picture of it's 3-4th c AD synagogue shows it's dark gray basalt rock common over the entire region. There is a "seat of Moses" pictured as well. Also seen is an ornamental carving of Medusa which indicates the (dangerous?) influence of Hellenism.
In the middle of the day we ate fried fish from the Sea of Galilee, and then took a boat ride out to the middle of the lake. From there we could see the slope (pictured) over which the demon posessed pigs likely raced into the Sea.
We also read and meditated some more on passages speaking of Jesus' ministry by the lake. Dr. Dana Harris led us in a meditation on John 21, emphasizing that Jesus had deliberately reminded Peter of his betrayal inorder to deal with it and restore him psychologically. In our meditation on Mark 4, she also made the point that it was Jesus' decision to lead the disciples into a storm, and so we too should not expect "smooth sailing" or be surprised by severe difficulties that come out way when we seek to follow him.
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