We got up and had to have our luggage out by 7:00 and out to the bus
by 8:00 to be on our way to the Dead Sea. On the way we had three
stops. The first stop was at the ruins of Bet Shean. Bet Shean was a
Roman city in the time of Jesus. It is mentioned in the Bible as where
Saul's body was displayed after he was killed by the Philistines in a
battle at Mt. Gilboa. The area has been settled since the 5th
millenniums BC. There is a Tel there, next to the ruins of the Roman,
Byzantine and Muslim site. In 750 AD, an earthquake destroyed the city
and it was abandoned.
Much of Bet Shean had been restored so you can see the amphitheater,
theater, Odeon, hippodrome, main streets, public restrooms, public
baths, gymnasium, shops. The typical Roman main street is on a North/
South axis. The main street here was built with a high point in the
center for drainage. The main buildings and shop were along the main
streets and those perpendicular to the main street (called Cardi
Maximus). We walked around for almost an seeing the old columns,
paving, etc. Originally there was a Byzantine church on top of the
Tel, but when the Muslims took over, they tore down the church.
From there, we drove about 30 minutes to the foot of Mt. Gilboa to
the location of the Harod (great) Spring. In Judges 4 Gideon is camped
with thousands of soldiers at the spring and God tells him to trim
this down to 300. God helps him by telling him to have the remaining
men to drink from the spring. Those that drank like a dog (lapping)
were chosen, leaving 300 men to fight. Gideon then defeated the
Midianites in a surprise night attack. The area is now a national park
with a large swimming pool near where the spring flows.
We then had an hour's ride to Qumran (where the Dead Sea Scrolls were
found).
When we arrived, we had lunch at a large cafeteria at the entry to the
site. We had plenty of time to eat, shop in the large shop there and
have ice cream before our 2:15 time to enter the site.
From several areas we were able to see the caves that the scrolls
were found in. (Except Cave 1, where the first scrolls were found was
not visible from our viewpoint). The scrolls were found by Bedouin
shepherds in 1947. They sold them to an antiquity dealer. This spared
much excavation and exploration and now there are several caves that
had scrolls in them. The village where the Essenes lived. This sect of
Judaism was a group looking for the Messiah and some speculate that
John the Baptist may have lived and studied with them for about a
year. It is believed that they hid scrolls in the caves when threats
of the Romans taking over and enslaving them. (This sect joined the
group at Masada that were the last of the rebels of the Jews.) We saw
the bath houses, their aqueduct system, writing bench, etc. One of the
caves (cave #4) contained 14,000 pieces of scrolls torn to bits. It is
believed that a Roman soldier may have found them and torn up the
scrolls. Historians were able to piece them back together.
From Qumran, we drove along the Dead Sea, past the place where it
narrows and then gets larger near Masada. We passed David Oasis (where
David was captured), several Oasis, saw some ibis (small antelope
typical of the area), a possum looking creature, date palm trees,
mango trees in the Oasis. The day was cloudy and hazy partly because
of a wind storm South of us.
We arrived at our hotel, Isrotel on the Dead Sea around 4 pm. There
were 5-6 large hotels in this area. These hotels are usually fully
booked year round because they all have spas. We noticed there was
much more Hebrew being spoken in this hotel (and less English labels
on things). We went to our rooms and dressed to go float in the Dead
Sea. The beach was across the street from the hotel and was "closed"
but we managed to get over there and do a little floating before it
got dark! This experience was pretty strange because after you
floated, it was hard to get your feet back down to stand up. Your skin
became slightly oily and it was not as cold as you would think it
would be. Gerald and Matt did not get in the water (claiming it was
too cold), but they did take photos of us doing some "water ballet"!
After 20-30 miutes in the water, we walked across the street back to
the hotel. Everyone but me went downstairs to the hotel's hot tub,
which had the Dead Sea water in it to float in a heated pool. The Dead
sea is around 1,200 feet below sea level. You do not get sunburned
here because the UV rays are diluted as they go lower. Another reason
why this area is so popular.
After a shower, we went downstairs to another hotel buffet dinner. The
different thing about this was that beer and wine was free! Some in
the group had spa appointments and they either did them tonight or
were doing it tomorrow morning before we leave.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
We got up late and went down to breakfast at about 9:15. Some of the
group went swimming in the Dead Sea, walking around the small area
(shops, McDonalds, etc.), some exercised, ran along the beach. At
10:30 we had to have our bags out and the bus left at 11:30.
We arrived at Masada around noon. After a short orientation film we
loaded on a large
gondola (it held 80 persons) and rode up the mountain top fortress
that was built by King Herod. One theory is that a fortress was built
in the Hasmonean Period (103-76 BC). Herod built this fortress and
palace during his reign (37-4 BC); it was taken over by the Romans in
6 BC. (Herod was a Jewish King, the Romans conquered Judea in 6 BC).
In 66 AD, the Jewish revolt started and the Jews took over Masada by
the Sciarii headed by Menahem, son of Judah the Galilean). After he
was murdered, Eleazar Ben Yair became leader of the rebels in Masada.
In 70 BC the after the destruction of Jerusalem, the last of the
rebels fled to Masada. They were joined there by the Essenes and
Samaritans. The Romans aid siege to the fortress in 74 AD. The siege
lasted 2 years. The Romans finally succeeded in taking over by
building a large ramp on one side of the mountain. At the top of the
ramp, they built a tower. From the tower, the Romans had battering
rams to the gates. When the Jews realized they were beaten, they
decided to kill themselves rather than be taken a slaves by the
Romans. In the ruins, the pottery "lots" were found in the ruins of
the ten men who would be the ones to kill everyone and then the last
one of those 10 would kill himself. Two women and three children hid
in a cistern. They told the story to the Roman soldiers. The ten lots
were found and we saw the room they were found in. The remains of the
three story palace are there. The palace hangs off one side of the
cliff. To get to the top of the mountain, you can either take a
gondola (that holds 80 people) or walk up a "snake path". We rode up
and down on the cable car. There is a TV mini-series on this that was
produced by ABC in 1981, starring Peter O'Toole and the Roman Captain
and Peter Strauss as the Jewish leader.
After Masada, we took the bus to Jerusalem. The ride was about 1 ½
hours. We passed several Bedouin camps or villages. Very primitive,
although they have cars and electricity. Jacob said they are different
now in one way, they stay in one place and are not nomadic any more.
We saw several camels, sheep, goats along the way also. We passed
through Samaria and saw the road to Jericho that the Good Samaritin
story comes from.
As we came into Jerusalem, we could see the Temple Mount with the gold
dome, even though it was cloudy and hazy. We were now at 2,700 ft. and
it was cold (around 50 degrees) and windy. We stopped at a observation
point at a university to look at a great view of the city. We got off
the bus and read two books of Psalms about coming up to Jerusalem. We
traveled on to our hotel, the Hotel Dan Panorama and checked in.
Exploring was not much of an option before our 6 pm meeting because
the weather was cold and it was raining. Some of us looked at the
shops on the lower level of the hotel. At 6 we met for prayers,
reflection and to discuss the busy agenda for Thursday.
We ate at the hotel buffet and then most went up to our rooms to get
settled and to bed to be rested for the busy day ahead.
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