Janna's Jerusalem Journies: Nazareth, Sea of Galilee, Jordan River, and Northern Israel-Bible study trip #3 May 5th, 2013

This Bible study field trip was very biblical, last time, in Masada, not so much. We rented a car for the day and made several stops in Northern Israel.

We started with a brief stop at Tel Megiddo. A 'Tel' is a mound created by years and years of inhabitants. According to wikipeda there are 26 layers of ruins at Tel Megiddo. Megiddo comes from the Hebrew 'Har Megiddo' (הר מגידו) which means Mountain Megiddo, even though it isn't actually a mountain. This is where the word "armageddon" comes from. This is the site from Revelation 16:16 where 'kings will gather and there will be a battle on the day of God Almighty'. It overlooks the valley of Jezreel where many battles were fought, and where the battle of armageddon will be fought in the end times according to Revelation. There is a national park at Tel Megiddo, but we had a full day planned, so we just checked out the view of the Jezreel valley.

Entrance to Tel Megiddo

Bible study crew in front of the valley of Jezreel (Dan, Veronica, David, me)

We were awaiting the Armageddon. I wasn't sure how that would look.

Next we went to Nazareth, where Mary was from and where Jesus possibly spent his childhood. We went to the Church of the Annunciation which is built over a cave thought to be Mary's home. It is also built over ruins of older churches, including one by.....guess! Saint Helena! She and I are besties at this point. This is thought to be where the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary telling her she would conceive the Son of God. The Greek Orthodox believe it was when she was taking water from a well and they have a church and shrine built there, but we did not visit it.

It has been pretty hot in Israel the past couple weeks, so I was wearing a skirt and tank top. Unfortunately I didn't think about needing to cover my shoulders, and they wouldn't let me in unless I could. Luckily I was layering two tanks, so I just took the top one off and covered my shoulders with it and thankfully the guy let me in! Phew! It was very nice and open. It's probably the prettiest church we have seen since we've been in Israel. The churches here are just so plain compared to European churches. It had different levels, we entered on the ground level and Mary's cave is one level lower but is open to see from the ground level. We walked down to get a closer look, then back up to the ground level. After that we walked up to the next level which is the actual sanctuary. Different countries have given the church art portraying Mary which is lining the walls. They were huge and beautiful! Even the floor was beautiful, very colorful, we've gotten so used to white stone.

Right next to the church of the annunciation is St Joseph's church which, like the Church of the Annunciation, was built over older church ruins, but it was also built over what is thought to be Joseph's workshop. So that was cool to see! We walked around some and checked everything out, then it was on to our next stop.

Our next stop was still in Nazareth though.....a famous Arab pastry shop called Mahroum Sweets that was mentioned in Dan's guide book. We got a slab of halva (a dessert in Israel made with sesame seeds) and a couple round things with pistachios called borma, it was all very tasty. The halva seemed to have a strange effect on Skye though, he was unusually hyper the rest of the day!

Church of the Annunciation

Mary's cave in the Church of the Annunciation

Upper level in the Church of the Annunciation

Pretty floor in the Church of the Annunciation

Mary art given by the US of A. Hooray for the only 3D one!

Inside St Joseph's church

Joseph's workshop

Halva and borma!

From Nazareth we drove to Cana to the church where Jesus turned wine into water. There are also two of these churches, one where the Greek Orthodox thought it happened, and one where the Franciscans thought it happened. We started at the Greek Orthodox church, which was beautiful! It was small and quaint with a very pretty courtyard. Inside the walls and ceiling were covered in detailed, colorful paintings.

After that we found the Franciscan church, and unfortunately it was closed, so we couldn't go in. We took a picture of the front of it through the locked gates, then headed to some little shops for postcards. At one of the shops we noticed some Cana pomegranate wine and Veronica and I decided we should probably get some miracle wine! NONE of the shops had postcards! It was so sad (I collect postcards from all the places we visit instead of souvenirs). But then I noticed that there were big rectangle sticker labels on the boxes of wine and asked the man if I could just buy one of those. He was so sweet, he went through his drawer and pulled out one of each different label and just gave them to me as a gift. They're post card size, so they'll work great!

Wedding church in Cana (the Greek Orthodox version)

Wedding church courtyard

Fountain in the courtyard

Gazebo in the courtyard

Wedding church interior above the altar

Wedding church interior, so colorful!

Wedding church bells in the courtyard

Headed to the Franciscan version

The bible verse about Jesus turning water into wine along the alley wall
(next to Skye in the picture above)

Wedding Church, Franciscan version

Next we drove through Tiberias and stopped off to look at the Sea of Galilee there, then we moved on to the Mount of the Beatitudes. The Mount of the Beatitudes is where Jesus gave his sermon on the mount. Now it's a very pretty and nicely landscaped area with a Franciscan church built in 1938, a guest house, and tourist facilities. There are also remains of a cistern and monastery, possibly from between the 4th and 7th century.

As we walked up the hill to the church Dan read us the passage with the Beatitudes and just as he was reading them, David noticed that they were posted on stones along the path and he read the exact one at nearly the exact second that we passed it! The church seemed plain, at least for the 20 seconds that I saw it. Veronica and I got yelled at by a nun for wearing tanks! We had stepped in before she caught us, so we did get a short glimpse. The mount was so pretty and peaceful so we walked around a little before heading to our next destination.

Hello, Tiberias!

Sea of Galilee from Tiberias

Skye and me in front of the Sea of Galilee in Tiberias

Mount of the Beatitudes

Sea of Galilee from the Mount of the Beatitudes

Headed up the mount....

Mount of the Beatitudes

Church on Mount of the Beatitudes

The Church of the Primacy of St Peter was our next destination. It was a small church built over the site of a 4th century church, which was built over the site thought to be where Jesus laid out a breakfast of fish and bread for the disciples and reinstated Peter from John 21. It was on the shore of the sea of Galilee, so Veronica and I waded in the water a little.

Church of the Primacy of St Peter

Altar in the Church of the Primacy

Pretty stained glass

I'm in the Sea of Galilee!

David, Skye and Dan at the Sea of Galilee

Finally we headed off to our last stop, the Yardenit Baptismal site on the Jordan River. Jesus was baptized in the Jordan river but they believe that actual site is closer to Jordan and the Dead Sea. However, this site was very nice. They have it set up for baptismal services with concrete paths and railings on the side of the river. There were a few groups doing baptisms while we were there, but it wasn't too crowded. They even had locker room facilities and a huge gift shop. You know, one of those that you have to enter and exit through. But this was good news for my postcard collection! They have a glass case with pictures of famous people who visited, like Glen Beck.

I got my postcards and we piled back in the car for Jerusalem. It was such a nice day! We got to see so much and everything went very smoothly. So many Jesus sites! Thank you to Dan and Veronica for doing the research and planning the day for us!