Garden Tomb- Jerusalem

On a 2 acre plot of Land in Jerusalem

is what many believe to be a viable spot 

for the burial spot of Jesus.

The Gospel of John says,

 "... at the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden ... "

  (John 19: 38; 41)If you have a garden, you need lots of water, 

especially in the dry Middle East. 

The Garden Tomb contains one of the oldest and largest cisterns in Jerusalem.

It's 2,000 years old and holds about 200,000 gallons of water. 

"So the tomb we have here is a typical of a first century

 Jewish rolling stone tomb.

 It's dated at least 2,000 years, possibly older." 

Inside the Garden Tomb

In Jerusalem for a visit in 1883, General Charles Gordon 

spied a prominent rocky crag which looked to him

 like it could be the “place of the skull” mentioned 

in the Bible as where Jesus was crucified.

Around the corner Gordon identified an ancient tomb 

and putting the two together he located 

the hill of crucifixion and the nearby burial place.

Much of the "face" of the skull 

has slipped in the past one hundred years.

Whether the actual death and burial site of Jesus 

is at this site or at the church of the Holy Sepulcher-

this Easter Day 2017, we are reminded that we 

do not worship the site but the person.

Giving thanks for the truth 

of His Word that endures forever. 

 He is Risen!

He is Risen indeed! 

Holy Saturday- Church of the Holy Sepulcher

 Holy Saturday Vigil- 

remembering our visit in Jerusalem to the 

Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

A challenge to all the senses.

Overwhelming a bit.
 Hundreds of years of honoring,
protecting, and worshipping.
And yes, even struggling 
over who owns rights to this spot.
"The church is in the Christian Quarter 
of the Old City of Jerusalem.
The Church contains according to traditions 
dating back to at least the fourth century, 
the two holiest sites in Christianity; 
the site where Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, 
at a place know as "Calvary" or "Golgotha",
and Jesus's empty tomb, 
where he is said
 to have been buried and resurrected."

                                                Wikipedia
 The tomb is enclosed by the 18th-century shrine, 
called the Edicule.
(restoration and repair recently completed)

Part of the Golgotha rock

There is the Via Dolorosa and then
"within the church proper are the last four 
(or, by some definitions, five) 
Stations of the Via Dolorosa, 
representing the final episodes of Jesus' Passion. 
The church has been a major 
Christian pilgrimage destination 
since its creation in the fourth century, 
as the traditional site 
of the Resurrection of Christ." 

The Stone of Anointing, where Jesus' body

 is said to have been anointed before burial.

(recently added as a station of the cross)

"This site can be bewildering conglomeration of 30-plus chapels and worship spaces.

 These are encrusted with the devotional ornamentation of several Christian rites.

Parvis (courtyard) of Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Seetheholyland.net)

This sprawling Church of the Holy Sepulchre displays a mish-mash of architectural styles. It bears the scars of fires and earthquakes, deliberate destruction and reconstruction down the centuries. It is often gloomy and usually thronging with noisy visitors.

Yet it remains a living place of worship. Its ancient stones are steeped in prayer, hymns and liturgies. It bustles daily with fervent rounds of incensing and processions."

On this Saturday Vigil I am drawn

 to this simple door-

weighty with the heaviness 

of all that took place at this site-

or nearby.

And give thanks- 

Sunday's Coming.

(Wikipedia resource)

Church of All Nations- Israel Pilgrimage

 This Good Friday has my reflections 

centered in Jerusalem.

In the Garden of Gethsemane

 is the Church of All Nations.

The Church of All Nations, 

standing near the foot of the Mount of Olives

 in Jerusalem, is built over the rock on which Jesus 

is believed to have prayed

 in agony the night before he was crucified.

The church and the adjacent Garden of Gethsemane,

with its eight ancient olive trees, 

provide an evocative place for meditation, 

especially when visited at night.

The church is also known as the Basilica of the Agony. 

Completed in 1924, it is the third church on the site.

Its design blends the façade of a typically Roman basilica

 with a roof of 12 small domes that suggest an Eastern character. 

Will you watch and pray with me?

Oh, Father, if it be your will.

The rock over which Jesus 

might have prayed in the Garden.

Protected here in the church for others to see.

The Betrayal with a kiss.

Beautiful ceiling.

Stained glass window.

Exterior of Church of All Nations-
named this-
 because so many nations
 helped to pay for this building.

The richly-coloured triangular mosaic 

at the top of the façade 
makes it a Jerusalem landmark.

The view from the courtyard.

Oh Jerusalem, Oh Jerusalem.

Garden of Gethsemane

Garden of Gethsemane 

A dark night of anguish for my Savior.

Fulfilling His Father's will.

Out of His deep love for me.

Maundy Thursday will always be encased

 in the words of the following hymn.

Thought I would share the words here

 as I learned them so long ago,

and a bit about the author.

Go to Dark Gethsemane 

1 Go to dark Gethsemane,

You who feel the tempter's pow'r;

Your Redeemer's conflict see;

Watch with Him one bitter hour;

Turn not from His griefs away;

Learn of Jesus Christ to pray.

2 Follow to the judgment hall;

View the Lord of life arraigned;

O the worm-wood and the gall!

O the pangs His soul sustained!

Shun not suff'ring, shame, or loss;

Learn of Him to bear the cross.

3 Calv'ry's mournful mountain climb

There' adoring at His feet,

Mark the miracle of time,

God's own sacrifice complete:

"It is finished!" Hear the cry;

Learn of Jesus Christ to die.

4 Early hasten to the tomb

Where they laid his breathless clay;

All is solitude and gloom;

Who hath taken Him away?

Christ is ris'n! He meets our eyes:

Savior, teach us so to rise.

Author of Hymn- 
Go to Dark Gethsemane-
 James Montgomery

Montgomery, James, son of John Montgomery, a Moravian minister, was born at Irvine, Ayrshire, Nov. 4, 1771. In 1776 he removed with his parents to the Moravian Settlement at Gracehill, near Ballymena, county of Antrim. Two years after he was sent to the Fulneck Seminary, Yorkshire. He left Fulneck in 1787, and entered a retail shop at Mirfield, near Wakefield. Soon tiring of that he entered upon a similar situation at Wath, near Rotherham, only to find it quite as unsuitable to his taste as the former. A journey to London, with the hope of finding a publisher for his youthful poems ended in failure; and in 1792 he was glad to leave Wath for Shefield to join Mr. Gales, an auctioneer, bookseller, and
printer of the Sheffield Register newspaper, as his assistant. In 1794 Mr. Gales left England to avoid a political prosecution. Montgomery took the Sheffield Register in hand, changed its name to The Sheffield Iris, and continued to edit
it for thirty-one years. During the next two years he was imprisoned twice,
first for reprinting therein a song in commemoration of "The Fall of the Bastille," and the second for giving an account of a riot in Sheffield. The editing of his paper, the composition and publication of his poems and hymns, the delivery
of lectures on poetry in Sheffield and at the Royal Institution, London,
and the earnest advocacy of Foreign Missions and the Bible Society in many parts of the country, gave great variety but very little of stirring incident to his life. In 1833 he received a Royal pension of £200 a year. He died in his sleep,
at the Mount, Sheffield, April 30, 1854, and was honoured with a public funeral. 

Palace of Agrippa II- Banias - Israel

Agrippa II was the great-grandson of Herod the Great, 

raised and educated at the imperial court in Rome. 

He was a friend of Rome but a loyal patron of his Jewish subjects, 

and he did what he could to avert to cataclysm that began in 66AD,

 when the Jewish Rebellion broke out.

Ultimately he sided with the Romans, because he knew they would win.

 Pragmatism was part of his nature. 

But he was also well-placed to negotiate for the survivors at the end of the War.

Agrippa II and Paul of Tarsus. 

In 60AD, when Paul had been in prison for two years,

 the procurator in Judea, Festus, consulted Agrippa concerning his case. 

This happened during a visit that Agrippa and his sister Bernice 

were making to Caesarea 

(Agrippa and Bernice were said to be having an incestuous affair,

 though the writer of Acts tactfully does not mention this). (wikipedia)

Sometimes the part of being in the Holy Land 

is the ability to picture just where the stories 

took place that we read about in the Bible. 

This is one of those spots.

Trial of St. Paul in front of Agrippa, Bernice and Festus.

Nikolai Bodarevsky- 1875- Russia.

Acts 25:14-27New International Version (NIV)

14 Since they were spending many days there, Festus discussed Paul’s case with the king. He said: “There is a man here whom Felix left as a prisoner. 15 When I went to Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges against him and asked that he be condemned.

16 “I told them that it is not the Roman custom to hand over anyone before they have faced their accusers and have had an opportunity to defend themselves against the charges. 17 When they came here with me, I did not delay the case, but convened the court the next day and ordered the man to be brought in. 18 When his accusers got up to speak, they did not charge him with any of the crimes I had expected. 19 Instead, they had some points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive. 20 I was at a loss how to investigate such matters; so I asked if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem and stand trial there on these charges. 21 But when Paul made his appeal to be held over for the Emperor’s decision, I ordered him held until I could send him to Caesar.”

22 Then Agrippa said to Festus, “I would like to hear this man myself.”

He replied, “Tomorrow you will hear him.”

Paul Before Agrippa

23 The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and entered the audience room with the high-ranking military officers and the prominent men of the city. At the command of Festus, Paul was brought in. 24 Festus said: “King Agrippa, and all who are present with us, you see this man! The whole Jewish community has petitioned me about him in Jerusalem and here in Caesarea, shouting that he ought not to live any longer. 25 I found he had done nothing deserving of death, but because he made his appeal to the Emperor I decided to send him to Rome. 26 But I have nothing definite to write to His Majesty about him. Therefore I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that as a result of this investigation I may have something to write.27 For I think it is unreasonable to send a prisoner on to Rome without specifying the charges against him.”

 That good ole Roman arch.

One of the very best (and oldest) cruciforms

found in ancient Israel is found here at this site.

And as always- 

things sort of connect and mix up time frames.

Underneath- 

the still in use Roman arch- the Roman bridge.

Up above- 

the road cars and truck use as they pass over,

 on their way to Golan.

Israel Pilgrimage 5- Tel Dan

 The Gate at Tel Dan.
Excavation and reconstruction
 of the Eastern Bronze Age gate.

Built about 1800 B.C., this mudbrick gate 

was in use approximately 50 years

 before it was covered 
(and thus preserved) 
by an earthen rampart.

The style of the gate is typical for this period;

 it is a “Syrian gate” with three pairs of piers 

and four chambers, like those found at Megiddo, 

Shechem and Gezer.

Scale model of the rendering
 of how the original gate looked. 

Iron Age Gate area

On the northern frontier of the kingdom,

 Dan was particularly well fortified.  

The gatehouse was built in the ninth century, 

probably by Ahab, and is part of a series of gateways discovered.

 This area has the discovery of the Dan Inscription-

 which mentions the “House of David.”

Few modern Biblical archaeology discoveries 

have caused as much excitement as the Tel Dan inscription—

writing on a ninth-century B.C. stone slab

 (or stela) that furnished the first historical evidence of

King David from the Bible.

The Tel Dan inscription, or “House of David” inscription,

 was discovered in 1993 at the site of Tel Dan in northern Israel

in an excavation directed by Israeli archaeologist Avraham Biran.

The broken and fragmentary inscription commemorates

 the victory of an Aramean king over his two southern neighbors: 

the “king of Israel” and the “king of the House of David.”

 In the carefully incised text written in neat Aramaic characters, 

the Aramean king boasts that he, under the divine guidance of the god Hadid, 

vanquished several thousand Israelite and Judahite horsemen and charioteers 

before personally dispatching both of his royal opponents. 

Unfortunately, the recovered fragments of the “House of David”

 inscription do not preserve the names of the specific kings

 involved in this brutal encounter, but most scholars

 believe the stela recounts a campaign of Hazael of Damascus 

in which he defeated both Jehoram of Israel and Ahaziah of Judah.

11-8-2016- Biblical Archeology (originally published in 2011.)

High Place of Jeroboam

Nearly all archaeologists agree that this excavated podium

 was the one that Jeroboam constructed

 to house the golden calf at Dan.  

Archaeologists now think the platform was roofed.

Evidence of a four-horned altar has been found

 as well as religious objects such as three iron shovels,

 a small horned altar, and an iron incense holder.

 2 Kings 12, Jeroboam built new temples at Bethel
 (on Israel’s southern border) and at Dan (on the northern border). 
At each of these shrines, he set up a golden bull calf, 
calling them Elohim, the gods who brought the Israelites out of Egypt. 
This appropriation of the Hebrew name for God
 and the Exodus tradition signified a savvy political attempt 
to construct a new national epic for the north-
 centered around the resonant themes
 of the erstwhile United Monarchy. 

This is in a part of  
the northernmost section 
of the Galilee in our travels to Israel.

Near here the waters of the Jordan River
 flow down from Mount Hermon.

The Nature Reserve at Tel Dan 
makes for a beautiful stop on your time 
"up North".