The Old City, The Oldest City, the Lowest City (with thanks to Mary Margaret and Hoyt)

So we set out today, Wednesday November 9, to tour the Old City of Jerusalem and to go to the Dome of the Rock.  We started out early, as it promised to be a long day.  We met down at breakfast at about 7:30 so we’d be ready to go at 8.  That was good, since we mostly avoided the big groups that are in the hotel.  This hotel, the Mount David, is awesome.

So anyway. We were stuck at the wall, waiting for the checkpoint stuff to clear.  The conversation in the van turned to Obama and Sarkozy and Palestinian Christians and Muslims and their relationships to each other.  I think the Obama “slip” shows that he does have an understanding that he’s dealing with Israelis who have a hidden agenda and may not be forthcoming in their negotiations.  Regarding the relationships between Christians, Muslims, and Jews, we were told that traditionally, that relationship had been good but has deteriorated since 1948.

So we entered the old city through the Dung Gate, and decided that if we were lost, that’s where we’d meet up.  The Dung Gate, incidentally, is where I got the Israeli police hats.  As usual, we discussed the Israeli settlements, the Geneva Convention, and their illegal occupation of the West Bank.  (In a nutshell, they’re there illegally, in violation of the Geneva Convention, and building in an occupied territory is CERTAINLY illegal.  They maintain that possession of the land is theirs because they took it from Jordan who was not legally in possession of it.)  We talked about the formerly progressive Labor party and the conservative Likud party, and how, contrary to what one would have thought, illegal settlements have actually grown under the Labor party.

The Dome of the Rock was closed, so we went to the Western Wall and then headed off to Masada. 

On the way, we passed through Ein Gedi, noting that references to it can be found in 2 Samuel (David goes through it) and in the Song of Songs.  A Gedi is a kind of Ibex, though we never saw any.  Josephus, the historian also talks about Ein Gedi, and talks about the defenders of Masada.  (By this time, I think we’d made it to Masada). The defenders of Masada are ruthless, and the attack on Ein Gedi occurs on Passover (more on this later).  We learned that the Sadducees, Pharisees, Zealots, and Essenes were the four groups Josephus refers to.

The Sicarii are also a group at Masada.  Josephus appears to suggest the Sicarii were some sort of anti-Roman terrorist group who wanted to violently expel the Romans from the area.  When they were unsuccessful, they spent the rest of their time on Masada (which means “mountain fortress.”).

The group went down to look at Herod’s winter palace, while I sat to try and collect my thoughts.  While Masada represents a rallying point in modern Jewish national identity, there also appears to be archaeological and historical evidence to suggest that these folk were the Sicarii, the terrorist group that wanted Rome destroyed and wanted to kill all Israelites who cooperated with Rome.  The fact that they (the Sicarii) committed mass suicide is not heroic; it’s acknowledgement that their mission failed.  Peter sees parallels to the mass homicide/suicide that happened on Passover after a failed mission with the fact that Judas killed himself on Passover after betraying Jesus.  I’m not quite sure I can make that connection. 

But I do realize that Masada is a  indisputable archaeological site because it shows us how Romans defended themselves (there was an outer wall that, in times of peace could be used as living quarters, but in times of war could be filled with rocks and used to fortify the walls surrounding the location); how they relaxed (the preserved frescoes, the bathing rooms with hot, medium and cold baths, the vaulted ceilings so the condensation didn’t drip on you in the steam rooms, and the system for heating the sauna, with underground water and terra-cotta pipes on the walls.  Really pretty amazing).

Another guide was talking about ritual suicide.  His version, and presumably the “company line,” was quite different than Peter’s version.  The group has gone down to see Herod’s palace.  While I passed (too many steps for me), I do note that I can go down steps without holding the handrail and without my cane. I couldn’t do that when I left NYC; we’re supposed to be working on that in my last three Physical Therapy classes.  So I guess I’m making some progress with these old knees. 

We stopped at the bottom of Masada for snacks.  I was relieved to see large coffees, and ordered one.  I got a medium.  Then I went over to get ice cream. I got passion fruit and pecan.  It was 18 NIS. I gave the guy two 10 shekel coins.  He claimed he didn’t have any change.  I wonder how much he makes every day with that racket?

So then we went on to Qumran, the site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were originally found.  I posted last night about seeing the Scrolls in the Israel Museum.  So the folk at Qumran, the Essenes, rejected the Temple Cult (the Pharisees and Sadducees).  Among other things, they adopted a solar calendar instead of a lunar calendar.  But they saw themselves as the true Israel.

We’ve talked a bit about this term Israel. The ancient Israelites, the “Israel” referred to in the Bible, were a People, not a Place.  This People self-identified as Israelites, although others have referred to them with various labels, including “Judean.”  From this term “Judean,” we apparently get the modern appellation “Jewish.”   The problem is that the ancient Israelites were a fairly diverse mix of Ancient Near Eastern people.  Over time, people who have been labeled “Judean” have been expelled from various places around the world.  They’ve come together under the umbrella term Jewish, which would be fine except that there now appears to be an attempt by this group of people to assert that they have a right to “return” to the lands inhabited by the original Israelite people.  I ain’t tryna be racist, y’all.  I’m saying that it’s crazy to think that a bunch of people of European descent have a “right” to return to the Middle Eastern land once inhabited by the Ancient Israelites.  If that’s the case, then instead of funding them, the US Government needs to make arrangements to give me my 40 acres and a mule here in the US, and/or make clear the way for me to “return” to anywhere I choose in Africa and then support that economy.  Oh, that would be neither logically sound, morally right nor economically feasible?  Well, then….

After Qumran, we went on to Jericho.  Jericho is the oldest continually inhabited City in the world.  I think the figures are that Jerusalem has been continually inhabited for 6,000 years, and Jericho has been continually inhabited for 8,000 years.  It is also the lowest permanently inhabited city in the world, at about 820 feet below sea level.  We had lunch in the Arab quarter.  The group raved about it; I wasn’t really impressed.  It was just ok.  Thankfully, it wasn’t the lavish spread we’d been accustomed to getting.  So we went to see the Tel Es Sultan, which is by the Spring of Elisha (where Elisha sweetened the water).  This area has been continuously inhabited for 8,000 years.   This was what we saw of Old Testament Jericho.

Then we went on to New Testament Jericho.  We passed by Herod’s winter palace.  We saw a place where there’s an unexcavated structure of something like a horseracing track with an amphitheatre, but it’s on private property and won’t likely be excavated soon.  We also went back to the Sycamore tree that Zacchaeus climbed.  We read the passage from Luke 19:1-10, where Peter reads “Jesus” was small in stature.  He does this because, he says, the original Greek does not state who the “he” is.  I wonder if the Greek has a linguistic rule like English, where a pronoun without a definite article is assumed to refer to the last noun referenced.  Or something like that.  I don’t know Greek grammar well enough to debate the point, and so didn’t choose to bring it up there. 

The point Peter wanted to make, which is a valid one, is that interpretation and translation modify the text.  Peter’s assertion is that in the original Greek, “he” is not definite.  (See question above about rules of grammar regarding referents without definite articles).  We translate through tradition, and our readings of the text are often informed not by what the text says, but by what our tradition says. I need to find that passage in the Greek and read it.

From there we went on the Old Jericho Road.  That was amazing, full of twists and turns and crevices. It did illuminate the Good Samaritan story.  We stopped at St. George’s monastery, which is nothing short of breathtaking.

We’re back in the hotel; I’m uploading pics, and then will pack.  We’re up at 6 tomorrow, off to the Old City at 7:30, and then on to Jordan.

It’s been a great journey so far!