Israel – Day 4

Thursday, May 13

We left at 8:00AM from our Hotel in Jerusalem (the Olive Tree Hotel) and traveled the short distance south to Bethlehem. We took our passports with us since we were going through Palestinian territory.

Bethlehem – Behind the Wall

There was a huge wall constructed around the area, and we had to de-bus to get on another bus driven by people of the city (probably for a number of reasons, one good guess is because we had to stop at a gift shop and spend quite some time there). If we were on our own bus, we’d be able to go and come quickly without the gift shop stop.

In the war of ’67 the Israelis captured Jerusalem. The West Bank (Palestinian controlled area) is comes pretty far west from Jordan to the interior of Israel and right up to the Jerusalem area.

The wall is sad.

A “guide” name John hopped on our bus and read the Lord’s prayer in Aramaic to us. Aramaic was the language Jesus spoke.

We drove to the Shepherd’s Field because we found out (last minute) that the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem was closed for ceremonies (not the regular part of the church, but the place underneath where it is held traditionally that Jesus was born.

Shepherd’s Field was great (better than the Church of the Nativity).

Some insights to Bethlehem:

• There are three different processions at the Church of the Nativity: Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Aramaic.
• The announcement to the shepherds of Jesus’ Birth is thought to have been in the Shepherd’s Field area we visited.
• In the same area, the story of Ruth and Boaz occurred.
• Jacob’s wife Rachel died in the Bethlehem giving birth to Benjamin.
• It is called the City of Kings.
• Bethlehem is about 800 meters above sea level.
• The area of Bethlehem is full of caves, we saw and entered into a few.
• Caves there are warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
• Caves were easily expanded due to the soft nature of the limestone.
• It sometimes snows in Bethlehem.
• It’s 75 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem (a 4 day trip).
• Joseph and Mary came during Passover.
• The firstborn of the sheep were to be set aside for sacrifice.

Jesus, the Lamb of God was born among the fields of sheep set for sacrifice in the temple. Placed in a Manger, He would be the one to feed Israel.

We sang “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and “Silent Night” at the Shepherd’s Fields.

The Greek Orthodox and the Catholic traditions place the exact spot of the birth in different, but very close, locations underneath the church. We would see Greek Orthodox side through a hole in the door, but that’s all we got because they were cleaning it for ceremonies.

After leaving Bethlehem and passing the wall again, two machine-bearing soldiers at the checkpoint walked down the aisle of the bus checking for something (probably that we weren’t bringing unauthorized personnel with us). Our Israeli tour guide said, “don’t worry, they’re nice guys” and the soldiers smiled.

Driving Through Jerusalem and the Walls of the Old City

We headed into Jerusalem on our way to Hezekiah’s Tunnel. Our Israeli guide said that Jerusalem has been occupied or conquered by the:

• Persians
• Hellenists
• Romans
• Byzantines
• Moslems
• Christians/Crusaders
• Moslems Again

The walls of the city were rebuilt by Suleiman (sounds a lot like Solomon when pronounced) the Magnificent, so when you look at the walls, you’re not seeing the original walls, however, some of the foundations remain and some of the old stones from Herod’s period were re-used.

From Wikipedia:

The Damascus Gate (also known as Shechem Gate or Nablus Gate) (Hebrew: שער שכם‎, Sha’ar Shkhem, Arabic: باب العامود‎, Bab-al-Amud, meaning Gate of the Column) is an important gate in the Old City of Jerusalem. The modern gate was built in 1542 by the Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent.

The original gate was presumably built in Second Temple times. The Romans built a new gate at the time of Hadrian, in the second century AD. In front of the gate stood a Roman victory column, shown on the Madaba Map, thus giving the gate its name in Arabic to this day, Bab el-Amud, The Column Gate. The column has never been found, but the Roman gate can be seen today, due to excavations made during the British mandate. This was the northern entrance gate to the city at the time of the Crusades.

The gate has two towers, each equipped with machicolations. It is located at the edge of the Arab bazaar and marketplace. In contrast to the Jaffa Gate, where stairs rise towards the gate, in the Damascus Gate, the stairs descend towards the gate. In 1972, right-wing activist Rabbi Meir Kahane proposed that mezuzot be attached to the gate, to secure the Jewish claim to the gate. After repeated protests from Arab residents, the Israeli government refused to consider Kahane’s proposal. Today, only three of the Old City’s gates have mezuzot attached.

While the proper English name of the gate is “Damascus Gate”, in Hebrew it is called Sha’ar Shechem, meaning “Shechem (Nablus) Gate”. Israeli media therefore frequently refer to the gate as ‘Shechem (Nablus) Gate’ in English language publications as well. In either case, the name refers to a city north of Jerusalem, since the Damascus Gate is the main north-facing gate of the Old City. Source: Damascus Gate. (2010, April 8). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:46, June 1, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Damascus_Gate&oldid=354829291

We passed by the Damascus Gate a number of times on our trip.

Hezekiah’s Tunnel and the Pool of Siloam

I had to put in the video of the lockers at Hezekiah’s tunnel, because it would have been just fine to leave our stuff on the bus. I think only one person changed their clothes afterwards (while everyone else waited), we brought our stuff because we thought we’d need it after the tunnel, but we just got back on the bus. It was hilarious as we tried to find the Shekels to activate the lockers.

We walked underneath the locker area to an excavation area. It was quite a journey just to get to the tunnel.

We came out of the scaffolding area, and sat and listened to Jack teach for a while…I really wish I would have had my notebook then which was back in the locker.

We entered a tunnel to get to the tunnel…

The video below is the entrance to the tunnel and the water. The first few feet had a metal walkway to go out over the water, and then it was time to get a little wet.

We had little flash lights that didn’t provide enough light for the camera. It was a little hard to hold the flashlight, film with the camera, and try not to hit my head on the ceiling.

From Wikipedia:

Hezekiah’s Tunnel, or the Siloam Tunnel is a tunnel that was dug underneath the Ophel in Jerusalem before 701 BC during the reign of Hezekiah. It is mentioned in the Bible. The tunnel has been securely dated both by the written inscription and by dating organic matter contained in the original plastering. It is one of the few intact, 8th century BC structures in the world that the public can not only visit, but enter and walk through.

The tunnel, leading from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam, was designed to act as an aqueduct to provide Jerusalem with water during an impending siege by the Assyrians, led by Sennacherib. The curving tunnel is 533 m long, and by using a 30 cm (0.6%) gradient altitude difference between each end, conveyed water along its length from the spring to the pool.

According to an inscription (the Siloam inscription) found within it, the tunnel was excavated by two teams, one starting at each end of the tunnel and then meeting in the middle. The inscription is partly unreadable at present, and may originally have conveyed more information than this. It is clear from the tunnel itself that several directional errors were made during its construction. Recent scholarship has discredited the idea that that the tunnel may have been formed by substantially widening a pre-existing natural karst.

The difficult feat of making two teams digging from opposite ends meet far underground is now understood to have been accomplished by directing the two teams from above using sounds generated by hammering on the solid karst through which the tunnelers were digging.

The ancient city of Jerusalem, being on a mountain, is naturally defensible from almost all sides, but suffers from the drawback that its major source of fresh water, the Gihon spring, is on the side of the cliff overlooking the Kidron Valley. This presents a major military weakness as the city walls, if high enough to be defensible, must necessarily leave the Gihon spring outside, thus leaving the city without a fresh water supply in case of siege.

The Bible says that King Hezekiah (c. 8th century BC), fearful that the Assyrians would lay siege to the city, blocked the spring’s water outside the city and diverted it through a channel into the then Pool of Siloam. However, it is now known (as of 1997) that the earlier Warren’s shaft system had already heavily fortified the Gihon Spring; Warren’s shaft is not an aqueduct, and requires those desiring water to travel up and down it themselves – an arrangement that Hezekiah seemingly must have considered inadequate.

In 1899, another tunnel, also leading from the Gihon Spring to the Siloam Pool area, but by a more direct route, was found. This latter tunnel is now known as the Middle Bronze Age channel, on account of its estimated age; Reich determined that it was constructed around 1800 BC (in the Middle Bronze Age), and thus that the spring’s water had already been diverted many centuries before Hezekiah. It is essentially a 20 feet deep ditch in the ground, which after construction was covered over by large rock slabs (which were then hidden in the foliage). It is narrower, but can still be walked by a human for most of its length. In addition to the (3 ft high) exit near the Siloam pool, the channel has several small outlets that watered the gardens facing the Kidron Valley[10]. Hezekiah’s tunnel in effect acts as a replacement for this channel, the ability for an assailant to discover the roof slabs being a weak point.

Hezekiah’s tunnel, discovered in 1838 by the American biblical scholar Edward Robinson, can be walked through today from end to end.

The Bible verses relating to Hezekiah’s tunnel are these:

“And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?” 2 Kings 20:20

“And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem, He took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which were without the city: and they did help him. So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?” 2 Chronicles 32:2-4

“This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works.” 2 Chronicles 32:30

Source: Hezekiah’s Tunnel. (2010, May 30). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:41, June 1, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hezekiah%27s_Tunnel&oldid=364944116

We were in the tunnel for a while, and really, it was the deepest at the very beginning and the very end. The rest of the water was up to our ankles or lower shins. I was surprised that it wasn’t slippery inside or mossy. The water clips through at a pretty good rate. I was able to keep dry, but we’re told that the water level varies throughout the year.

From Wikipedia:

Pool of Siloam (Hebrew: בריכת השילוח‎) (Breikhat Hashiloah) is a rock-cut pool on the southern slope of the City of David, the original site of Jerusalem, located outside the walls of the Old City to the southeast. The pool was fed by the waters of the Gihon Spring, carried there by two aqueducts.

The Pool of Siloam is mentioned several times in the Bible. Isaiah 8:6 mentions the pool’s waters, while Isaiah 22:9 ff. references the construction of Hezekiah’s tunnel. For Christians, the pool has additional significance as it is mentioned in the Gospel of John, as the location to which Jesus sent a man who had been blind from birth, as part of the act of healing him.

A substantial remodeling of the pool was constructed in the 5th century, under Byzantine direction, and is said to have been built at the behest of the Empress Aelia Eudocia. This pool, having been somewhat abandoned and left to ruin, partly survives to the present day; surrounded by a high wall of stones on all sides (except for an arched entrance to Hezekiah’s tunnel – which was only rediscovered in the 19th century). Source: Pool of Siloam. (2010, May 18). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:52, June 1, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pool_of_Siloam&oldid=362794682

After exiting the tunnel, you can go see the Pool of Siloam one way and also see the other way an excavation of 2,000 year old steps leading up the temple. Steps that it was likely that the Savior would have walked.

We then drove through the city up above to look over the city.

Church of All Nations on the Mount of Olives which houses the bedrock where it is believed that Jesus Prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane

Looking out Over the City…With a Camel

We drove to a point that overlooks the temple mount and old city, and the guy that has a Camel was there (apparently, this is the spot for riding a camel that people come to for pictures).

On the way there, we learned about the prodigal son.

We could see the Mercy Gate from where we were. Our Israeli tour guide referred to it always as the Mercy Gate. I thought it was called the Golden Gate. After researching on Wikipedia, we recently found the difference in the terms:

The Golden Gate, as it is called in Christian literature, is the oldest of the current gates in Jerusalem’s Old City Walls. According to Jewish tradition, the Shekhinah (שכינה) (Divine Presence) used to appear through this gate, and will appear again when the Messiah comes (Ezekiel 44:1–3) and a new gate replaces the present one; that is why Jews used to pray for mercy at the former gate at this location. Hence the name Sha’ar Harachamim (שער הרחמים), the Gate of Mercy. In Christian apocryphal texts, the gate was the scene of a meeting between the parents of Mary, so that Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate became a standard subject in cycles depicting the Life of the Virgin. It is also said that Jesus passed through this gate on Palm Sunday. In Arabic, it is known as the Gate of Eternal Life. In ancient times, the gate was known as the Beautiful Gate.

Remains of a much older gate dating to the times of the Second Jewish Temple were found. The present one was probably built in the 520s AD, as part of Justinian I’s building program in Jerusalem, on top of the ruins of the earlier gate in the wall. An alternate theory holds that it was built in the later part of the 7th century by Byzantine artisans employed by the Umayyad khalifs.

The gate is located in the middle of the eastern side of the Temple Mount. The portal in this position was believed to have been used for ritual purposes in biblical times.
In Jewish tradition, this is the gate through which the Messiah will enter Jerusalem. Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I sealed off the Golden Gate in 1541 to prevent the Messiah’s entrance. The Muslims also built a cemetery in front of the gate, in the belief that the precursor to the Messiah, Elijah, would not be able to pass through, since he is a Kohen. This belief is erroneous because a Kohen is permitted to enter a cemetery in which primarily non-Jews are buried.

The Golden Gate is one of the few sealed gates in Jerusalem’s Old City Walls, along with the Huldah Gates, and a small Biblical and Crusader-era postern located several stories above ground on the southern side of the eastern wall. Source: Golden Gate (Jerusalem). (2010, May 16). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:56, June 1, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Golden_Gate_(Jerusalem)&oldid=362510418

We got back to our hotel, and after dinner, decided to walk into the Old City. We made it to the Old City just in time for the shops to close. We entered through the Damascus Gate.

To read about the other days in our trip, click below:

The Airport
Israel – Day 1
Israel – Day 2
Israel – Day 3
Israel – Day 4
Israel – Day 5
Israel – Day 6
Israel – Day 7