1/23/07 First Impressions of Jerusalem

Hello everyone,

Today we loaded up on the bus after a 2hr lecture (courtesy of our TLB prof. Todd Bolen) dedicated to a preview of Jerusalem - a thirty minute drive took us from the classroom to the city "in the flesh". To get to the "Old City", you must first pass though the modern city of Jerusalem. It is very blandly colored, slightly modern yet a bit run-down, and seemed to me to be a confusing maze of streets that would be hard to get to know. Then we arrived at the Old City. It was very cool to see the walls for the first time, and to try to imagine from the outside what actually existed within. We arrived at the Jaffa Gate, named after the city to which Jonah fled and hitched a ride to disaster. We did not enter through the gate itself, but rather by way of the road which passes through the wall.

As we walked in, we passed a tower buily by Herod, which would have been visible to Jesus when he walked the city of Jerusalem. We climbed up on the roof of the Petra Hostel, a hole-in-the-wall establishment, and viewed for the first time the Dome of the Rock. I must admit, it looked much smaller than I had anticipated, but I'm sure up close it is very impressive, with it's shiny gold top and beautiful blue-tiled walls. It was quite breezy on the roof, chilly in fact. We also saw from this rooftop the Mount of Olives. That was pretty cool, not exactly how I had pictured. It was good to get the "real deal" in my head. There are three towers across the ridge of the Mount of Olives that were quite large and impressive. Just to the right, off in the haze, we could see the land of Moab, where Ruth would have lived in the ancient times past. Because we could barely see it, it seemed sort of mysterious, beckoning us to get a closer look sometime.

We then proceded on to Shaaban's shop, an arab individual who greeted us with tasty juice and broken English. I liked Shaaban. Some of us exchanged money there, and then we proceded onward, around the corner to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was quite impressive, a massive stone structure hosting a bustle of people coming in and out. When we arrived, we could hear what Todd pointed out as the Muslim call to worship, sort of a wailing chant or song. When that ended, Todd proceded to explain what the church is - the place tradition holds to as being the place where Christ was crucified and buried. In short, Todd thinks that there is no really good reason to doubt this tradition, and it very well could be the place. Our lecture was interrupted by some magnificent sounding church bells, which lasting several minutes. The Old City is anything but quiet and peaceful.

After eating a bite for lunch, we went on to the Damascus Gate. This name comes due to the fact that if you proceded onward from this gate, you would arrive at Damascus. In my opinion, it was the coolest part of the wall that we saw today. To get there, we had to enter and travel for a bit through the Arab quarter. I definitely felt a greater sence of distaste towards us, and noticed a distinct difference in the atmosphere. Maybe the language just sounds angrier than it really is, but I don't know. Some little punk kids started messing with our backpacks while we were sitting there, and we had to tell them to bug off.

From this vantage point, we discussed Gordon's calvary, which is an alternate choice for the location of the crucifixion and ressurection of Jesus. Frankly, I think I would have to agree with Todd in that Gordon had a pretty good imagination, and my feeling from the facts about the location that we learned is that this is an incorrect designation of the historical events of the crucifixion and ressurection.

We then went on along the Northern wall and made a slow curve around to the Eastern wall, where we passed through a predominately Moslem graveyard. I will mention my thoughts about this in my Final Thoughts. We came to rest in front of a gate in the Eastern Wall (zion's gate?) that has been sealed up. We learned that the sealing of the gate and the use of the area as a graveyard is due to a tradition that Christ will enter the city through this gate. The historic period of the gate however, and the lack of solid biblical evidence for this tradition, renders it doubtful, but this response by the Moslems is interesting nonetheless.

From this spot, we had a much closer look at the Mount of Olives and were basically on the rim of the Kidron valley. Across the highway, somewhere around 80,000 Jewish graves riddled the hillside. This massive number of graves is due to the tradition that the bodily ressurection of every human being will be at the Mount of Olives. We read the story of Christ's return, Armaggedon, and the final victory - noting the fact that it could happen even as we spoke, or maybe tommorow.

We backtracked and entered the Gate that tradition has named after Stephen the Martyr, and came to the pools of Bestheda, where Jesus healed a lame man on the Sabbath. The area is a bit confusint, due to church after church being built on top of the pools. I walked down into the pools and down some stairs that led to what seemed to be a really really old cistern. We went into the old Crusader church, preserved by the Moslems as a school, and sang beautiful hymns. The acoustics were astounding.

We then went down the Via Dolorosa, picturesque although probably historically inaccurate. We continued on to the Western wall, passing through secuity (we found that pocket knives are not appreciated...mine sneaked through ok). I think that this was one of the most impressive things to me, to finally see in person. The Wailing Wall is considered to be a synagouge, therefore it is treated as a holy place. Armed guards standing around served as a reminder of the political sensitivities on the Temple Mount.

After leaving the Wall, we traveled further across the Jewish quarter and came to remains of a part of the Cardo, a Roman "main street" of sorts, that would have ran through the middle of town, north and south. The main east and west road, the Decumanus, is the way we came into the city. I would have to say that this road, set below the modern level of the city, was the first place where I felt whisked away to the ancient world, standing by pillars that used to support shade for the shops along the road, some of which are still visible. It was incredible.

Our walk ended up back at the beginning of the Decumanus, and we arrived where we had started at the Jaffa gate, precisely on schedule. The bus was a glorious sight, and my poor feet smiled.

At the end of posts such as these, I will include my final thoughts -- some may be random, others more profound.

Final Thoughts:

- Hats: Jerusalem is a city of many hats. I saw bald-spot patches, round-on-the-sides-and-flat-on-top hats, red-checkered hankeys tied on with black rope, women's headscarves, arab beanies, and other various headwarmers. It was quite amusing.

- TV Antennas: Something about tv antennas and satellite dishes above the houses overlooking the Pool of Bethseda was hilarious.

- Death: Walking past tombstones written in Arabic, and realizing that nearly all the tombs surrounding me were tombs of those who adamantly denounced the claims of Christ when they were alive made me realize that sometimes I think of places like Jerusalem as sites to see, and not souls that really do need the Savior.

There is so much more to be said, but sleep has triumphed. Hasta Luego!

Dan Warne