Shalom, shalom! The Feast of Passover, which is better known to us non-Jews as the Holy Week, has just concluded in Israel, and here I am again writing the next installment of my adventures there.
Again, some information about Israel. Israel forms a part of a land bridge linking three continents: Asia, Africa and Europe. It is a small, narrow, semi-arid country, and as of 2016, its population is more than 8.5 million people.
A wide spectrum of lifestyles characterizes the country, ranging from religious to secular, from modern to traditional, from urban to rural, and from communal to individual.
So join me again, as we explore more places, meet more people and learn about this nation's rich history and culture.
This article will cover the areas of the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum and the Jordan River. This is already the second day of exploring the land. Ready? Here we go.
This is the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Lake Kinneret, Lake of Gennesaret or Lake Tiberias. Since our second hotel was in Tiberias, the lake was just a few minutes walk from our hotel, so we'd walk there early in the mornings to just breathe in the fresh air and to bask in the atmosphere of the lake.
The Sea of Galilee is actually a freshwater lake and it is very famous because of its prominence in the New Testament, as is the whole region of the Galilee, having been the place where Jesus lived. Here in this picture we were joking around that I'd bring this rock home for exfoliating, ha ha ha!
The Sea of Galilee is Israel's largest freshwater lake. It is about 13 miles long and 7 miles wide, and it is about 150 meters deep, and it lies 650 feet below sea level. It is the primary source of drinking water for the nation of Israel. It is fed by the Jordan River, which then drains to the south and flows to the Dead Sea.
These pictures were all taken early morning, as this would be the only time we have to leisurely enjoy the area without time limits. So since we were jet lagged, as soon as we woke up and showered, we'd walk to the beach and wait for the sunrise.
This is the same sea, where, when there was a storm, and the disciples sailed on without Jesus, and as they were so scared they might capsize, they saw Jesus walk on water. When Peter learned that it was the Lord walking on water, he asked Jesus to ask him to come, which Jesus did, and Peter also walked on water, but immediately started to drown when he got scared because he saw the big waves. That story is found in the book of Matthew chapter 12, if you'd like to read it.
So why would there be sudden storms in the lake, you ask? Set in the hills of northern Israel, the Sea of Galilee is nearly 700 feet below sea level. The location of the lake makes it subject to sudden and violent storms as the wind comes over the eastern mountains and drops suddenly onto the sea.
These are some of the hills that surround it, so when the easterlies, as the winds are called, start blowing, be ready for a storm. The disciples, when they sailed, sailed in calm weather, and then during the night, a sudden storm arose, and Jesus had to calm them down.
We'd go into the water and pick small stones to bring back as souvenirs to all of our friends who were so happy for us that we could go and set foot on the places where the Lord Jesus walked.
In one of our morning walks we met a Jewish man walking, so he chatted with us and we asked if we could take a picture with him, and he nicely agreed. He looks like one of us, doesn't he? :-) The locals are very warm and friendly.
This is the driveway to our hotel, and this is the path we take when we go to the lake and explore. We had fun doing jump shots in these area, but the shots made us look like ghosts, ha ha ha.
That's the coastal city of Tiberias in the background. It was founded during the reign of Herod, and he made Tiberias the capital of his realm in Galilee, naming it after the Roman Emperor Tiberius.
Another passage in the bible that mentions the Sea of Galilee is after Jesus rose from the dead, and the disciples were fishing the whole night but did not catch any. When morning came, Jesus, who was on the shore told them to cast the net on the right side, and when they did, the boat almost capsized because there was so much fish! It was then that they realized it was Jesus who told them to cast the net.
That story is found in the book of John, chapter 21. It is in the same chapter that Jesus reinstates Peter, because during his crucifixion, Peter denied Him three times before the rooster crowed.
Not everyone in the group were early birds like us, so it was just a few of us who got to experience putting our feet in the water. I pray I would be given another opportunity to go there again someday.
And of course, it was not just the sunrise we enjoyed, we also enjoyed taking lots and lots of pictures. It was a good thing we were already using cameras with SD cards during that time already. During my first trip, I was still using a camera with film and I used up 12 rolls of film!
For some, it was a dream come true for them, and stepping foot in the land of the bible once in their lifetime is one memory they will always treasure, because it costs quite a lot of money to travel over there. Once upon a time there were two horses grazing in the field.
The other horse got full and left. And there was one.
We surely had fun and you can see the joy in our faces as we posed for pictures.
Taken on our second morning in Tiberias just in front of our hotel, just before we were to board the bus for another adventure-filled day.
So, coming from Mt Bental and Banias from the former article, we visited Capernaum, which in the bible, was described as being the town of Jesus. He was born in Bethlehem, grew up in Nazareth, and when He started His ministry, moved to Capernaum.
This story can be found in the book of Matthew chapter 4, verse 13 onwards. Such a cool thing to read the bible when you know that they happened in these places we were visiting!
This is a statue of St Peter, in honor of him, because a church has been built in the area to mark the site of the first church in history.
This is the remains of a synagogue. Archaeologists have determined that the 2-story synagogue was built around the beginning of the third century AD, because of its architectural style, decorations and inscriptions.
Therefore it was not the synagogue where Jesus taught, although it was most likely built upon the same site as the first century synagogue. If you look at the interior of the reconstructed synagogue that we visited at the Nazareth village, you'll see that it has the same features.
Here are some remains of other structures found in the area. This one was a pillar of a building. Notice the elaborate designs on the pillar. How painstakingly they must have carved these pillars then!
These are also remains, which are stone blocks. These must have been used in other buildings, not of the same material used in building the synagogue, as these are of basalt stone blocks.
Look at these stone ruins. These are believed to be the remains of the house of Peter, which Jesus called home when He was staying there. There was a story in the bible when the mother in law of Peter was sick with fever, and Jesus healed here. This passage can be found in Matthew 8, also in Mark 1.
On top of the ruins, is an octagonal shaped Franciscan church, which is called the Pilgrimage Church of St. Peter. In the days of the bible, there were no church buildings, only synagogues, so after they became believers, they studied the bible in houses, and it is in the house of Peter that is believed to have been the first church in history.
These are other ruins, and we see that the stones used were also black basalt stones. After Capernaum, we then traveled to the Jordan River, where Jesus was baptized.
This is the Jordan River. In Hebrew it is called Yardenit, and it is a river that is 251 kilometers long, and flows roughly from north to south through the Sea of Galilee and on to the Dead Sea. The river is significant both in Judaism and Christianity, as it is the river that the Jews crossed (aside from the Red Sea), when they moved into the promised land in the book of Joshua chapter 3.
This is the entrance to the baptismal site, and we all went through this entrance to get to the river.
It is significant in Christianity as the site where Jesus was baptized. In the first four books of the New Testament, the baptism of Jesus was told, and you can read those passages in the book of Luke chapter 3, Matthew 3, John 1, and Mark 1.
Of course it was also a rare opportunity to get baptized at the same river where Jesus was baptized, so most of the members of the group chose to be baptized. I did not as I already did it during my second trip to the country.
Before they got baptized, each one shared a short testimony of how their lives were changed after they have received Jesus into their lives.
There were also a lot of catfish in the river, and they were so big I was actually apprehensive about putting my feet in the water. They were just concentrated in one area though, so my fears were unfounded.
Along the way, there was a wall with the passage in the bible about the baptism inscribed in different languages. This is the English version, as we can see.
Here it is in Hebrew, although we can't read. There was Chinese, Spanish, Macedonian, Russian and other languages of the same verse but I will only put the two pictures here.
So this concludes our second day of touring, and we went back to Royal Plaza Hotel for our third night in the country. Stay tuned for the next installment, and for more travel articles, you can go to this page.
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