January 23, 2010 – Day Seven

ISRAEL

Toudeh Elohi

(Thanks Be To God)

Sister Egyria(?) a nun who travelled to the Holy Land by camel and left a diary (“it was a day-to-day account written by a nun to her sisters in a convent. It was the earliest travel account of its time and offered information of great value to those interested in the topography of biblical lands, in travel conditions of the period, and in the liturgical practices of the Church in Jerusalem.” It is written in a type of “vulgar Latin in the early medieval period.”)

We are living footsteps of Lord Jesus who was born in the Roman Empire. Rome was built on 7 hills and Jesus wants us to come with Him to these seven hills:

Bethlehem University – Only Catholic University in Israel. Raimon teaches there.

Come to the Hills. 7 important hills

1 st hill- Temptation

2 nd hill New Sermon of the Lord Mt. 5:6-7 (New Covenant and New commandments)

3 rd hill Mt. Hermon Established the Church (St. Peter appointed as head of Church here.)

4 th hill Mt of Transfiguration – the promise of bringing us to Glory

5 th hill Mt. Zion – Establishing the Eucharist. Holy hill, Last Supper.

6 th hill – Calvary (Death and Resurrection)

7 th hill – Ascension – taken home- Heaven

King Solomon used the harbor by the border of Israel, Egypt- the sea of Aquaba. He had a joint fleet with the Phoenicians.

Edom means red. South of Bethlehem. Named after the rocks. Judas came from here.

49% fertile (honey)

50% desert

Names of Israel in history. Palestine, Land of Emanuel (Isaiah)

Geographically. Jordan to E , Syria – NE, Lebanon – NW, Egypt – SW, Mediterranean Sea – W.

Upper Galilee Mountains include Caesarea Philippi .

City of Joshur burned by Philippi .

Lower Galilee Mountains include Nazareth.

Valley of Jezreel – Valley of Armageddon

Capital of the North 925 -721 BC was Samaria ( Sebastian) ( Acts Chapter 8)

Capital of the South – Judea (Jerusalem)

Bethel means house of God. Where Jacob saw the ladder in a dream.

Acts 2 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"

When the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles, there were Bedouins, Christians, and Arabs, present.

Abraham offered Isaac on the Hill of Moriah. – Jerusalem Abraham named to city Ursalem – The road of peace. Solomon began to build the temple here also.

King David moved the Ark of Covenant to Jerusalem. Rested here till disappearing with the Philistines. 1Samuel 4

The ark contained:

Tablets (contained the Word of God)

Manna (Bread of Life- the Eucharist)

Staff of Aaron (Given to St. Peter)

We are left with the ark = Our Lady.

Jesus left with empty Ark- left with Our Lady. Now know as the Ark of the Covenant.

Shiloh – Samuel was an altar boy serving in the temple. That’s where we get altar boys from today.

1004BC – year the ark was moved to Jerusalem

Bethlehem – Our Lord is born. Burial place of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.

Zion means “high place”. New Zion or Mt. Zion is place where Our Lord had the Last Supper.

Shekel means Weights (not coins) Abraham in cave. Woman ,her last shekel, swept the cave to find it in the dark. Shekel was first type “money?” mentioned in Genesis. Abraham bought a double cave which is burial place for Sarah.

1st peace agreement in history ( Genesis 21) In Negev desert – took place in Beersheba (place of seven wells)

Then Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech's servants had seized. 26 But Abimelech said, "I don't know who has done this. You did not tell me, and I heard about it only today." 27 So Abraham brought sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a treaty. 28 Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs from the flock, 29 and Abimelech asked Abraham, "What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs you have set apart by themselves?" 30 He replied, "Accept these seven lambs from my hand as a witness that I dug this well." 31 So that place was called Beersheba, because the two men swore an oath there. 32 After the treaty had been made at Beersheba, Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his forces returned to the land of the Philistines. 33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called upon the name of the LORD, the Eternal God. 34 And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for a long time.

Gaza area- Holy family running thru on the way to Egypt.

Gaza – Coast is farmers, Controlled by Phoenicians.

Jeremiah 50 – Arama?(Aravah?) Means to cross or desert land?

Thought: Fr. Mark- St John the Baptist – dark night- while in prison

70 AD Jewish revolt against Roman – destroyed Jerusalem

Early Christians wanted to die for Jesus. They knew Romans would kill them if they found out. They used to go to St. John the Baptist Church and they would be tortured – until 70AD

1054 Church became Orthodox/ Catholic.

Jerusalem became Catholic

Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Cyprus – Pope appointed a patriarch. Marriage and divorce decided by patriarch. Patriarch is like a Cardinal. No court here. Honored by the government.

Israel chooses to travel on wide plains because the aquifer is shallow here.

Numbers 21 – Israelites stopped and rested. The Lord gave them water.

Jericho – green patch in the desert. Church of the Good Shepherd

Aravah (sp?) – lots of clay south of the Dead Sea. Jordan valley also called Valley of Dan – water comes from melting snow on Mt. Hermon. Sea of Galilee is drinking water.

Christianity 2% of population Remainder is Muslim and Jewish.

Widows make rosary’s in Bethlehem.

Dead Sea. 3 ranges of mountains on the Jordan Valley. –Gilead, Ammon, Moab On the Syrian/African rift.

Salinity of Dead Sea – 35% - Oceans of World – 5% - Great Salt Lake – 15% Dead Sea is saltiest and lowest place on earth.

Genesis 19 – God punished the area, burned. Unable to find Sodom and Gomorrah. Along the Dead Sea Mountains. A whole mountain, 11 km long and 6 km wide, 600 meters high. Builds up 3 ½ cm of salt each year. All other mountains are limestone and sandstone. Except this one. Solid salt. Think it’s flint stone, but it’s salt. Called the mountain of Sodom. God’s curse. No geological answer.

Dead Sea level dropping down to deceased rain and manufacturing. Now you have to take taxi up to see the level of where it used to be. Deepest in the north at 1,100 feet and 3-4 feet in the south. Much warmer than the ocean 75 to 80 degrees. Brown sand on the beaches. Because of mining in the south, the lake area has decreased by 13 km of water.

Kingdoms of Mesopotamia- Samarians and Egyptians established when civilization began and trade began to flow. This land here is known as the land of the Jebusites, Perivites (sp?) and Hittites.

Holy land (Palestine, Israel) was the land bridge between the Africa and Asia. The Kings Highway ( in Jordan) established strongholds and benefited from trade. . King’s highway is route between Sumeria and Egypt.

Bronze period introduced to humans. Copper, gold from trade. Tin+ Copper + Bronze . Biblical history Jericho, Medico became kingdoms.
King David solidified the kingdoms. Solomon furthered it. Then kingdoms divided after his death.

Masada- important in Jewish history. Mountain not connected with anything. No mountain range. Imposed the people land to worship false gods.

Macabees talks about the fortresses built for protection. 7 fortresses. 6 on the west, 1 by us. Fortress of Macaira – where St John was beheaded

Josephius Flavius wanted his name in history. Masada last stronghold of Romans against Jewish. Reached top of fort. Everyone had committed suicide except 2 woman and 3 children came out and told story- all symbolic the archeologist said. We call suicides, or terrorist, or freedom fighters. They call them hero’s. Collapsed because of an earthquake. Restored as a tourist trap.

En Gedi (1 Samuel 24) King Saul fight against Philistines. David hiding from king Saul – cut off a piece of his garment.

Mt Nebo – Where Moses came and stopped before the Promised Land. Pope was here. Church up top.

West of Jordan River is called the West bank Jordanians made use of this word.

Gaza strip – most dense population in the world. 180 square miles 1.5 million people. 300,000 original people. Rest refugees. Catholic community 3000 people in Gaza.

West Bank travel freely with id. The Catholic people here pay taxes, can’t vote and have health care. There are 150 checkpoints in the West Bank.

Dead Sea Scrolls – Book of Isaiah – Boy(shepherd) looking for a goat. Wanted to trade the goat skins for sandals. Gave money and new pair of sandals to the boy and told him to bring back all he could find. Book of Daniel found. 800 scrolls of OT. No book of Esther.

Essenes – people lived here- a united group, Ezra – he forbid any adding to the Bible. Only scribes could read it and explain it to the people. The law can be read. That’s it. Prior to this anyone could write the bible. Essenes called those hypocrites – debating whether to eat the egg made by the chicken on the Sabbath .

When Solomon died Israel divided into 2 kingdoms. 164BC to 134 BC strengthening Jewish kingdom.

Isaiah 9. Essenes called themselves Children of the light. Also mentioned in Matthew’s gospel. They left Jerusalem to live in the desert to the east. (Ezra 38 – 39). The lived to wait for the Messiah making pottery, collected rain water. Lived by the Dead Sea. Copied the Bible on Animal leather ( goat skin). They basically set up a printing shop. Copying the bible and selling it. They thought the people in Jerusalem were hypocrites. But yet they were living out the prophecy. They had copies of the Old Testament. Community left Egypt in 60 AD became Christian. Qumran community. Romans came and left . Never bothered to check out the caves so the scrolls were preserved in the clay jars. 85% are available , 15% most with Israelis, some in the Vatican.

Blessed are the peacemakers, they are children of God – Qumran community.

Jericho – about 40 earthquakes a year. Oldest settlement /city in the world. 9600 BC predates the pyramids by 3000 years.

Old Jericho – City of the moon

Roman Jericho –

Modern Jericho- 8 th century. Here there are so many bougainvilleas, oranges, bananas.

550 people are Christian- rest Muslim

A wall around the city. Checkpoint to get in.

Area of Zacchaeus in Jericho.

Herod killed the children here also. His summer palace was here in Jericho. He lived here as his private property.

6 days Jericho – 1 day

6 jars of water – 1 miracle

3 temptations

2 wilderness

1 top of temple – caves where Romans burned people.

Elisha’ s spring is in Jericho. The water was bitter. Elisha blessed some salt and threw it in the well and it became sweet. Springs of Jericho are famous.

Marc Antony gave Jericho to Cleopatra as a birthday gift.

Mount of Temptation is visible here. Tel = mound. We saw the tel - it was the place where the Ark circled the walls for 7 days and the walls came tumbling down.

Region in Jericho is where Jesus was lost at age 12. Joseph, Mary were Jewish- had to come to Jerusalem 3 times a year. St Joseph lived in Nazareth for work- carpenter in Sephoris. St Anne and Joachim were in Nazareth. Mary was living with her family. Joseph was an amazing carpenter. Jewish holiday, traveled to Jerusalem as a clan. Our Lady went in haste to visit St. Elizabeth- distance 100 miles. Walking 15 – 20 days. Can’t travel by self. Would have gone in community. Men lead the front. Women in back. Children run back and forth. A camp in the night the family would reunite Nazareth to Jerusalem is a day walk when they realized that Jesus was lost. Very dangerous. Romans. Alligators. Samaritan mountains is the shortcut, but can’t go that way. Nazareth to Bethlehem is 11 days walk. They went on the Jordan Valley road.

Song of Ascent – Psalm 122 – Pilgrims would sing this going up to Jerusalem. Read it 1000X to understand the Bible!

Romans built Decapolis. 10 cities along the Jordan Valley..Kings Highway. St Paul ( Acts 23) Prison- Don’t touch me. I am Roman citizen. Born in Tarsus (Turkey of today) sent to Jerusalem to learn. Totally against Christian till Lord changed his life.

Benefit to the people of Nazareth. Romans have pork to eat. Jewish forbidden to eat in Christ time. Camp in Jericho and cross the river then up to Jerusalem- Praying psalms 122. Finding Jesus after 3 days. Their journey included: friends with people of Bethany – 1 day walk, nest day Bethlehem ( Joseph’s family) 1 day. House of Elizabeth- said to go to the temple.

Leaving Jericho to the left is Shittim – where they staged and camped for the spies of Jericho. It was the place where Israel crossed the Jordan river and placed 12 stones. Heavenly food ceased. Baptismal site of Jesus near this place.

The crooked town, called so because of stream. Herod divided the kingdom into 3 parts for each of his sons – Archaelaus, Herod Antipas, and Herod Phillip.