What can I say about Israel? The skies are Wyoming blue. The temperatures are for the most part in the 80's with some humidity. It gets hotter and drier in the descent from Jerusalem to the Judean desert and cooler in the hill country above Jerusalem. Further north, around the Sea of Galilee, it is a bit cooler and a bit more humid. Here in Tel Aviv, under the brilliant Mediterranean sun, it is both hot and very humid though nice in the shade with the sea breezes.
I now have a sense of what it is like to be in the land of the Bible. When the Bible speaks of going up or going down, it is speaking of both direction and altitude.
The land is quite fertile. I have seen and eaten all kind of vegetables grown here; I have eaten dates, figs, apples, pears, peaches, pomegranates, and bananas--all grown here. On the way to Tel Aviv, I saw fields of cotton. Here is a picture of bananas in Jericho.
It 's my second Sabbath here, and today I am taking a rest from tours and sightseeing. I just posted about Joppa. In these posts, I reflect on visits to traditional Christian sites in and around Jerusalem and up north in Galilee. "Traditional Christian sites" means mostly that Helen, the mother of Emperor Constantine, chose them in her tour in the 4th century using either archeological evidence and/or her imagination.
Luke 1:26-38
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be bornwill be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
The Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth and a statue in the square
The Gospel of Luke continues by saying that "In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth." (1:38-40). The traditional site on the visitation is the village of Ein Karem, now a neighborhood in southwest Jerusalem.
The Hadassah medical center is here, including the Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and pharmacology. The hospital's synagogue features the Chagall windows. Here they are from the outside. The synagogue itself was closed.
In Bethlehem, just a few miles south of Jerusalem but a world away in the Palestinian territories known as the West Bank, there is the Church of the Nativity.
Here I am kneeling at the traditional site of the manger.
Here is a picture of the Milk Grotto which gives a better sense of what a stable might have looked like but the Milk Grotto's story is from the Gospel of Matthew which does not mention a stable. Here Mary hid before she and Joseph fled to Egypt.
Back to the Gospel of Luke for the story of the shepherds.
In the church there are three murals telling the story.
The dog in the paintings told it for me.
Fear at the angels' appearance
Contentment in the stable
Joy on returning
From the Shepherds Fields is a picture of the illegal Jewish settlements on the West Bank
The tour guide and the shop owner were Palestinian Christians who wanted to make sure I knew how difficult life was for them, caught between Jews and Muslims. Everything in Bethlehem, a city of about 50,000, is oriented toward Christians. There was no mention of it being the birthplace of King David except in the art in the churches.
Next post Jericho and Galilee
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