Second to last night in Cairo

“I let Kathryn take a fat kid picture today. And in my head I was like, ‘That’s a fat kid picture. I’m not gonna tell her.’”

- Allison Ray

“And in the first century, the Jews and the Jesus followers were all in this one group. And the Jews were like, ‘Your messiah sucks. He died. That doesn’t work.’ And the Jesus followers developed into a distinct group and the Romans got that they were different, and the Romans were all angry, and the Jews were all angry, and the Jesus followers were all like, ‘SHIT!’”

-also Allison Ray, in a brief summary of first-century Roman Jerusalem

Went to see the Great Pyramids today, and the Sphinx, and lots of impressive old statues.

Two days ago, I woke up at 1:00am to hike up Mount Sinai. Three hours, and over a mile and a half of intense uphill climbing. The sunrise was beautiful, but obstructed by a little cloud cover. The hike down took about two hours. Then we went to visit St. Katherine’s Monastery and met a cool American monk named Father Justin, and were given special access to the Monastery’s private library. This monastery has the second largest collection of manuscripts and icons in the world – second only to the Vatican.

Father Justin spoke to us for about 20 minutes, and at the end of his talk, I walked away from the group, stared at a bookcase full of some of the oldest known printed books, and cried. I still don’t know why.

I didn’t eat until 1:00pm (after about seven hours of hiking, walking, and jogging, by the end of it all), and didn’t sleep until 1:30, with the help of sleeping pills.

Tomorrow’s the last day. The trip has been such a whirlwind, I don’t think it’s intensity will hit me until much later, when I break down into emotional overload and realize what it is I’ve seen, what it is I’ve said, and who it is I’ve met.

Nearly onwards to Morocco.

Qumran and Beth Shean pictures

I think I neglected to mention a visit to Qumran, a site in the desert near the Dead Sea. It is the site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered on accident by a local shepherd; that discovery led to the excavation of a first century BCE-first century CE settlement that was most likely inhabited by an ascetic and separatist group of Jews known as the Essenes. They're cool, and John the Baptist could have either spent time with them, or at least have known of their teachings. The discovery of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls revolutionized study of the Second Temple Period (20BCE-70CE), of New Testament texts, of the development of the Hebrew canon, and of the development of Judaism during that period (and thus its effects of the Judaisms to come).
It's important.
And above is a picture of from the top row of seats in the theatre in Beth Shean/Scythopolis. This site topped almost every site I saw in Turkey and Greece. The preservation of the Roman period buildings here was remarkable, and standing on the top of the tell (the hill in the background left of the photo), you can almost see the grandeur of Rome come to life. The might and genius of the Roman empire hits you upside the head. (Josh Wenta and I had similar feelings and words to describe it).

Oh, and that wooden stage in the foreground of the picture---- I danced on it. It was requested, I obliged. I never pass up an opportunity to be one of the only people to do a jig in a Roman theatre.

Jerusalem, Days 1-3

This will be a sadly short post, entirely inadequate to describe the past few days. It's late, it's been a long day, and tomorrow will be longer still. A short post will suffice for now.

In Jerusalem we've explored the excavations of the Temple Mount (Robinson's Arch, the Western Wall tunnels), ascended the Mount (al-Aqsa Mosque and the breathtaking blue and gold Dome of the Rock), visited numerous churches (the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem [the oldest church structure in the world; constructed in the 320's by Constantine per request of his mother], the Church of Pater Noster [where Christ is said to have taught his disciples the Lord's Prayer], the Church in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Church of San Pietro Gallicanti [I got the name a little wrong, I know, but this is the church where Peter is said to have denied Christ three times], and a Church [name I cannot remember] where Christ mounted the donkey on 'Palm Sunday' and rode into Jerusalem.

We visited today the Shrine of the Book (a museum housing the Dead Sea Scrolls and other important scrolls and codices--- probably the most enthralling site for me, thus far), and cross several checkpoints on our trip into the West Bank to visit the aforementioned Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, which is in the Palestinian Territory.

I've seen lots of guns and lots of soldiers. A soldier boarded our bus today on our first checkpoint stop. I haven't yet been scared or found this out of place. Some of my friends are incredibly disturbed and anxious when guns are around, but I haven't been. I can't figure out why.

I had a three hour conversation with Dr. Russell last night about traditionalist Christian traditions, gods, Vatican II, conceptions of the holy, cultural clashes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, abrasive and ignorant Americans, Morocco and Tunisia, theodicy and not liking God, fearing God, believing in all the potentialities and possibilities that exist. The discussion began after he and I explored St. George's Cathedral at dusk while the organist worked on tuning the organ. I cried in the church, the first time I had really shed some significant tears. (The Sea of Galilee, comparably, was more like a lone tear rolling down my cheek). I was emotional at various points throughout our conversation, at more or less appropriate times. I apologized for my melodrama, but the timbre of the conversation was so intense and heightened -- on another plane -- that the apology was unnecessary.

I had a likewise intense conversation with David Clifford tonight about Poland. He and Dr. Jones and I are doing a short 'presentation'/preparation for the group before we set off for the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. We spent three hours pouring over ideas as to what to say, and went off on numerous tangents about death camps, theodicy (a recurrent theme in my conversations, apparently; which is strange, because this doesn't figure nearly as prominently in my thought processes), horses with blinders, naivete, and silence. Towards the end of our planning, Dr. Russell joined us for a recitation of our planned presentation, and for a crash course in the history between the years of the First and Second Jewish Revolts against Rome (66-73CE, approximately, and the later 132-135CE). I have a long reading list and a new academic pursuit for the summer.

Developments: I want to learn Hebrew, I might take Greek, I'm worried about taking Arabic, I am fascinated by Jewish history and can't seem to shake it (that's not new), I love the Middle East, I feel drawn to studying ancient, old, and dusty or destroyed things.

And I miss Irish dancing, even though I attempted it in the lobby tonight. Made it through my slip jig and treble jig, and could do no more, as I had gained an Arabic-speaking audience, and who can pass up a chance to learn some more Arabic?

Love.

Tiberias, Night 2

I'm exhausted, along with everyone else on the trip. We did a lot today, in the hot sun.

8:30 am: boat ride across the Sea of Galilee from Tiberias. Dr. Jones, in lieu of a worship service, decided to 'open up' and tell us how it is that he can exist as a religious person and a scholar of religion. It was much enjoyed and appreciated by religion majors and those who have had several religion classes and traveled with Paul, but fell on deaf ears for some of the freshman. Most of us, I think, acknowledged the importance of the words and the fact that he chose to say them. Some freshman unfortunately snoozed off. Oh well. Shane, Logan, David, Andrew Bramblett, myself and several others sat raptly, and emotionally. A few of us cried. After he finished his talk, he requested that we all join hands in a circle and stand in silence.
The circle broke up a few minutes later after "Shalom, salaam, peace", and then our well-intentioned tour boat drivers turned on "Lord, I lift your name on high" and other various praise songs. We all groaned. The music was inappropriate, abrasive, and incongruent with a boat ride across Galilee. Oh well. They meant well. (They had also meant well when they played the Star Spangled Banner upon our entry to the boat. We all had to stand with our hands over our hearts, trying to display the same decorum of the Israeli flag-raiser himself. hmmm......)
We landed near the Kinneseret/Gennosaur Kibbutz with the American flag flying and gospel music blaring. Hallelujah, praise Jesus.

10:00am We visited the "Jesus Boat" museum near the Kinneseret Kibbutz. The boat has been dated to the first century CE, and was discovered in the mud on the shore of Galilee during a drought. After twelve years of meticulous preservation, ít has its own museum, documentary, gift shop, and food vendor. It was really cool. There's no way to know if Jesus ever rode in this boat, so the "Jesus boat" title is more of a tourist gimmick than anything else, but it was still fascinating to learn about the preservation process for such ancient pieces of water-logged wood. Cool.

11:30am This trip is break-neck paced, so we unfortunately didn't get to spend too much time at Capernaum. The site was fascinating, though, with well preserved first and second century homes, and a fourth century white marble synagogue (possibly built on top of an earlier black basalt synagogue that could have stood when Jesus lived, and thus been a synagogue he would have entered while in Capernaum). The best part of the site is a modern octagonal church built on top of and surrounding a 1st century home, which is enclosed by a fourth-century "house church", and fifth century Byzantine church. Because of an inscription found within the house, and the church building tradition that centered on that exact site, scholars can agree that the house was probably the home of the disciple Peter. The "on this rock I will build my church" Peter. It was awesome. We only stayed at the site for about 45 minutes, but David Clifford and I at least wished we could stay much longer.

We took a quick detour to the hotel after Capernaum and picked up Josh Wenta and Kathryn Welch, who had been sick and throwing up earlier. (I think since we entered the Lexington Airport we've had about eight people sick. I don't know if it's contagious or just mass hysteria, but it's spreading).

3:30 We visited the site of Sepphoris, or Zippori. The city was major and large, nearby to the small and backwater Nazareth. Only about 200 people lived in Nazareth in Jesus' time, according to some scholars, so some have proposed that Joseph would have done most of his carpentry work in Sepphoris, and would probably have taken Jesus along to work with him. The city was pretty massive for its day. The homes we saw were huge and extravagant, covered in intricate mosaics and marble. The city also had a large theater, many synagogues, and in the later Christian (Byzantine) years many churches.

I could definitely type and talk more, but my time at the internet cafe is running out and I need to run back to the hotel.


Much love. I'm gonna hopefully get more dancing done before I crash for the night. 6:00am wakeup call tomorrow. Ack.

Tiberias, Israel

Globe-trotting again. We just got in from a day at Caesarea Maritima, Megiddo (from which we saw Mount Carmel, Mount Moreh, Mount Gilboa, and the Samaritan hills), and Nazareth. I had a great meal at the hotel (all the hummus I could stand), and then practiced dance for a while near the elevators on my floor. Two little Israeli boys sat on chairs and watched me dance for about 10 minutes. They kept trying to talk to me and couldn't understand why I didn't speak Hebrew. They giggled a lot.

Best parts of the trip: being able to read Arabic signs. I can't understand all of it, but I can read it. And at the Basilica of the Assumption in Nazareth (grotto church where the angel supposedly appeared to Mary, competing with another site at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Assumption) I could understand a good bit of the Arabic translation on the informational sign near the entrance. Pretty cool. I'm having trouble speaking, because the colloquial is so different, but I can communicate like a 1st grader now, as opposed to a kindergartner.

Wish I knew Hebrew, love the Arabic. And the historical/archaeological sites are incredible. Tomorrow we start on a boat across the Sea of Galilee, and end up in Capernaum, and Sepphoris, a town neighboring Nazareth where Joseph and Jesus probably worked as carpenters.

Tonight several of us are going to pour through the books of Kings and Chronicles to figure out exactly what is said to have happened in the sites we visited. So much to learn.

Having a great time. Love and miss you all.