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.
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