On the Road to Jerusalem

From Lavi, we began our trek towards Jerusalem with some important stops along the way, visiting some Christian and Jewish Holy sites.

As we were waiting to check out of our kibbutz, we got a stark reminder of Israeli security from the bell boy carrying the semi-automatic weapon!  I would see school groups of Israeli children later in the trip and they too were accompanied by an armed guard.  Our tour guide, Israel, told us this was standard operating procedure.

We made a quick stop to grab a photo of a newly opened archeological site at the town of Magdala, where scholars think Mary Magdalene, one of the women who followed/financed Jesus' ministry, hailed from.  The area is fenced off while the excavating continues.

Our first stop was Capernaum.  According to the Gospel of Luke, Capernaum was the home of the aspostles Peter, Andrew, James, and Jon.  It was here that Jesus came and taught in the synagogue on the Sabbath, and where he recruited the afore mentioned apostles to join his ministry.  He also healed Simon-Peter's mother in law (Simon-Peter may not have been too happy about that depending on what type of Mother-in-Law she was).  Here that the Octagonal church sits over the remains of Peter's house and where we also find some of the oldest remains of a synagogue.  The Octagonal church is relatively new, but built on the remains of Peter's mother-in-law's house.

I had to get creative before entering Capernaum because you had to have shorts below the knee, so I did a little "Pants on the Ground".... that practice would serve me well for the rest of the trip.

We made our way to the top of the Mount of Beatitudes, located on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus delivered his Sermon on the Mount (see the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 5).  The site is also near the location where Jesus performed the miracle of the fishes and loaves.

From the Mount of Beatitudes, we proceeded to Nazareth to visit the Church of the Annunciation.  It was in Nazareth that Mary had gone to live when she was engaged to Joesph. We saw "the well" where Mary used to go an fetch water.  If you are Greek Orthodox, this is where you believe the Annunciation took place.

Nazareth is mostly Arab in population, which might explain the Pro-Islamic billboard that sits in front of the Church of the Annunciation.

The Church is the largest in the Middle East and marks the location where the angel Gabriel told Mary she was carrying a child conceived by the Holy Ghost.  (Greek Orthodox Christians believe the message was delivered at the well and have an alternate holy site, St. Gabriel's Church).  The current church was built in 1969 and sits on the site of the previous churches (3 in total I think) dating back to the 4th century.  The first was constructed by the Byzantines, another by the crusaders.  Below the church you can see the excavated remains of Mary's house.

The inside of the modern church is decorated with different versions of the Madonna and child theme, donated from countries all over the world.  I found it interesting how the mosaic from Japan showed Jesus and Mary to have prominent Asian features.  It reminded me of the Mass I attended on Easter Island, where Jesus looked Polynesian.

After lunch at yet another falafel shop, we made our way to Beit Alfa, to visit a Byzantine era synagogue with a well preserved mosaic floor depicting the zodiac.  I found it ironic that the zodiac and it's pagan background found their way into a synagogue.