We walk a short ways to what looks like a residential neighborhood in a inner Jerusalem sort of way. We enter a tall building that supposedly is a museum but to me looks like a regular office building.
A little history here is rather interesting. After the 6 day war that Israel fought for control of Jerusalem, it was the first time that the Jewish authorities had ever had an opportunity to do archaeological excavation in Jerusalem itself. Here, right by the city wall in the 1970's they located an extraordinary find. Space inside the city wall being scarce, it was decided that a museum would be built directly over this excavation instead of the archaeological excavation taking up a lot of room and it's fragile discoveries being exposed to the elements.
I will say that if you "google" "The Burnt House" many interesting sites will come up that show better pictures than my inferior camera was able to record.
So we enter the museum and begin to descend into the basement of the building. As we enter this rather large area, we are told that what we see is mostly the lower floor level of a large home complex, a very elite home of someone very influential, rich and Jewish.
There are many rooms in this house, frescoes on the walls, mikvahs (ritual baths) in many locations. Many of the found artifacts are placed exactly where they were found, pots, lamps, and even an iron spear which speaks to the last moments of violence that befell the residents of this place.
One of the most effective methods of dating a archaeological dig is to find the latest dated coin. Of the many coins found in the burnt house, the latest dates to 68 A.D. The burnt house is a unique time capsule from when the Roman general, Titus sacked and burnt the second temple and the rest of Jerusalem with it. The evidence shows that the upper stories of the house were substantially of wood which burned and collapsed on thew lower floor preserving it in a thick layer of ash which lay undisturbed for over 1900 years. Like the rest of Jerusalem, intervening generations rebuilt over the top of the burnt house sealing it intact.
There is an elaborate walk way system suspended above the dig from which one can see this is no ordinary place to live.
Our tour organizer, Dr. Marc Turnage explains many aspects of the house, some aspects that are unique to this very house. It is very clear that who ever lived here lived in luxury that is normally reserved for royalty.
From the abundance of Jewish ritual baths and other evidence the owner of the house was a very high raking Jew of the priestly class.
He builds his case slowly by long explanations and scholarly insight but at length Dr. Turnage reveals that he believes strongly that this is the house of Caiaphas, the High Priest who led the plot to crucify Jesus.
One of the rooms we are led to was very large and lavishly decorated in fresco style, most likely a banquet room (there are two kitchens nearby).
The owner of the house was most likely in cahoots with the Roman authorities and entertained them in this very room. It would have been unheard of for a Jewish priest to have the kind of wealth this one obviously did without being tied in with the Roman authorities in some way.
I quickly review the gospel accounts of Jesus being tried at night by the Jewish Sanhedrin the night of Jesus' condemnation to be crucified on a cross. The mock trial took place at the house of Caiaphas (Matthew 26:57). In the third verse of that same chapter, Matthew actually calls the house of Caiaphas a "palace" which lends to the belief that this very unique lavish Jewish home could have been what we are led to believe.
As I stand contemplating the banquet room, I wonder if the illegal trial held for Jesus could have taken place in this very room. I don't know if Caiaphas lived until the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., but it is very likely if this was his home, that it would have passed to his descendants in the 40 or so years after Jesus was crucified.
Not all of the burnt house could be excavated as some of it still lies under existing homes and buildings next to this place. One can only wonder what intriguing relics and evidences would be found. We spend some significant time here before at last we are told we have another destination, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
We emerge from the cool, dark basement of the museum into brilliant and blinding light. I don my sunglasses and protective hat. We set off across old Jerusalem walking up and down smooth and narrow stone streets.
All along the way there are little signs marking sites, mostly religious in nature, that are significant to someone. "The House Where Mary the Mother of Jesus Was Born", "The Via Dolorosa", "The Site of the Founding of the Armenian Church" and others, we take no time to note them, we are on a mission and we are walking fast.
One of the things I find about walking about in Jerusalem is that you can feel like you sort of know where you are and then suddenly you are completely lost. It's a good thing there are so many of us and we are connected by our little transmitters by which our tour guides keep us in the loop of where they are and what is going on. Our route seems to follow more conventional streets than the market passage ways. I don't know why I think about getting lost so much, Indiana Jolie and I will eventually get really lost but that's another blog installment.
Before too long, we are in line at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, again, many people from many different nations make up the crowd waiting to get in. The church dates from byzantine times like most of these sites seem to.
They really expended a lot of energy in those pre-industrialized days building some amazing structures. The main entrance to the church is fronted by a somewhat smallish square which is bordered on three sides by walls of the church and the back is bordered by some kind of wall that is the boundary of the Arab Quarter. Many people pass along this back wall on to who knows where. It is interesting to me as well that there is rarely a fee to enter these places. Maybe the fee has already been paid for us, but I see no discussions of the kind taking place.
The transition from outside the church to inside the church again takes us from brilliant sunlight to almost complete darkness. Maybe I assumed they would have updated the place with some kind of electric lighting in the past 100 years. Apparently not. As we peer into the murky dark, we see lots of scaffolding assembled and canvas sheeting draped around. Must be doing some maintenance on the church.
We see dimly huge but very old paintings with the iconic style of people portraying biblical scenes, many of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus.
The centuries of candle soot and the grime of time have coated many of these pictures, it is difficult to see them, especially in the dark. We sort of trudge along in line through the very long "narthex".
The Gothic arches soar over our heads and the beautiful inter tie of all the arch beams in the domes is exquisite. The exteriors of these landmark churches give no clue to the beauty on the inside.
In comparision, the outside looks just like another ugly building.
Our eyes begin to adjust to the dark and just in front of us we enter the room (area?) that is much larger than the large entrance. In the middle of this room is the chapel that is built over the sepulchre itself. The profuse entanglement of adornment that is draped up and over and across again and again is surprisingly a real turn off to me. I feel the same sense of ambivalence as I did at the Church of the Holy Nativity. I didn't expect this.
This church again belongs to several (rival) branches of Christianity; Orthodox, Armenian, Catholic and Coptic. I don't think the Assemblies of God is represented. Our General Superintendent Dr. George Wood was probably just a little guy when they were handing out owner shares. Anyway, they all somehow share the same building and do their special thing with their area. It looks like the Orthodox folks have the sepulchre chapel as their spot as the stern looking men in black robes are milling about like some kind of changing of the guard. In the confusion of it all I approach the chapel and like at the spot of the nativity, there for one moment there is no one in front of or in the chapel and I am ready with my camera to snap some quick pictures.
This won't happen again for hours as there are literally hundreds of people lined up to pay homage to the sepulchre. I decide that I am not going to wait in that long line and begin to walk about.
An interesting fact that was shared with us helped make the decision to skip the long line. That is, there is virtually nothing left of the burial cave that Jesus was placed in, just a spot on the bare ground. There was centuries ago a very small cave that served as a tomb. In the many centuries of pilgrims coming to this very place the cave was essentially destroyed until nothing was left by relic hunters and souvenir collectors. I was told by Amy Turnage, the wife of Dr. Marc Turnage that in some of the lower levels of this church are ancient graffiti left by pilgrims of many ages ago, as far back as 300 A.D. One inscription that Amy described was one of several people in a boat and the words (in Latin) "Lord, we have come." I would have very much loved to view this, but apparently this area is not open to the public. The Turnages are both Ph.D's and can gain access to many things because of their scholarly pursuits.
For many reasons, the Turnages believe this is in fact that authentic burial site of Jesus. One of the many contributing evidences of this belief is the long tradition of pilgrims coming to this site. The more well known site that you and I are much more familiar ("Gordon's Calvary") was only "discovered" in 1928. There was no evidence of any pilgrimage there ever. Even the phrase "the place of the skull" is more likely a reference to a graveyard than the idea that the face of the cliff looks like a skull. This is very interesting to me as I somehow picked up the idea that most of these churches were built over fraudulent sites to entice gullible pilgrims to spend their money there. That is sometimes the case, but not always.
I wander this huge edifice. Because of the profusion of censers, candles, paintings, frescoes, mosaics and icons I didn't pay attention the structure of of this large room. Immense columns with Corinthian capitals rise up and up maybe 30 feet or more to the next floor where more columns rise to the next floor and then more columns and more...It boggles the imagination that such things could have been built when they were built.
We didn't try it, but it might take 4 or 5 people to stretch their arms around one of these ground floor columns. The floors are more of the smooth tile stone that has been polished slick by centuries of pilgrim feet. There are numerous stairways and passages that lead to who knows where.
I can easily imagine men with medieval armor and belted swords clanking around on the stone floor. Everywhere there are sad faced iconic paintings, a few brilliantly colored as if they were new or restored.
I come around the back side of the sepulchre chapel and meet our tour guides. They motion us to one of those numerous passages that are so mysterious. It is an arched door with a pointy top (byzantine), that leads to a hallway which leads to a small room which leads to another room with what looks like a chiseled stone hemispherical ceiling and it has what looks like a dilapidated mostly wooden throne or very fancy chair in it. The ceiling like so many of these places is dark with soot. The room is pretty much round and since I am early I take my place on the perimeter of the room which is not more than 20 feet across.
I am to the right of the chair/throne and directly across from me is a small, very old painting that is hanging above a low opening which I did not immediately see when I came in because the chair/throne was so interesting. The painting must have been hanging there a very long time as it is so darkened that I can barely discern the subject. There is one small light bulb fastened to the ceiling and powered by an exposed cord that is tacked into the rock and leads out the door. I am wondering what this room is all about. The space fills quickly with mostly our group but others that disappear into that low opening come and go. Soon I am backed up against the wall with my chest to the back of the person in front of me. Indiana Jolie is next to me. There must be over 60 people in the room that can possibly hold adequate oxygen for a maximum of 10.
We are now told that this is the tomb of Joseph of Aramathea! The man who gave Jesus his own new tomb on the night Jesus died on the cross! How interesting. I never thought about a tomb like this. The low opening is the entrance to the antechamber off of which three finger like tombs extend further back. The dead were placed on a mat in one of these "fingers" and after a year or so their bodies were pretty much gone and then their bones would be collected and put in a box, stored elsewhere and the tomb was ready for someone else. We are told that the antechamber is very small and probably not more than 4 people at a time should try to fit in, but we are welcome to go in there. I am already ready to make an exit from the room as the air feels very used up at this point. I tell Indiana Jolie that I am not going to try to go in that antechamber and get stuck so they will have to call the fire department to get me out. Since I am easily two of most of the people in the room I feel there will be some awkward crawling around in there. Not for me.
They never do explain the chair/throne thing. Must not be that important. If this is a typical church, the chair is probably just being stored from some Christmas pageant of eons past that never got used again and no one can bear to throw it out. I know the story very well, "my uncle Maximus made that chair for the children's Christmas pageant and he spent untold hours making it just so...."
As much as I would like to stay, my need for fresh oxygen is greater than my need for learning at this point so I make my exit as soon as a little space opens up between me and the next anxious pilgrim. I wonder how many other unadvertised features this mammoth church holds. I am sure one could spend a month just going room to room, floor to floor, passageway to passageway and not see it all.
It is difficult to imagine, but before all this church and columns and whatnot was built, this was a field with small caves in which people were buried. Were it not for the byzantine peoples building these edifices over these sites, they might have disappeared hundreds of years ago. I honestly don't know which would have been better.
The day is pretty much spent and I feel like I have received so much. I am looking forward to the hotel, some Israeli dinner and call it an early night. Tomorrow will be a different kind of exciting. Masada, the Dead Sea!
We board the buses which now take us deeper into Jerusalem. I am so turned around and there are no landmarks by which I can identify our location. All the buildings in Jerusalem are required by law to be faced with sandstone. I do not know the reason for this, but it makes all the buildings blend together in a way that one street very much looks like another and one place like the place you just left. We wind around the narrow streets until we can see part of the wall of Jerusalem. I have a little idea of where I am now.
We pull up to a long series of stairs (surprise!) that lead up to the wall of Jerusalem. We all disembark from our buses and begin the ascent of these stairs which lead us to "Jaffa Gate". I love the Jaffa Gate area.
It is a significant place in the history of Jerusalem. The main sea trade route from Joppa, which is how Jaffa is spelled in our Bibles, ended here. It is also where Dr. Marc Turnage believes Jesus was actually crucified on the cross. There is a number of reasons to believe this. First, Jaffa Gate was probably the busiest gate in Jerusalem traffic wise. The Romans wanting to make maximum impact with a public execution would choose a location like this. It is also close to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where Dr. Turnage also believes the actual tomb of Jesus is (was) located. There are other reasons as well, but it is a fascinating idea. Once again, the Jaffa Gate we walk through is from much later times, the one Jesus walked through is many feet below us.
Jaffa Gate opens to the "Jewish Quarter" of Jerusalem. In the next couple of days this area will be one in which we will spend some time and get to feel like we "know" it a little bit. There is a bustling market, little restaurants a large open square and lots and lots of people walking back and forth. I don't know how they found them, but there are restrooms just inside the gate and up a very narrow set of stone stairs that turns a couple of corners. Two people across pretty much fills the stairway. Those going up and those going down the stairs have to do a dance as nobody seems to get the idea that those going up stay to their left and those going down stay to their left. It must be a foreign concept. The restrooms are not the best public restrooms I have ever been in. I don't think the people who clean them have been here yet this year. Once again, it appears that it never entered the minds of those who designed the restrooms to use angles and corners for privacy. There is too much openness for my comfort. Getting everybody in and out of the restrooms takes a lot of time.
I took my turn at the restrooms early so once I danced my way down the stairs I had a little time to look around. The buildings of course are faced with sandstone which is pockmarked up and down the street.
These are the reminders of the 6 day war that Israel fought for control of Jerusalem in 1967. The pockmarks are bullet holes. Right where we are standing was a battle front. Hard to imagine with all the people walking back and forth at the moment.
There is a wagon wheeled cart full of all kinds of bread, all kinds except bagels. I was hoping for a bagel but there are none to be found. There are a lot of people setting up speakers and music equipment in the square. As we walk around later we will see this kind of activity all over old Jerusalem, there is obviously some kind of music festival about to take place. It would be fun to hang around and take it in, but we have an agenda so off we go.
To say we take a circuitous route would be a huge understatement. We plunge into the Jewish quarter market which is crowded beyond belief. The space between the two sides of the market is maybe ten feet wide where people walk.
There are thousands of people some going uphill some going down. The wares of the merchants spill into the narrow street making the going even more narrow. Add to that, the occasional delivery person making deliveries by a push cart four feet wide, piled high with more wares and it is a crazy, crowded, loud, jostling plunge of culture that was exciting and fun.
In spite of the crowded conditions, we are trying to follow our guides through this market. We take what seems like a random right turn and then a random left turn. We go up stairs, we go down stairs. Some streets are covered, some are open to the air. It is a maze and I am lost beyond any sense of direction. We come to another covered section of street that is for the moment a little less madly busy somewhat off the main areas of travel. In the middle of this street are what look like two "wells" that are covered with plexiglass and lit by bulbs descending down about 20 feet.
What we are looking at through these two portals is what would be the actual street level that Jesus would have walked upon. There is nothing really to see other than the rock surface at the bottom.
Not far from here is a broad staircase that descends about the same distance down to a landing from which you can stare into the darkness at a stone "gate" with a round top indicating it is of pre-Roman construction. This also dates from the 1st century - from Jesus' time. The connection of being present at an actual place where Jesus could have been, likely could have been is significant. To see an actual surface that Jesus saw makes you feel a little like a time traveler.
In the same area was an exposed portion of Hezakiah's "broad wall" that still survives and would have been the wall of Jerusalem that Jesus would have seen.
Such antiquity is amazing on one hand and so business as usual on the other. Having been in Israel for seven days at this point and having seen so many amazing archaeological wonders, it is still a little overwhelming. We aren't done with the overwhelming part of the day as we come to the museum of the "burnt house".
