Day 9 Part 2 - The Garden Tomb

With great reluctance I depart the national museum with my group.  Honestly, the visit there would have been worthy of the entire day.

It is difficult to convey all of the reasons I am feeling ambivalent about moving on to our next destination, the Garden Tomb.  Since our visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, we have been told more than once that the chances of the Garden Tomb site being the place where Jesus spent three days (dead) following his crucifixion is pretty remote.  Most everything about the site is wrong from a logistical and historical standpoint.  The tomb is from the first century and has [had] a rolling stone covering for the tomb but most of the arguments favor the Church of the Holy Sepulchre site.  

We ride our buses through the narrow streets to the the Arab sector of Jerusalem.  This part of Jerusalem is home to mostly Palestinian residents of Jerusalem.  This area is pretty nice and pleasant if not busy.  Having seen pictures of this Garden Tomb all of my life, I had no idea that this area is somewhat like a park and is privately owned by a British Organization that oversees it's preservation and upkeep.  Many people who give the tours are from all over the world and are all volunteers and actually have to pay to do what they are doing.  They obviously love what they do.

Surrounding the park are the busy streets of Jerusalem where cars and traffic of all kinds whiz by.  Right next to the Tomb area where the skull-like cliff face of Gordon's Calvary is, is a fairly new bus depot.  

Apparently the organization that owns the Garden Tomb area did not own the area right next to it, where "Golgatha" or the skull-like cliff face is.  Too late they realized the land had been sold and a Palestinian bus company filled in and paved the land to provide parking for their 100 or so buses.  Having no sympathies for the Golgatha landmark, their parking lot abuts right up to the cliff face and now obscures what would have been the "mouth" of the skull.  A little lack of planning on the part of the Garden Tomb organization has lost a lot of their attraction.  I am sure it is pretty disappointing to them and many people.

We wander through the garden which is taken care of pretty well.  It is very warm today and I kind of walk from shade providing tree to shade providing tree.  I didn't think we would be outside so much today so I didn't sunscreen up as usual when we are going to be outside.  

There are many places in the garden where groups can sit together, worship and have communion.  We are not the only group visiting here today.  People of many nationalities are here.  One of the larger groups is from Nigeria.  The Nigerian government will pay for their citizens to visit Mecca once in their lifetime.  The Christian citizens of Nigeria petitioned their government to extend that privilege to them as well and the Nigerian government granted their wish! So that partly explains why there are so many African pilgrims to Jerusalem. The Nigerians are singing Christian hymns in their typical harmony and the sound is beautiful.  We stop to enjoy the impromptu chorus.  

Our group gathers in one of the seating areas and we also sing some hymns about Calvary.  Unfortunately this seating area offers almost no shade and I am feeling my skin turn red as I sit in the full brunt of the sun.  General Superintendent Dr. George Wood leads a devotional as we are all served communion.  

We are all given little wooden communion cups and a communion wafer as we observe the centuries old instruction from our Lord to, "do this in remembrance of me."  It feels very special to be participating in this communion with all of the other nationalities represented all around us. Perhaps a foretaste of heaven? 

Following our devotional and communion, we join an unending line to actually step inside the Garden Tomb.  I am ok with this, but more from a famous landmark sort of point of view.  Maybe I am weird, but if we are pretty convinced that this is not the tomb of Jesus, really, what is the point?  Just like the replica scroll of Isaiah, the gift shop has plenty of those so why take the time to look at a replica in the dark?  It was the same thing when we visited the traditional place of Jesus' baptism in the Jordan river.  Most likely not the real deal.  I don't mind stopping, but why spend so much time at a place that really should not have that much significance?  Perhaps I am too pragmatic but in light of the fact that there are so many places that are authentic and undisputed that we don't have enough time for that ultimately I feel visits to these sites could be time better spent elsewhere, like the inside of the National Museum...

The line is long and we take our place and wait slowly creeping along.  It takes a lot of time as the tomb itself is not very big so only 3-5 people can occupy it at a time.  The drill goes like this.  The next people in line pause at the door to the tomb while someone takes their picture.  Usually right after that, someone comes out who was in the tomb and the new people go in. Every one will eventually take their turn at this so we all wait patiently as out pasty white skin takes on a pink hue.

After some time, our turn finally comes up.  We pause for our pictures at the entrance, wait a moment for someone who is inside to come out and then we enter the tomb.  It is very interesting.  It is spotless, obviously well cared for. There are old Christian symbols painted on the plastered smooth interior walls.  There is a raised bench like area where the body would be placed in a secondary room at the back of the tomb.  There are other people with us in this crowded space so taking pictures is a little awkward and we don't want to over stay our visit as there are many more people who are waiting their turn inside.  

Click on this link to see inside the tomb: http://youtu.be/I5s1KDcpmPQ

We emerge from the tomb into the dazzling sunlight and across the little courtyard to tour the garden a little more.  I can see how someone might like to spend their time volunteering at such a place as this.  So many Christian people to visit with from all over the world, the setting is beautiful, a little oasis in the midst of a hustling, busy city.  The mostly British sounding volunteers are very nice people and bid us all farewell as we prepare to board the buses once again.

We are heading to Jaffa Gate and a couple of hours to ourselves!  We are quite excited!  Little do we know we will have our own little adventure that will give us a sense of danger and vulnerability that we weren't counting on.

Day 9 Part 1 The Israel National Museum

We are waking up slower these days.  Not only is the toll of the uncountable number of stairs and miles of walking each day really adding up but our body clocks are catching up to the time change after waking us up in the early hours of the morning for most of this trip.  I look out the window of our hotel and think of the song "Bethlehem Morning" even though we are in Jerusalem. 

I ponder what to wear today.  I'm not really all that concerned about fashion (obviously) but with a limited wardrobe I have pretty much put together all the combinations of shirt/pants that I have brought with me by now.  Since we will be in Jerusalem all day, I will wear my running shoes, but what shirt with what pants?  Fortunately I have not dropped a big blob of bbq sauce on any of my shirts yet, mostly because they don't serve bbq sauce in Israel, so most of my shirts are still pretty clean.  I should probably wear a long-sleeved shirt. 

The little complicator is when you are in Jerusalem, so often places we go are "sensitive" and part of that sensitivity is the length of sleeves and pant legs for those areas where religious sensitivities are heightened.  So in Jerusalem pretty much you need to wear long sleeves and long pants.  It in such a hot place you have to wear your least cool clothing.  That pretty much holds true even in non-sensitive places as well but for sunburn potential not religiosity. It would be safer next time to just bring all long-sleeved shirts.  

I make my clothing selections from my limited options and head down for my standard breakfast. 

We gather for a devotional by Dr. Wood in one of the hotel's large rooms.  We get the game plan which includes the Israeli National Museum, the Garden Tomb, and a rare opportunity - a free couple of hours for lunch! After a prayer, we are bid to get on the bus.  The buses are always right on time and waiting for us.  The drivers are the unsung heroes of the trip.  

The bus drivers are always thinking ahead, appear right on time and where they need to be.  They are also pretty friendly.  I think ours must be from Australia.  He looks a bit like Crocodile Dundee with the hat he wears and he has that Australia way of talking.  I hope they get a good tip for the good job they do. 

We enter the downtown traffic and snake our way into town.  One of the sights that is becoming familiar to me is we often pass by the Valley of Hinnom.  It is a beautiful little park-like place where we see families playing and little children running around.  The history of this place is very dark.  The Valley of Hinnom was a place where the apostate Jews sacrificed their children to Molech and Jesus referred to as "Gehenna" or hell.  The contradiction from then until now couldn't be greater.  It looks like it should be part of a golf course.  I am a little more oriented now as the Valley of Hinnom begins near Jaffa Gate, my favorite part of the city.  

After a short bus ride, we pull into a spacious parking lot and leave our buses. We have arrived at the Israel National Museum.  This same area also is the place where "The House of the Book" displays the Scroll of Isaiah and many fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  The House of the Book catches your eye right away as the shape of the building is built to resemble the kind of pottery jar the scrolls were found in, the roof is of white tile and fountains of water are continually spraying the roof.  

The water on the roof was the means by which the architects used to keep the building cool and temperature controlled before such environmental systems advanced to the level they are today.  

We are led to the area where there is a 3D scale model of Jerusalem.  I have seen pictures of this many times before.  It really helps one get oriented and have idea of how Jerusalem is laid out.  Our guide for the day is Dr. Wave Nunually.  In his characteristic and enthusiastic style, he shows us the different configurations of Jerusalem over the centuries.  The City of David, Hezekiah's Wall, and so forth.  All of it is pretty interesting and the scale and accuracy of this model is amazing, but I am anxious to get inside the museum as we are still on the outside.  All of the bus groups have gone inside some time ago and Dr. Nunually is still lecturing on the finer aspects of the City.  I appreciate this, but really want to go inside. 

Inside the museum will be all of the real artifacts that we have seen replicas of on our trip so far.  From Dan, Chorizim, Shiloh and many things we have not experienced yet all await inside.  Dr. Nunually doesn't seem to be getting the message and we stir restlessly as our precious time diminishes.  Finally Dr. Nunually confesses he has talked too long and that we should move along.

I thought he would never ask.  Instead of the museum we go into the House of the Book.  It is very dark inside especially after being in the bright sunlight outside.  It is so dark that even after a time I can barely see.  In the center of the room is the huge round feature around which the scroll of Isaiah is spread.
I am using a picture I found online as the pictures I took were all to dark to discern what the picture was about.
 

This scroll of Isaiah is the oldest complete example of the book of Isaiah.  We are told here that just recently the real scroll that has always been on display has been removed for preservation and this is an exact replica.  Really?  I don't much care to spend time looking at a replica, especially in the dark, I can do that in the gift shop in better light.  Since my reading of Hebrew characters is a little rusty and I can't look at the original, I have little interest.  For myself I consider this wasted time that I could be spending in the museum.

There are two levels in this building, the first level is all about the Dead Sea Scrolls.  The lower level of the building houses the Aleppo Codex.  This document has a shadowy and clandestine history of being stolen and ransomed through the crusader era and being transferred back and forth.  It is a collection we might think of as the first "Hebrew Bible" with most of the Jewish writings bound together in book format.  

We are spending too long in this place and I walk outside into blinding sunlight.  After too long at the scale model of Jerusalem and too long in the Shrine of the Scroll, we finally enter the museum.  It is fascinating.  Why did we not start here and see if we had time left over for the other places?  I can tell we will NOT have enough time to see everything.  

I admit I probably sound a little whiney about all this, but I LOVE museums, especially ones that house old stuff.  To be so close to a museum that holds things of biblical importance is almost more than I can stand.  I have to race through to see it all.  Much like our time at Yad Vashem, I trail the group to take as many side tours through the museum as I can while being tethered by my little blue receiver.  There is wonderful stuff, actual Roman helmets and spears, statuary and the real items from many of the sites we have toured.  The antiquity of it all is fascinating.  I have never seen things this old before.  The Constitution of the United States?  Hardly old at all, a mere blip on the timeline in comparison to many ancient writings far, far predating our country. 

This is the stone from Tel-Dan that we visited early in our tour that mentions "the House of David" verifying that David was in fact an actual historical person, not a legend like King Arthur. We saw the replica at Tel-Dan but this is the real deal here.

There were so many things that we did not get to see much less photograph. If you go to Israel, reserve AN ENTIRE DAY to see the museum.  Anything less is not enough.  I am sure that this is why many people come back to Israel and hire their own guides and make up their own tour so you can spend all day at any place you wish.  I would have done so here.

You may ask what was one of the coolest things I saw in the museum?  I have an answer for you.  An actual human heel bone with a Roman spike through it!  For real. 

No one of course is making any claims that this was Jesus' heel bone but this does date from the Roman period and verifies the method of crucifixion.  This sort of thing is extremely rare to have survived.  Amazing.

As I knew it would happen, we are told we do not have any more time, we must cut our visit to the museum short and hurry on to our next destination.  I am very close to throwing a two-year-old style tantrum melt down and make them drag me kicking and screaming out the doors of the museum, but I keep my emotions in check.  I am the last one out of the museum and on the bus.

Our next destination?  The garden tomb...  

Day 8 Part 6 The Wilderness Balcony

The buses head out to the main highway and the diesels strain as they head up the grade.  Since we are at the lowest point on the planet, every direction we could head would be "up".  This is why in the Bible you will always read about people traveling "up" to Jerusalem.  It doesn't matter if you are heading south or north, you always head "up" to Jerusalem because Jerusalem is the high ground.  In Alaska, we always head "down" south to the continental US and "up" to Alaska when we return.  They don't think like we do in the Middle East about latitude, they think in terms of altitude.  So we are heading up to Jerusalem but by a slightly different route.  

Our final destination of the day will the "Dead Sea Balcony".  This is a high vantage point that gives a panoramic view of the Judean Wilderness.  The Judean Wilderness is a seemingly unending series of hills and valleys, rugged in terrain and virtually devoid of any vegetation.  The barrenness is so striking.  

The buses deposit us in a rather forlorn a featureless wide spot on the side of the road.  There is a very rocky path up to a little amphitheater at which we gather for a little lecture.  Off to the side and down a little ways are some of the bedouin we have seen in little camps along the way.  I notice they are moving about excitedly and dashing into their tents.  I know what this means.  We will be hawked for their merchandise soon.  I do not like to deal with hawkers.  

The trail continues past the little amphitheater and we walk some more.  

I don't know if I have ever seen more rocky ground.  There is not a smooth spot anywhere.  The rock is mostly a white limestone with many other varieties of rock mixed in.  We gain a little elevation and round a bend which exposes a magnificent view!  

A little above us the hill tops out and I head up to see even more.  There is a larger rock at the top which like every other rock in Israel lacks a nice place to sit on but I sit anyway and take in the view.  I am connected to the lecture by my little blue receiver.

From this spot we can see clear to Jerusalem and over to Jericho.  There is a deep gorge in front of us which we are told is the "Jericho Road" which runs 85 miles from Jerusalem to Jericho and is the setting for Jesus' story of the good Samaritan.  

One can easily see how easy it would be for thieves to thrive in this area because of the rugged terrain and the narrowness of the valley.  The Jericho Road is also the inspiration of a Southern Gospel song:  "On the Jericho Road, there's room for just two, no more and no less, just Jesus and you...."  

As we sit and listen, the thought comes to me that our tour of Israel is nearing its end.  

The trip has been so much more than we anticipated and I am reluctant for it to end.  Once on this train of thought I begin to think of the tasks that await me when I arrive home.  I quickly put all of that out of my mind and decide to live in the moment.  

The day is moving toward evening.  The air is warm and there is a gentle breeze.  I pick up a piece of limestone that I will take home with me as a reminder of this place and of this day.  

I look back along the path we took to get here.  The hawkers are waiting for us and must sense that we are preparing to leave.  They have have respectfully kept their distance but now they creep closer to the group.  I am higher on top of the hill than most of our group and I can see that I can take a short cut across the top of the hill in a straight line to our buses instead of taking the path back to the amphitheater where more bedouins await to display their wares.  

We walk at a brisk pace as some of the children run toward us and beg us for money with grimy hands and runny noses.  I know if we stop we will be mobbed by children.  We have been warned NOT to interact with the children as many troubles await those who would.  We keep up our brisk pace and the children try other targets.  We eventually make it back to the security of the bus and avoid the very aggressive hawkers that confront many in our group.  I don't feel bad toward these people, they probably want to make a living too, I just don't want any of their things and they don't take "no" for an answer so I just prefer to avoid them when I can.  

The buses fill after a time and as the shadows grow long from the setting sun, we again take the high road for Jerusalem.  We near the city, the unmistakable infamous "wall" appears.  

Soon we will have dinner and head to a comfortable bed.  It has been a long day, lots of stairs, walking and heat. Tomorrow will be less travel time but a really full day.  We will begin with the Israeli National Museum.  I can't wait.