Israel - Day 3

We were in Jerusalem again all day. We are still staying at the Gloria Hotel just inside the Jaffa Gate (a gate that would have existed in Jesus' day, though it's comprised of different stones today). By "inside Jaffa Gate" we mean that we are in the Old City of Jerusalem which would be roughly equivalent to the city's size in Jesus' day.

Today we went to the Temple Mount first. The Temple Mount is a flat platform built on top of Mt. Moriah which consisted of building HUGE retaining walls and filling it in with dirt. Herod the Great  (who died around the time Jesus was born) was the one to do this. The Jewish Temple would have rested on this Temple Mount (though it was destroyed--that is, the second one was--in AD 70). Now it is occupied by the Dome of the Rock which is the third most holy site in Muslim theology. We had an interesting encounter on the Temple Mount. When we were getting ready to leave we were sitting down next to each other on a short wall. A Muslim authority came around the corner and sternly told us "don't touch!" At first we thought he meant not to touch--that is, sit on--the wall. Then, we realized that he was saying not to touch each other! The humorous thing of it all was that we were not even holding hands at the time. Our thighs were incidentally touching one another by nature of the fact that we were sitting together. Ashley moved over six inches which satisfied the Muslim authority. The REALLY humorous thing is that we looked up to see another couple in our group with their arms around each other about 30 yards away. The Muslim authority didn't have any words for them, though!

After the Temple Mount we went to the Garden of Gethsemane and the Israel Museum. At the Israel Museum they had a to-scale model of what the city of Jerusalem would have been like during Jesus' day. When I'm finished writing this, I will try to attach a picture of this model focusing on the Temple Mount. We also saw some of the Dead Sea Scrolls in this Museum (which Michael can theoretically read now) and some extremely famous archaeological finds. The most important archaeological exhibit that we saw here was the Tel Dan Stele. This is a piece of rock about 2 feet tall 2 feet wide and 8 inches deep (at least, that's all we have of it today). Until this was found many argued that there was no extra-biblical data for the existence of David and wrote him off as about as historical as King Arthur. However, this artifact written by a non-Israelite mentions "the house of David" which in that culture was equivalent to saying "the dynasty of David" thereby verifying the accuracy of the Bible--that David was a real, historical figure.

Wow, that was a lot of writing. If you made it this far, you are to be commended. We are having a great time and hope that you will enjoy reading this and seeing any pictures we can pass along. We will see you soon.

The Garden of Gethsemane

Ashley and Mike on the Temple Mount with the Dome of the Rock in the background. Many think that the Ark of the Covenant sat on the bedrock which is exposed inside the Dome of the Rock. Apparently, there is an indentation in the bedrock that seems like it could fit the dimensions of the Ark of the Covenant, but we can't know since they only let Muslims in after the year 2000.

This is that model of Jerusalem focusing on the Temple Mount. This structure in the foreground is the Temple Mount with the Temple sticking up in the center. You are looking at it from basically the Mount of Olives on the east.

-Mike and Ash