day 1b

Today was really fun. We began on the mount of olives and got a panoramic view of Jerusalem.



It's crazy how close together all of these landmarks are. This gave us a good opportunity to see the whole city, point out where historic locations would have been and unfold the high points of Israel's history.

Our tour guide, Adre is really good. He's a 30-something jewish man who really knows his Bible, NT included. After we saw the city from the Mount of Olives we crossed Jerusalem to the state museum where there is a very large replica of the city from the time of Jesus and the dead sea scrolls found in Qumron. These are the oldest existing manuscripts from the Hebrew Scriptures dating back to the 4th century. Their history is amazing and a clear sign of God's provision and protection for his word.
Next we drove into Bethlehem (Palestinian territory) where we saw Herodium and the Church of the Nativity. Herodium was one of 7 or 8 fortresses or palaces that Herod built in his day and it was believed to be the 3rd largest in the world at the time. (Who knows if it really was.) It's a real engineering marvel to see the cisterns and tunnels carved out of the stones. He also moved a mountain (really a large hill) to build up Herodium's foundation. It stands as a dominant point on the horizon line and is high enough to see parts of Jerusalem, the mount of olives and Bethlehem from the top. It's really impressive.
The church of the nativity was just gaudy and overdone. While the exact location of Jesus' birth cannot be known, the historical tradition is that it was close or under where this church now stands. The Catholics and Orthodox churches have turned it into quite a shrine. We were more interested to see the catacombs or tunnels under the church where St. Jerome copied the Scriptures into the common language for the people.
On our way out of Bethlehem we stopped at a gift shop owned by some Palestinian Christians. They had lots of stuff, silver and gold jewelry, lots of olive wood statuettes, tapestries and trinkets. We had fun bargaining with them and had some fun encounters with some street merchants on the way to the bus.
We returned back to the hotel at about 6:45 and enjoyed dinner together at the restaurant.
It was a full and tiring day.