24Nov2010 Day 2

24 November 2010 Day 2

Breakfast was at 6.30am, but it was already super bright at 5.30am. For breakfast, they had this machine that pressed out fresh orange juice. We could see the oranges tumbling through the machine. We began each day on the bus with worship and devotional time led by Rev Chua. He spoke on Psa 119:124 -125 ‘Deal with me according to Your lovingkindness and teach me your statutes’. He asked us what our hearts’ longing or hopes for this holy land trip was. We saw the same rocky terrain both in Jordan yesterday and today in Israel. The Jordan side was barren but even the rocks in Israel could grow greenery. As our bus passed by, we saw that the landscape was dotted with oak trees (xiang shu), mentioned in the Bible as the tree Abraham sat under (oaks of Mamre in Genesis 18:1). This area is Galilee, lower Galilee. Galilee can be divided into the Upper Galilee and Lower Galilee hill ranges, as well as the Jezreel Valley and the Sea of Galilee.

We headed for Zippori (also known as Sepphoris), to visit an archaeological site with the best preserved mosaics in a Roman town. It was one of the most important cities during the Roman period, serving as the capital of Galilee. This was mainly due to its topography, the availability of spring water, the fertile soil in the vicinity, and its proximity to important trade routes. Zippori was then called Diocaesarea. The city, with its varied communities, continued to flourish during the Byzantine Period and the beginning of the Arab Period. During the Crusader Period, it was called La-Safouri, when a castle and the Church of St Anne were built. Later, a large Arab village called Saffuriyeh was built on the ruins of the city. The village was conquered during the War of Independence. In 1949, Moshav Zippori was founded, bearing the original name of the city. Zippori was established during the first temple period. The city was mainly inhabited by Jews, and developed during the Hasmoemean and Herodian periods (1^st Century B.C.). It was spared from destruction in 70 A.D. as its citizens refrained from joining the revolt. Following the destruction of the second temple, Zippori soon became a Jewish centre of learning, with many rabbis, sages and priests dwelling there. During the presidency of Rabbi Judah, the Sanhedrin moved to Zippori, where the Mishna was compiled in approximately 200A.D. The site was uncovered and preserved during the excavations of the Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with funding from the Russell Berrie Foundation since 1985. One of the public buildings flanking the Caldo was the Nile House, with the bath house sited opposite. The Nile House got its name from the mosaic depictions of Nile celebrations. From its size and opulence, it appears to have been a prominent public building from the fifth century A.D.

The name of the path we walked on was called Caldo. It was made from flat rectangular stones well worn by Roman carriage wheels. Nee said that the mosaic floors had to be pre-ordered from standard sets. Each floor depicts scenes from their lives. The colours of the mosaic tiles came from the natural colours of the materials used, such as black, white and red, as it was cheaper to find stones originally in these colours than to purposely dye them for the purpose of the mosaics. For a variety of colours and shades, they used stones from various quarries, fragments of ceramics, and even glass. The whole process of mosaic creation was already very expensive without the extra cost of dyeing them. Many public buildings and houses of the wealthy families were decorated with mosaic floors. 

We headed for Zippori (also known as Sepphoris), to visit

At the site we visited, each room had a different mosaic floor design. Nee said the place could have housed 200 people. A mosaic floor was made of very small cubes of stone, glass or tile laid in the wet plaster, according to a pattern outlined in advance. The more the mosaic-maker wanted his work to resemble a painting, the smaller the cubes had to be. Each mosaic layer was laid only after 3 other base layers were laid. Mosaics provide invaluable historical evidence and hence their preservation is crucial. There are mosaic conservation techniques, two of which can be seen in Zippori. The Dionysus mosaic in the Roman Villa was removed, treated in a laboratory, and returned to its original site. The mosaics in the Nile House, on the other hand, were treated in-situ. Traditional materials and techniques were used to preserve the mosaics and safeguard evidence of their history. At the site’s amphitheatre-styled “entertainment centre”, we went onto the stage to sing the hymn ‘Nothing is impossible for Thee’. The place was used in the old days for music or theatre concerts, and only used by the men. This theatre was built by the Romans in the late 1^st or early 2^nd century A.D.. It was carved into the bedrock on the steep northern slope of the hill. Its diameter is 72 metres and it seats 4000. The rows of seats constructed on the hewn bedrock were robbed in antiquity. The lowest 3 rows have been  partly reconstructed with original stones. The floor of the stage was constructed of wooden planks.

The Crusaders invaded Israel 14 times. Their horrific killings and pillages are one main reason why the Jews dislike Christianity. Rev Niam led us in personal and public prayer to ask for forgiveness on behalf of our late misguided fellow believers, and to pray for the breach to close up.

The Israelis will build apartments for their sons on top of their own, for each son who is getting married. At matchmaking sessions, the other party will ask if they’ve an apartment for the new couple. That is a basic requirement and if there is no apartment, the marriage deal is off. Israelis tend to use credit freely, while Arabs only use cash. Hence the Israelis look pretty affluent. 90% of the stuff in Israel are made in China. One Macdonald meal in Israel costs 18 US dollars. Farmers in Israel like to plant olive trees because such trees live a long life, some for 1000 years, and because they are very hardy. They can survive droughts, fires, rains, and even insects. Olive trees resemble hope and prosperity to the people here.  For thousands of years, olive trees have been life-giving to the people of Nazareth. Olives can’t be eaten off the tree. They must go through processing. Olives provide nutrition, healing, perfume and light.

Israel went through a variety of periods: Roman (64 B.C.-324 A.D.), Byzantine (324-628 A.D.), Islamic/Arab (638-1099 A.D.), Crusader (1099-1291A.D.), Mamluk (13^th century-1517 A.D.), Ottoman (1517-1917 A.D.), and British (1917-1948 A.D.), until it became the State of Israel on May 14, 1948. One of the hardest periods that Israel had to go through was the Roman period. In those days, there were 2 methods of execution: The Jewish way (by throwing the criminal off the cliff) and the Roman way. Those who were thrown off the cliff and did not die, were stoned to death. Roman statues of gods often have no heads, not because they have dropped off through the passage of time, but because the sculptors left the heads off. In a sort of democratic way, they were allowing for freedom of worship. The one looking at the statue was encouraged to imagine the head of his own god on the statue, and worship accordingly.

We were brought to the Nazareth Village, at the premises of the YMCA (P.O. Box 2066, Nazareth 16100, Israel. Tel: 972 4 645-6042. Email: info@nazarethvillage.com. Website: www.nazarethvillage.com). Their tagline was ‘The Nazareth Jesus knew’. During the lifetime of Mary, Joseph and Jesus, it is believed that the population of Nazareth did not exceed 500. We were first shown a display of various artifacts from the period of time that Jesus lived in Israel. The Nazareth Village re-enacts the ancient farming methods, first century crafters, first century foods and has re-created the kind of roads that Jesus once walked on.

They are trying to portray a 1^st century Galilean Jewish Village and its rural surroundings as it was 2000 years ago. We were led around by a tour guide who was a university student. She showed us some still displays, including a Roman guard in his attire, his sword, and explained the setting of the period of history Jesus lived in. We were led out into the open, where there were many olive trees, and where there were low walls made of stone blocks.

We saw a man dressed up as a shepherd, complete with weather-beaten looks. He was driving some black and white sheep, as well as goats. Some members of our group tried to feed the animals with dried twigs but were met with disinterest. There were also some donkeys a distance from us. We also saw an ancient wine press, a watch tower and a village well. The place had cultivated terraces, of which some were the actual ones from the 1^st century. All the village “residents” were dressed in ancient garb. We were introduced to a carpenter who was chipping away at a block of olive wood. He said that he was making a water trough for the young animals. He showed us his tools of trade, and highlighted one particular tool which looked like a bow. He asked us what we thought that tool was for.

 We hadn’t the faintest idea. He showed us, with deft movements, that it was an ancient drill. Simply amazing! We were led to a woman who made cloth and handled wool. We were very impressed at how she could make a woolen thread so neatly and easily from a handful of fluffy wool. To make 1 kg of wool, they needed 1000 sea snails. They obtained grey wool by soaking the wool with walnut. Brown or red wool was obtained by using pomegranate juice. We were also brought to see a man working with a donkey in a room. He used the donkey harnessed to a stone and wood structure, to press the olives. We were also shown 3 stones with rectangular blocks hewn from them. They were used to press oil from the olives.
The first press is the best. The third press (the last) is not edible and is used for making soaps or for lighting oil lamps. Nothing is wasted. Even the olive dregs are not thrown away, but are used as feed.

We were then brought to a 1^st century synagogue. There was a scroll on a small bench inside the place. At eye level, there was only a door. The windows were sited near the top of the high walls of the synagogue. Hence, since hot air rises, the place is very cool despite the blazing heat outside. In the time of Jesus, the synagogue was used as a place for social gathering: for school and other social events, and on Sabbath, for praying. As the synagogue had multiple uses, the scrolls could not be left lying around. They were kept in urns and put into the storeroom.

We had lunch at the Nazareth Village. Meals in the 1^st century were quite simple and came only twice a day. Bread, legumes, oil and dried/fresh fruit composed a typical meal. Bread and water were considered an essential of life. On the Sabbath, fish and vegetables would be added when available. Meat was usually limited to feast days and celebrations. We ate a 1^st century meal. We had bread (made from wheat flour, olive oil and dry yeast), dips (Zaa’tar: made from hyssop, sesame seed and coriander; Labaneh: made from borgol <crushed wheat>, yogurt, cucumber, onion, mint and sumac; and Hummus), olives (made from olives from Nazareth Village, olive oil and rue), lentil soup (made from lentils, olive oil, onion, garlic and cumin), cabbage salad (salad dressing is made from date honey, sesame seed and vinegar), barbequed chicken (chicken marinade made from Nazareth Village spice, olive oil and vinegar), seasonal fruit (apples with date honey, watermelon), and herbal tea (herbs from Nazareth Village).

We visited the Church of Annunciation in Nazareth. Nazareth is the largest Arab city in Israel and is about 88 miles north of Jerusalem. The church was rebuilt by the Franciscans (completed in 1969) in honour of the Pope’s visit. The Pope Paul VI had dedicated it in1964. The church was originally built to remember the announcement to Mary that she would give birth to Jesus. It has Mary-Jesus murals from many countries, even China. The Singapore one had Mary wearing a kebaya. We read Luke 1:26-38, about Mary receiving the prophecy of Jesus’ birth. In the church was a Mother Teresa poster with these words:

The Fruit of Silence is Prayer.

The Fruit of Prayer is Faith.

The Fruit of Faith is Love.

The Fruit of Love is Service.

The Fruit of Service is Peace.

Next door is the Church of St. Joseph. Built in 1914 on the site of an earlier 12^th century church, the caves, granaries and wells in the lower level were used by the early dwellers of Nazareth. Later, Christians turned the site into a worship place. Travellers who had visited the place in the 7^th century pointed out that this had been the location of the ‘Carpentry Shop of Joseph’. Later tradition identified the place as being ‘The House of Joseph’. We sang a hymn in an underground room. There was a wordy wall plaque titled ‘Jesus’ relatives’, but the place was much too dim for me to make out the words.

Nee introduced us to freshly squeezed pomegranate juice. Most of us bought a cup of it. The pomegranates were huge!

We arrived at Cana Village. For the Jews, wine is important to their celebrations. Nee  told us that Jesus chose to do His first miracle at a wedding, and not a healing or other miracle. Jesus didn’t turn just a small amount into wine. He turned 6 jars of water into wine – overflowing amount, showing His extravagant provision. When Jesus blesses, He really blesses. We had a great deal of excitement at the Cana Catholic Wedding Church. Upon entering the church grounds, we saw a long line of couples waiting to renew their marriage vows in the church, with the wives all dressed in white dresses. As for us, we had seven couples in our group and all of them had their marriage vows renewed in a space specially set up for us next to the church. One of the men in our group actually changed up into a long-sleeved shirt and tie. Each one went in front of our 2 pastors and renewed their vows. The men were also asked if they had any gift for their wives. None of them did. Nee provided single stemmed red roses for the men to give to their wives. She got them from a store near the base of the sloped street, at the top of which was the church. Rev Niam gave me a scare when she suddenly asked me to pray a prayer of blessing for the couples. Thankfully she said I could do so in English!

After dinner at the hotel, we met at Hebron Room on level 2 for vesper.