I definitely should have written all of this sooner. Day 4 wasn’t when we left Galilee; Day 5 was. We headed over to Jericho, making some stops along the way.

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First stop was at ancient Samaria, at the ruins of the town that Herod built called Sebaste. There we saw one of the palaces built by Omri (Ahab’s dad), as well as the temple that Herod built to honor Augustus.

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We stopped for lunch at a place run by some friends of our guide. The food was good, plus the whole group got to try their hand at wearing traditional Bedouin garb. (We saw many Bedouin encampments along the way)

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One of my favorite places was Jacob’s Well. As our guide said, Jacob’s Well was never lost. There’s no reason to doubt that this was the actual location.

We drew water from the well, and the guide asked if anyone wanted to try some. I jumped at the chance! Not sure who else drank some, but I definitely enjoyed drinking water from Jacob’s well. I’ll include a video that I prepared in Spanish showing the drawing of water from the well.

Back in June, Carolina and I got to go with a group to Israel and Jordan. I’m getting an account of that trip posted to this blog, little by little.

On Day 4, we switched hotels for the first time since beginning the tour. We left Galilee and would end up in Jericho.

But first we went to Sepphoris, It’s a town northwest of Nazareth built in the early first century. It’s not inconceivable that Joseph and maybe even Jesus did some construction work here. From some of the ruins, we can see the strong Hellenistic influence in the Galilee area.

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From there we went to Nazareth, visiting the re-enactment site known as the Nazareth village.

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Next stop was Megiddo. We were to visit there on the day the group arrived, but their flight was delayed and we didn’t have time. I’m glad we got to backtrack and see this.

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Last stop of the day was Mt. Carmel.

Day 3 was Sunday. We spent it in the Galilee area, for the most part.

We first went to the traditional site of the Sermon on the Mount. That was moving to me; not the church that was built to commemorate the event, but merely looking out on the hillside that is like to the one where Jesus preached. I began reading the Beatitudes out loud while looking out over the hill and found myself getting emotional. I’m not convinced that that was the site, but it’s certainly the area and probably a similar scene to what Jesus would have looked out on.

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From there we went to the area that tradition says is the site of the happenings in John 21. There is a church there called “The Primacy of Saint Peter,” for Catholics find a confirmation of Peter’s papacy in the story of the breakfast by the sea.

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We also visited Capernaum. There’s a large church there that is situated over what tradition says was the house of Peter’s mother-in-law. There is also a synagogue which is built on top of what was the first-century synagogue.

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Later in the day, we went to the Church of the Multiplication, which is where tradition says Jesus fed the 5000. A few days later, Jewish extremists attacked and burned the church. I can’t help but wonder what the reaction would have been had Islamic extremists burned an historic Christian site.

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We made a quick visit to the so-called “Jesus boat,” a boat uncovered by the receding waterline at Galilee. It’s probably later than the first century, but does give an idea of the size of boats used by fishermen in Roman times.

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We also took a quick boat ride on Galilee. I would have liked more time to look out at the like, with minimal description by our guide. But our guide believed that if 2 minutes of descriptions were good, 20 minutes were better. Still, it was cool to be out on the lake.

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From there we went to a site on the Jordan River where they allow people to re-enact their baptisms or, in some cases, actually be baptized. I personally enjoyed just being able to wade in the river. This is the part of the Jordan far north of where most of the Bible stories would have happened, like the miraculous crossing, Jesus’ baptism, John’s ministry, the cleansing of Naaman, etc. But I thoroughly enjoyed seeing this famous river.

 

 

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It is interesting to drive along the roads in the Golan area and see the signs warning you that there is a minefield next to the road!