Philistine Sites and another Dinner

Days 28-30: July 15-17, 2009, Wednesday-Friday

Wednesday was our final field trip. Since Samson battled the Philistines, we went to a couple of Philistine sites, Ashqelon and Tel Qasile. Thursday was a day of class, then Peter and I had to make a "quick" trip into Jerusalem, before another very nice dinner with the Buth family, where we were guests with the Bible translators in the classes. Friday was our course final, a celebration, and then we rented a car to take trips our last three days. I'll tell you about those later. Let me just say a few things about our field trip on Wednesday.

Ashqelon

Ashqelon was one of the five major Philistine cities during the time of Samson; of course there were numerous villages around each city. In the first photo, you can see the remains of ancient city walls. The first occupants of Ashqelon seem to be Canaanites. The site was also occupied by Egyptians, then later the Philistines. These ancient wall ruins are actually from the crusaders in medieval times. But they built their walls on top of the ancient wall ruins.

From the top of the wall ruins, which form the western edge, the Jerusalem Gate, you can look eastward to the Great Sea (a.k.a., the Mediterranean Sea). The second photo looks in towards the city. Many trees grow there now, since it is a park; perhaps they did then, but the city would have been crowded with people. It is really quite beautiful. The ruins on the site include many Roman remains. Caesar imported lots of stone from Italy. I can image that this must have been a resort for them.

Our next stop at the park was a reconstruction of an ancient Canaanite city gate. This gate on the north part of the city wall dates to about 1875 BC. You can see the blocks that are original. The plaster and lighter colored blocks reconstruct what the gate was like. Notice the archway. The Canaanites made clay bricks.

Samson bet his 30 friends at his bachelor party that if he gave them a riddle and they could solve it, he would give them each a set of fine cloths; but if they couldn't solve it, they would each give him a set of fine clothes, 30 total. The "friends" couldn't figure it out, but threatened his wife and her family if she didn't tempt him to give her the answer. Samson eventually gave in to his wife's pressure, she told her people, and Samson lost the bet. To pay the debt, Samson went to this Philistine city, killed 30 Philistines, took their clothes, and gave a set to each of the friends. Why go to Ashqelon? Because it was a wealthy city, and he knew he could find people with fine clothing.

Tel Qasile and the Haaretz Museum

Tel Qasile is not so significant in itself, but it is an archaeological site with a great museum, located within the city limits of modern Tel Aviv. What is great about the site is that, even though it was built and rebuilt for centuries, it was only occupied by Philistines. If you come to Israel, this is one place you must visit. The museum includes other Israelite things as well.

The museum includes an exhibit hall with many artifacts found here and elsewhere, chiefly pertaining to the Philistines. Of the many interesting things were a couple of sarcophagi. The Philistines were clearly influenced by the Egyptians here.





There is also a reconstructed Israelite house containing archaeological finds. This gives the visitor a good sense of what life was like for Israelites in biblical times. The first picture shows one of us leaning on a post. The first photo is taken from the door. The person is standing in a courtyard. To the left is where work might be done, including cooking. The second photo shows one of the rooms on the right side. This is a place for sleeping. Other rooms might be used for storage. The third photo is of a cooking pot. The pot would be set on a hearth. Discoveries in these pots include the bones of dogs, apparently part of the diet of Philistines.

Finally, the museum had outside displays. These included a reconstructed threshing floor and other refining tools. In this picture is an olive press. Aaron, one of our teachers, and son-in-law to Randall Buth, shows how Samson might have spent some of his time after he was betrayed by Delila. He finally gave in to her pressure and told the (last?) secret of his strength, his uncut hair. Delila shaved him, and he become like any other man. The Philistines captured him, blinded him, and made him work in the house of the grinder.

Visiting these places was very enlightening. I took many pictures. I plan to use them in teaching Hebrew and even Greek. Learning Greek and Hebrew using conversational, interactive learning is a lot of fun for teachers and students. I hope readers of my blog will give it a try.

I won't be able to finish my blogging until after I return home. I hope you'll come back. Thanks for reading.

Brakhot!

Day 27: July 14, 2009, Tuesday

Today was a study day, so I'd like to introduce three other members of our class.

Carlos Vera comes from Ecuador. He is an associate minister of a church there focusing on people aged 25 and above. Of course his native language is Spanish, but he is also very fluent in English. His ability to speak in Hebrew is very strong. He can speak very fast. He is always smiling and a joy to be with.




Karin Fowler is today's rose among thorns. She just graduated from Columbia International University. She plans to return there this fall and be a TA for Bryan Beyer, a professor of OT (Bryan and I are email friends). Meanwhile, she is considering Ph.D. programs. Karin was one of the few people not staying at the Kibbutz. She and some other students in the Greek course here had a friend living in Jerusalem. So, they rented a car and drove in. Unfortunately, we were not able to spend as much time with her as with those who stayed here, but she did a great job in class and added much to our group. Plus, when we did Ruth, she was the only woman in class to act out things. (We all changed roles, though.)

Finally, here is Josh Venderzouwen. Josh teaches OT survey courses at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, MI. He spent the last two years teaching at a high school, where he also led training for the football team and coached basketball. Josh is also looking in to a Ph.D. program and hopes to teach Bible eventually.

One of the great pleasures, as I have already said, is meeting such wonderful people, who are interested in the same things. As much as I am looking forward to getting home, I will miss them. We hope to keep in touch.

Brakhot!

Samson: Not Really Checkered after All

Day 26: July 13, 2009, Monday

In an earlier post, I described Samson as checkered, i.e., he had plenty of character flaws that diminished his good points. Now that I've been through the entire text at least initially, I'm having a hard time seeing anything good in his character. True, he kills Philistines, which is part of the driving out of the land that God wanted the Israelites to do, and is at least part of God's answer to the prayer of the Israelites for deliverance from oppression by the Philistines. However, other than that, he seems to do everything wrong.

For example, he seeks a Philistine woman as a wife (here his parents weren't much better, for, though they tried to dissuade him, they make the arrangement). Later when he uses a jawbone of a donkey to kill Philistines, he is not supposed to touch anything unclean, such as a dead animal. When the Philistines kill his estranged wife and her family, because they blame them as Samson to cause problems, Samson can't believe they would do such a thing. So he sets out to take personal revenge, rather than pursuing the purposes of the Lord (Jdg 15:7). Even at his death (with apologies to the movie with Victor Mature, I believe), he prays for strength just one more time; why? to avenge the loss of his two eyes.

Samson was selfish, demanding, immoral, reckless, and foolish. Still about four times we read before the cutting of his hair that "the Spirit of the Lord rested on him," meaning that he was strengthened by God.

The people of Israel were no better. When surrounded by Philistines who wanted only Samson, the people of Lehi sent 3,000 men to take Samson and deliver him to the Philistines. What a way to treat your "deliverer" and judge!

The entire story sets up very well that the Israelites, God's special people, had become very much un-special; they had become like the peoples around them. Samson was what God had to work with. God, nevertheless, was faithful in his desire to preserve the nation for the purpose he had intended, namely to bring the Messiah into the world. And this he did, even using Samson. I wonder, though, what all God would have done with Samson for Israel, if Samson had been godly.

I think there are many obvious lessons for us. We should surely avoid the sins of Samson. Also, God recognizes we are sinful, but he is gracious. He still uses us. But he can use us more and better, the more we obey him. I would only be guessing, if I were to estimate whether Samson had any faith like Abraham did. But I do know that the evidence of our faith in Christ is seen in how we live. Let's encourage each other to grow.

Shopping and a Farewell Dinner

Day 25: July 12, 2009, Sunday

Today was devoted to shopping in Jerusalem. We usually hope on weekends to get some rest. Going to Jerusalem is not restful, at least the way we do it. We estimate that between the daytime activities in Jerusalem and the walk to dinner, we walked 8-10 miles. We call it "fat-burning"!

I'd like to introduce another friend, Roger Reeck. Roger started with us in the Ruth class and is continuing in the Samson class. He had studied more Modern Hebrew than biblical Hebrew before he came. His speaking proficiency is pretty amazing to me. He is a Bible translator for Wycliffe Bible Translators. He and his wife Marilyn have raised five children. Marilyn is the Scripture in Use Consultant (helping people use the translation after it's finished). They have been in Honduras since 1990, and before that spent 18 years in Mexico. Roger is the class clown of our group, frequently making jokes inside and outside of class. He is a lot of fun to have around and has added a great deal to our class.

In the evening, after resting up from our day in Jerusalem, a group of us walked over a mile to a restaurant called Tall Burger. Amanda (mentioned with her husband in an earlier blog) had gone with her husband David and said this was one of the best hamburgers they had ever had. David, as you know if you kept up, had to return to England last weekend. Since a number of people are leaving this Friday, some even before the session is over, we determined that this would probably be the last time we could all be together. So, about 10 of us went to Tall Burger in Castel. The burgers are 1/3 pound, unless you get the double (so much for the low fat), flame grilled, choice of spicy or regular meat, choice of numerous toppings and sauces - no cheese, to keep Kosher. You can get fries, onion rings, or a salad. It was delicious and a great time of fellowship.

The walk home was the same way we go each time, along a busy road for a 1/4 mile or so, but then off-road following a path on the Kibbutz property. It is after 8:00, and the sun has gone below the mountains in the west; it is dusk. We walk past valleys and up hills; we walk next to the hill topped with Tel Tzuba. At one point we thought we were hearing sirens on the highway and half-mile or more away. But as we stopped to look and listen more carefully, and we hear more "voices" join in. The sound is of a pack of jackals howling somewhere in the valley.

Conversations ranged from Hebrew, to biblical topics, and other matters. The day was tiring, but not one to be missed. I will miss seeing these people. But if I never see them on earth again, we have expectation of being together again beyond all time.

Todah lAdonai (Thanks to the Lord)!

Rest and a New Friend

Day 24: July 11, 2009, Shabbat

Today Peter and I decided not to go anywhere. We made it a day of rest. We slept in until about 7:45, ran, and spent the day reading Hebrew, or other things, etc.

In the evening three of us went into the terraced land of the Kibbutz to see if we could find any animal life and take a picture. We managed to scare off two white tailed deer, but we were evidently too noisy. I'll try another evening.

I am enjoying my studies here very much. It is a great experience. I hope that comes across in the blogs. However, I'm enjoying all the new people I'm meeting as well. It is great pleasure to meet them and hear how God is using them. Today I'd like to introduce you to Jerry McDermott. Jerry is in the Jonah class, but we've had chances to talk outside of class.

Jerry earned his Ph.D. at University of Iowa. He is the Jordan Trexler Professor of Religion at Roanoke College in Roanoke, VA, where he has been teaching for 20 years. Roanoke College is a historically Lutheran school, but has become a private liberal arts school, with about 2,000 students. Jerry is one of the few evangelical Christians on campus. He has an endowed chair, which gives him a reduced course load and allows him to write. He has authored or co-authored about a dozen books on religion and spirituality (you may find them if you search Amazon for Gerald R. McDermott). He co-authored with an oncologist three books on God and dealing with cancer. His latest effort is editing the Oxford Handbook of Evangelical Theology. He also wrote Claiming Christ (Brazos), which is a debate between a Mormon scholar and him. You may be interested in his web page here. Jerry is a very dedicated Christian scholar, whose teaching and writing benefit many people.

Tomorrow Peter and I will go into Jerusalem. Then Monday we begin our last week. The final exam will be on Friday. We will be staying at the Kibbutz Saturday and Sunday nights, taking day trips, and check out Monday morning, go see something, get to the airport by 8:00 p.m., and fly out just after midnight here early Tuesday morning. I should get to Norfolk Tuesday evening around 9:30. It will be a long day. My blogging on those final days may be hit-and-miss, but I'll do my best.

Brakhot!

Samson: A Checkered Character

Day 23: July 10, 2009, Friday

Today was the end of the first week of our Samson course. We discussed in Hebrew what we saw and did yesterday, then read and acted out the story for the first half of Jdg 15. Along the way we are discussing many things in Hebrew. After lunch, I blogged (catching up on yesterday's) and read. In the evening, a group of us went up to Tel Tzuba again to snack and enjoy the sunset and fellowship. Since I didn't go anywhere, I don't have any pictures for you. So, I thought I would show you one insight I noticed while reading the Samson story in Hebrew.

When teaching the Bible to children, Samson is always a hero. This may be a good thing. But we as adult readers of Scripture need to look a little more closely to see how Scripture actually portrays him. It is obvious pretty early on that Samson is a rather checkered character. Reading Hebrew helps a person to see this by the word plays the author uses. In Jdg 14.1, the writer begins telling about the career of Samson with a very common word, vayyared, meaning, "and he went down. This is a normal word, and if you saw yesterday's blog, you saw why he went down: Tzor`a was on the top of a mountain. What's unusual, though, is that he went down to the Philistine city of Timnah. Why?

The upshot is, he saw a girl there and demanded his parents go get her for him for a wife. Even though they don't want to, because she is one of those uncircumcised Philistines, they give in to his demand. In v. 5, the same word, vayyared, is repeated; Samson goes down again with his mom and dad. Where to they go? They come to the vineyards of Timnah. This also is to get the reader's attention. Remember: before he was born, his parents were told that their son would be a Nazirite and he was not to eat anything related to a vineyard (no wine, no raisins, no grapes, no grape leaves, etc.) and he was not to eat anything unclean.

In v. 7, after the incident of killing a lion, he went down (vayyared) again (or perhaps the same trip) and he spoke to the Philistine woman and he found her to be attractive. After a number of days he returns to Timnah, but on the way he remembered the lion he had killed and he turned off his path to check it out. What he found was a lion's carcass with a bee hive and honey. In Num 6.6, a Nazirite is not to come over a dead body, animal or human. So Samson's going to the lion carcass is not a good sign.

Now, honey was a clean food and not prohibited to him, but honey found in the carcass of a dead animal is not clean. So what does Samson do? In Jdg 14.9, he scoops the honey into his hands, like you might scoop the last ice cream out of a carton. So he gets and eats unclean honey, which he shouldn't eat, by scooping it out of a carcass, which he shouldn't even have touched.

Here's the word play. The word for "and he scooped it," a normal enough word for a common action, is vayyirdehu. Notice the similarity of the word for scoop and the word for going down, vayyared. There's nothing wrong with "going down" per se; Samson had to go down to leave town. But from the very beginning, the going down - repeatedly - takes on an ominous tone because of the accompanying situations (going to a Philistine city, wanting to marry a Philistine girl, his parents giving and and going with him and entering the vineyards of Timnah). Entering the vineyard of Timnah moves closer to sinning. The killing of the lion is okay, but might require some purification (see Num 6.1-21); the situation could have been avoided. Then the resulting honey incident occurs. This is a clear violation of his Nazirite status. The word play between "going down" and "scooping" draws the readers attention to Samson's failures.

How many times do we Christian's, like Samson's going down into iffy situations, try to push the envelop to see how far we can go without sinning, instead of seeing how far away we can get from sinning? How many times do we Christians, like Samson's scooping of unclean honey from an unclean carcass, act carelessly about our lifestyles to the point where we simply wallow in sinful activity, not putting up any fight?

As we encounter the enemy, sin, in our lives, may we rely on God's power not to scoop sin into our hands, or even go down into places where we put ourselves at unnecessary spiritual risk. Let us be different than the world by living lives in contrast to worldly ways and woo them with loving words and deeds. Let us do this without judgmentalism, for that's where we were, and we still have our struggles with sin inside of us. Thanks to God that he gives us power through his Spirit to continue to fight. We long for the day when the fight will be ended.

Maranatha!

Journey to Tzor`a, Samson's Home Town

Day 22: July 9, 2009, Thursday

Today was our first field trip for the Samson story (Judg 13-16). It was a long day. We had class from 8:30-10:30, then a break until after lunch. We boarded the bus at 1:00 and returned to Tzuba about 7:30.

Tzor`a is actually not far from Tzuba, 10-15 miles. However, it is quite a drop in altitude. The first picture shows some of the hill country we passed through. The bus was quite nice, but can only go so far. The hike from the place we were dropped off to the top of the mountain was over a mile, all up hill. But we were fit for the journey. (Peter and I were not huffing and puffing as much as most of them, even though they were younger.) I took the second photo at the beginning of the journey. The weather was typical: sunny and in the 80s. There was a nice breeze, however, and as we moved into the forest, there was more shade, which is always welcome.

Along the way we saw many fruit trees. We also found a carob tree. Carob is not mentioned in the Bible, but I'm sure they had them. This is a closeup to show you the brown pods. The pods are flat and inside are seeds. Several of us ate the pods right off the tree. They are sweet and taste like - carob! We did not eat the seeds.




Here are a few photos from Tzor`a. It has not been excavated, though many people have been here. Along the path up there were a couple of nice settings with picnic tables and even a small playground. Tzor`a was a small town. In the first photo in the town was what looked to be an olive press. Standing on the press is Anna Kozachuk. She is 18 and just came to the Ulpan for the Samson course (I'm not sure how long she will stay). She was born in the Ukraine, but her family emigrated to the US when she was four. She is a very sweet girl with a great love for God and for the lost. The second photo shows an area adjacent to the center of town with the press and the wine vats. The rubble is the remains of houses. There must have been quite a number of them.


Also at the top of the tel was the grave of Samson and Manoah! I don't know why we all think archaeologists work hard. All they have to do is read the sign!






That was just a joke, of course. Actually, on the way up, outside of the Tzor`a area were several graves and a few caves. The first photo shows a real grave. I don't know how old it is, but it goes back to biblical times. You can see around the hole a circular recessed area, where a stone could be rolled to cover the mouth. In the second photo I am sitting in the mouth of a cave. It does not go back very far. It would not have been a comfortable home for a human, but it certainly would have provided shelter from the elements.

After reading Jdg 13-14 at Tel Tzor`a, we walked to the parking lot where the bus was. It was on an adjacent peak. Looking downhill and southwesterly (near as I can tell) you can see the trees of the forest of the hill and beyond that the Soreq Valley. In the center of the photo, you can see the ruins of Beth Shemesh. The Philistines controlled the valley, which was and is a rich agricultural area. Israelites and Philistines certainly did business with each other during this time.


Also from this hill top you can see the ruins of Timnah, the hometown of the Philistine girl, whom Samson married. Although it's not far "as a crow flies," it was quite a hike to go there and all the way back up hill. Unfortunately it is difficult to find Timnah in the photo, but it is located beyond the grove of trees. It appears as a gray rectangle just above and to the left of the grove.


After our visit to Tel Tzor`a, we drove to the modern town of Tzor`a to a winery. It's a little ironic, considering Samson was a Nazirite. Our hostess explained about the various wines made there and we had cheese Goat cheese is pretty tasty. We concluded the day with a dinner at a vegetarian restaurant (easy for people to keep Kosher that way). It was a relaxed atmosphere, the food was quite good (I had asparagus with corn, seasoning, parmesan cheese, and a white sauce). The whole right half of the room has windows and a nice view of Eshtaol. The other half of the building sold all sorts of spices and herbs. It all looked great.

The entire day was interesting, educational, and fun. We spent most of the day talking in Hebrew. My skill level is still not where I want to be, but I'm getting better!

By God's grace, brakhot.

Studies and a Lecture

Days 20-21: July 7-8, 2009

These two days were spent in class and studying (and blogging). So there are no new sites to tell you about yet. But I can tell you that the Kibbutz is full of fruit trees, figs, pomegranates, etc.

Right outside of our classroom building is an almond tree (etz shaqed, or simply shaqed). The first photo shows the tree and the second is a closeup of the unripe fruit. Actually, they are related to the peach family; the skins are fuzzy. At this point, they actually rattle. But if you eat them now, they are quite bitter.

In Jer 1:11-12, the word comes from the Lord to Jeremiah. God shows him an image and asks him what he sees. Jeremiah says, "I see a branch of a shaqed." The Lord says, "You have seen correctly, for I am shaqed over my word to do it." The Lord makes a word play here. He gets Jeremiah to utter a word that sounds like what he will do. The word the Lord uses, shaqed, means "watching." The Lord's message is one of coming judgment on Judah. He gets the prophet involved in delivering the message.

Tuesday night was the weekly lecture by Randall Buth. It was on the nature of the Hebrew verbal system. He offered many excellent insights. For example, grammars typically teach that Hebrew has no present tense. This is not true. They use a participle (words that are half-verb and half-adjective) to talk about action currently in progress. In speaking the language, we are very familiar with these. Modern Hebrew does the same thing, but this is also normal biblical Hebrew.

Brakhot!

A New Course and Two More New Friends

Day 19: July 6, 2009, Monday

Today we began our new course, the story of Samson, Judg 13-16. I don't know if there will be related texts or not. We will take two field trips. I'll fill you in on those on the appropriate day.

Our first day was some review dialoging. We have two new students. The day was filled with studying. The evening was studying as well, plus Peter and i had a long talk about our backgrounds.

Today I will introduce you to two students in the Jonah class. In the photo, on the left is Geli (short for Angelica) Ketzer and on the right is Emily Thomassen. They room together and both are beginning their Hebrew studies.

Geli is from Leeds, England. She is 18 and plans to enter Oxford this fall, majoring in theology. Hebrew is a prerequisite for entrance into the theology program. She hopes either to teach or go into human rights law. Sometimes we tease each other about how to pronounce words.

Emily is from Holland, MI. She is 21 and just graduated from Trinity Christian College, where she played basketball. She will be starting masters work at JUC (see last blog) in Historical Geography. So, when the Ulpan is over ( I think she's taking the next course on Psalms), she will not be returning to the States; she'll be moving into the dorm at JUC. She hopes to teach Bible at the high school or college level.

These are two wonderful Christian young women. They are a pleasure to be around and to know. It will be fun to learn how God will use them in his kingdom. This is one of the great things about being a Christian; every Christian gets to experience an adventure in service to God. That adventure is limited only by ourselves. Let us all choose to submit to him more as Geli and Emily have. A great irony of being in Christ (and a distinction from eastern religions where the goal is nothingness) is that when we lose ourselves in him, we truly find ourselves; we are no longer lost, we are found.

Churches on the Lord's Day

Day 18: July 5, 2009, Sunday

Today Peter and I went to church at a Palestinian Christian Church. These beautiful people are not Jewish, they are Palestinian. Some of them have been Muslim, but not all. The minister got an undergraduate degree at Bethlehem Bible College, then did work at US seminaries, some in person, some distance education. He has a DMin. His wife is nearly finished with a degree in counseling.

Their building is located in the Christian quarter. The congregation is associated with the Christian Missionary Alliance. Here is the sign for their church. Services were scheduled to start at 10 a.m. We arrived about 5 minutes early and hardly anyone was there. By 10:20, service began with prayer and singing, which included everyone. One thing I took notice of was that these Palestinians prayed for the Jewish people. This is the exact opposite of the violence that so often makes the news. Over the next half hour people continued to enter. The place was very full.

Services are in Arabic, but they provide headsets for translation into English. After about 40 minutes the song leader began to speak. There was no translation, so I did not understand anything, except what little the keyboardist translated (he was also the preacher). There were many westerners present. One young lady was from Germany. A large group of Athletes in Action basketball players, men's and women's teams, was visiting. Most if not all were from the US.

At some point, I think the little children may have had a separate service, but I'm not sure; many were still present. The preacher spoke about 40 minutes, this with English translation. We closed with communion and a prayer in which everyone in the room held hands. The worship was enthusiastic and the fellowship was warm. It was great to be with brothers and sisters I had never met before.

The afternoon was spent mostly in bookstores (we found one very excellent one). Here are a couple of photos of Christ's Church inside the old city. It is Anglican and was built in the 19th century. One of their main goals was to win the Jews to Christ. Consequently, most of the materials, including the Bible, are in Hebrew. The In the center of the first photo is the communion table and behind it a beautiful panel with the 10 Commandments in the center, the Lord's Prayer on the right, and the Apostle's Creed on the left. The second photo is the communion table. The top line of Hebrew reads, "This do to remember me." In the center, the symbol with the crown and the star of David has the word "Immanuel." It was quite a beautiful complex and maintained by volunteers.

A Tour of Jerusalem

Day 17: July 4, 2009, Shabbat

This morning about 10 of us went in to Jerusalem. Some went to church. Peter and I plan to go to church tomorrow, so we went to visit Paul Wright (you can find his books on Amazon), a friend of mine from student days at Hebrew Union College, and to take a short tour of Jerusalem. Paul is the Director of Jerusalem University College (JUC, formerly the Institute of Holy Land Studies), and he found a couple of graduate students who were willing to take us around.

Our guides were Aubrey and Vernon Alexander. They are just finishing their masters degrees from JUC and will return to the US later this month. They were very knowledgeable. I will not take time to write about all the places we saw, but I will show you just a few pictures of the numerous ones I took.




Excavation in the Old City is very difficult because it's all inhabited, of course. They took us to a place in the Old City, however, where Hezekiah's walls were discovered. The picture looks westward from outside the city wall and shows some remains of that wall. On the building next door is a sign with a map of Jerusalem and the walls at various times. The shaded area represents the walls in his day. Perhaps you can make out the short, bold, red line on the western side of the shaded area to show the section of the wall that has been exposed. This was the most vulnerable part of the city wall and where invading armies, including the Babylonians and Romans, always attacked first.

Hezekiah, you recall, greatly expanded the city walls in the 8th century BC to include the pool of Siloam, which received spring water from outside the city. At one point Scripture records that he had to tear down some houses in order to build the walls. This photo is at the same sight as the last paragraph, but looks eastward from inside the wall. Just on the outside of the wall you can see some smaller walls for small rooms. These are in fact remains of some of the houses that had to be torn down to build Hezekiah's wall.

We worked our way southward along the Western Wall of Herod's Temple. Here is a photo viewing the area called the City of David. David's city was shaped sort of like a tear drop with the point facing southward. The northern rounded edge was mountainous and served as a defensible area. This photo looks south eastward toward the very steep Kidron Valley. The city was on the eastern slope of the valley. The western slope was also inhabited. Ancient burial sites carved into the western slope are clearly visible from this vantage point, but not in this photo.

As we worked our way down, we came to an archaeological site that dates to the 10th century BC. Dr. Eilat Mazar, a renowned expert on Jerusalem archaeology, excavated this area and proved that it does indeed date back to the time of David and Solomon. This debunks, in my humble opinion, the radical scholars who for decades have been arguing that the whole biblical story of a king David and a united kingdom was a myth. This photo shows the ruins of a very important building. Some think it was a monument, but Mazar thinks it to be the palace of David. For a nice article, see here.

The next photo is just below the palace of David. Note the very steep wall. This seems to have been a retaining wall used in part to support the palace structure. This wall was severely destroyed by the Babylonians in 587/6 BC. They entered from the west, as I mentioned above; this was the last stronghold. Evidence of the destruction remains in the abundant rubble. Another interesting thing to note is the more yellowish stone in the top center - sort of v-shaped. These stones were put there when Nehemiah rebuilt the wall in the 5th century BC.

One last item in two photos. The photo on the left looks westward towards the retaining wall. The ruins of a house have been somewhat restored. The floor level is known from what survives around it. In fact, we know that the owner was named Ahiel, because artifacts recovered from the Babylonian destruction had his name on them. Stairs on the left, some still intact, show that it was a two-story house. The photo on the right is of a drawing (taken from the journal Qedem 19 [1984], plate 25, page 61) in a JUC brochure illustrating what the house might have looked like before its destruction by the Babylonians.

We are very grateful to Vernon and Aubrey for giving us the excellent tour. They are very dedicated Christians, and I pray God's blessing on them as they seek to serve him in the US.

Conclusion of the Ruth Course

Day 16: July 3, 2009

Today is the end of our first two-week course. We get 45 hours of class instruction, so its about like a semester of work in two weeks. The concentrated time is nice. We spent the first hour or more reading the entire book of Ruth in Hebrew and acting out what was going on. One of the teachers read the narratives of the text and we students took roles and read our parts and responded appropriately. After a 20 minute break, we took our final exam. The exam was all in Hebrew, but we were well prepared. After all were finished, we gathered again and went over items missed. The instructor told us we all did "disappointingly well." He was just kidding of course. The beginning Greek course was also ending, so after the exam and before lunch, we had a little party. There were various kinds of cookies and breads, cheeses, juice, water, and even wine. Prayers were offered in Hebrew and Greek. It was a great time of fellowship. Later on, i will have photo of the entire class and out teachers.

Peter and I relaxed in the afternoon, before being picked up about 4:15 to have dinner with Randall Buth and talk shop (teaching biblical languages in this new way and helping the movement to grow at various professional society meetings). Also there visiting Randall and his wife Margarete (I'm unsure of the spelling), was Ray Van Leeuwen. He is a professor in Pennsylvania, a good scholar, whose specialty is Proverbs. He has written a commentary or two, and numerous articles. Other members of the Buth family were there, too, including their nine-month old grandson.

The meal was simple and informal; the food was great: grilled over charcoal were small hamburger patties with excellent seasoning, and various cuts of lamb, various salads, watermelon, and some ice cream. The fellowship was close. We talked for many hours, and it was a wonderful evening. There is so much to do.

Tomorrow, a trip to Jerusalem.

Two Trips in One Day

Days 14-15: July 1-2, 2009

Obviously I'm behind in my blogging. I'm going to write these as though I'm not.

Thursday was a busy day. Each course includes one field trip per week. This week's trip was to Neot Kedumim, which I explain below. The schedule was to have class from 8:30-10:30, break until after lunch, leave the Kibbutz at 1:30 to go to Neot Kedumim, and return about 6:00. We actually got back about 7:00, a little late to meet others from our Ulpan to go into Jerusalem for the 10:00 p.pm. tour. So, we got off the bus a couple of miles early, and waited for another bus coming from Tzuba. We did this successfully and arrived in the Old City about 8:00 with a couple of hours to kill.

We hadn't had supper, so we went to a square and different ones ate at a few different places. Peter and I, David and Amanda, and two other students ate at a hamburger place. I ordered the spicy 300 gram hamburger (no cheese! - that wouldn't be Kasher!). I'm not used to metric measurements of my meat size. It was two huge patties; enough for 3 people. It was quite delicious and I ate it all. Boy was I full. Anyway, I thought you might like to hear a little about the trips.

Neot Kedumim

Neot Kedumim is The Biblical Landscape Reserve in Israel. It was started around 1900 actually in the Old City of Jerusalem. The purpose was to restore the plants and landscape of ancient Jewish literature, from biblical times (c. 1400 BC) through Talmudic times (c. AD 600). Grains and grapes are grown, harvesting and processing is demonstrated, all with things you can do, rather than merely observe. Plants are named with English common names, scientific Latin names, and Hebrew names, to the best of today's knowledge, and all this has been vetted by biblical scholars. The Reserve Publishes three books, which I bought. It is a fascinating place with many things to see and do, and is a must-see for anyone visiting the land. Our time there was far too short. Here are just a couple of things.

When it speaks in the Bible of forest, we often think of something like the Rocky Mountains, with pines and such. There are plenty of pines and cedars in Israel now, but originally the "forest" was as in this picture, a mix of many varieties of trees with plenty of undergrowth. This photo looks downward from a high point. The bottom half of the photo gives a view of the forest. Part of settling the land involved clearing the forests, terracing the land (which was practiced long before the Israelites came to the land), and planting crops, including vineyards, on the terraces.

This structure is a tower built by Neot Kedumim. The bottom part was used for storage. The thick walls kept it pretty cool, even on hot days, as this one was. A person would go in the door, and on the right were stone stairs spiraling upward to the top. These towers were not used for war, they were used to guard fields, especially foxes and other animals that might damage crops. The watchman could climb on top and see well. Overhead was a means for growing vines, which also supplied shade.



Near the vines was the gat, the winepress. In the first photo, our guide and one of our students are standing in the pit into which
grapes would be carried. You can see people sitting on the edge to give you some idea of the size. This is going to hold a lot of grapes!
People, probably whole families, would stomp the grapes in this pit.



The juice would flow into an adjacent collection pit. It was smaller and deeper. This was a lot of work, but was also rather joyous. It was harvest. The juice begins to ferment immediately because of the natural yeast on the skin. The juice/wine was kept in this pit for about a week until the initial fermenting was done. Then the wine was poured into jugs and stored, most likely in the watch tower, for several weeks until it was time for everyone to return to their homes. Then they would take the wine with them.

Finally, in keeping with our Ruth theme, here is a photo of a threshing floor built at Neot Kedumim. You can see a pile of grain. They used pitchforks to throw it into the air and have the wind blow away the chaff. Boaz went to a threshing floor after the harovst was over to spend the night. He lays at the edge of a pile, probably for a pillow. In the night Ruth sneaks up and "uncovers his feet." Though some have taken this to mean they had relations, that just can't have happened in the story. The whole story sets up the honor of both Ruth and Boaz in direct opposition to the reputation Moabite women had. Also, Boaz's comment in 3:14 suggests that other men were at the Floor.

West Wall Tour

It is only within the last few years that this tour has been possible, and it greatly enhances our knowledge of the history of Jerusalem. A few days ago I posted a picture of the well-known Western Wall, the Wailing Wall, the remains of the city wall from the time of Herod and the second temple. For very many years, it has been thought that this is all that is left. Since Herod's day, with all the destructions and rebuildings, the Muslims, who took Jerusalem in the 7th century, eventually built on the rubble outside and next to the ancient city walls. What they did was build huge arches, atop of which is a platform. This platform is what the Old City is built on. Beneath these arches was rubble that has only recently begin to be cleared out. Now you can tour the entire western length of the wall - they found the corner. They know that much of the ancient wall remains, and they suspect that the base for all of Herod's wall is still there. The tour guide was excellent. Here are just a few pictures.

Here is a large model model of Herod's Temple.You are looking at the Western Wall. The Wailing Wall is only a visible part of about one-fourth of the length of the wall. You will notice that the bedrock slopes upward as you move northward. Herod had to build a large platform on which to complete his rebuilding of the Temple complex.



Herod might have had "personal issues," but there is one thing that he could do: he could build. The stones of Herod's temple mount wall are very easy to recognize. Here is a part of the base of the wall. Notice how each stone face has this recessed edge; very decorative. This same style of workmanship is on the Wailing Wall stones as well. Each stone is cut with very flat edges so that the stones fit together without mortar. The weight of the stones themselves give the wall stability.

All of these stones are big, but there is one huge one that has now been found, and it is in the next picture.

The model is electronic and shows the changes later on. This photo was taken just a few minutes too late. In the lower center you see a section that was sliding from the left; it was butting up against the section diagonally up and left. These panels show how the Muslims had built up their area immediately adjacent to the temple mount wall (which is later than Herod, of course). The Wailing Wall is partially covered up by the moved model section.

Well, tomorrow is a 1 hour review and the course final. After that, a celebration!

Ruth 3

Day 13: June 30, 2009

Today was another day full of class and study. So, there are no pictures. However, I will share with you another item that we have been learning.

During class we previewed our next portion for study, Ruth 3. When we got to the end of the chapter, our teachers asked us (in Hebrew, of course) a very important exegetical question, one that you should ask often: "Why is chapter three written? Overall Ruth serves to establish the lineage of David (see the last few verses), but this is actually accomplished with chapters 1, 2, and 4. Chapter 3 is not needed for this. Hence, the question, 'Why is Ruth 3 written?'"

My daughter actually asked me why the book of Ruth was written shortly I left to come to Israel. It's quite an excellent question. I gave her the answer about David's lineage, but did not go into much detail, because I didn't know it. Now I have learned more.

I've mentioned that we looked at related texts to the Ruth story: Gen 19 (origin of the Moabites)
and Num 25 (the Moabite women leading Israelite men into cultic prostitution). Both of these stories paint the Moabites in a very bad light, especially the immoral women. This reputation forms part of the background to the book of Ruth. Today we added another one, Deut 23:4-7. Here in these final words of Moses before the Israelites are to enter Canaan, the Lord tells the Israelites that thy are to regard as enemies both the Ammonites and the Moabites, because (1) 39 years earlier they did not give them food and water when the Israelites asked to pass through after the exodus, and (2) Moab hired Balaam to curse Israel.

In particular, Ruth ch 3 echoes Gen 19. A helpful technique in Bible study is comparing and contrasting. You can observe many things between these two chapters. The bottom line is that Ruth is the antithesis of the reputation and very origin of the Moabites. Boaz is the antithesis of Lot. Both of them together are the antithesis of the faithless Israelites during the time of the judges (Ruth 1:1). In ch 3 , Ruth the Moabitess forms a foil to the daughters of Lot. Her character and faithfulness to the God of Israel is rewarded by having a place in the lineage of David and, in turn, of the Messiah. She is a model for us in our faith.

How Shall We Love the Lord?

Day 12: June 29, 2009

Today was a morning run, meals, and study - even in the evening, so no pictures. However, there is one thing I learned which you may find interesting. As I have mentioned before, we are memorizing the famous Sh'ma passage, Deut 6:4-9 + Lev 19.18. Deuteronomy 6:5 reads, "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul [or "person"], and with all your strength"; note that there is a list of three things with which or because of which we are to love the Lord.

We get three accounts of when Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment. Deuteronomy 6:5 is included in Matt 22:17, Mark 12:30, and Luke 10:27. There are a number of things worth noting, but I will point out only one. It has to do with the number of items in the list and the treatment of the last item from Deut 6:5 (all accounts read "heart" and "soul" for the first two items).

First, Matthew records Jesus listing three items just like Deut 6:5, but the last one is "with all your mind" instead of "strength." Why?

Second, Mark and Luke record four items in the list: "with all your mind and with all your strength" in Mark and the same to items in reverse order in Luke. So, our teacher asked us (in Hebrew, of course), "Why did Jesus say 'mind' and 'strength'? Didn't he know the Scriptures [tongue in cheek]?"

The solution goes back to the meaning of the Hebrew word translated "strength," m'od. It seems that the word m'od can mean strength either in the sense of physical ability or in the sense of having means, such as material resources. In turn m'od can mean wealth. But wealth can also be used in two senses: (1) money, such as gold, silver, or bronze, or (2) mental ability, such as intelligence or wisdom.

To summarize, the word m'od can mean either physical prowess or mental prowess (either of which can include financial resources or the ability to gain them). Jesus, as recorded in Mark and Luke takes it to mean both. Matthew chooses to mention only the mental prowess side of it (I don't have a Septuagint with me). Jesus very likely used two words to describe the significance of m'od.

Every part of our being belongs to God - will, whole self, resources, and intellect. We should return to him the very best that we have (which he has given to us) in loving him and getting to know him better. That is the greatest commandment.

Brakhot!

Another Friend and an Arab Village

Day 12: June 29, 2009

I would like to introduce you to another friend, Adam Shank. He introduced himself to me last week. He is from Ohio, and has a connection to the university I teach at. Adam is the cousin of Katie, Kendall, and Kalyn Lean, all three of whom graduated or will graduate from Mid-Atlantic Christian University (MACU).

Adam is about to finish at Cedarville University, Cedarville, Ohio. He plans to become a Bible translator with Wycliffe Bible Translators and is beginning his Hebrew studies here at the Ulpan. So many Bible translators and support personnel are needed. I am so pleased that we at MACU have in place a degree in Applied Linguistics, in conjunction with the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics (GIAL), which can put Bible translators on the field 12-18 months faster than not having the major.

Since we went to church on Shabbat, and since Shabbat turned out not to be very restful, we did not go to church today, we studied. I spent most of the day studying on the veranda of the Qabala (Reception Office). Usually the days are hot (mid- to upper 80s), with low humidity. Day there was a nice cool breeze all day. The Veranda is covered. I showed you pictures in an earlier blog: it overlooks a valley eastward to Mevasseret and Jerusalem. There was the chirping of birds, the fluttering of sparrows to gather small scraps of food dropped by people or twigs for nesting. It was very enjoyable.

In the evening, another student named Joshua, Peter, and I decided to walk to a nearby Arab village. The Jews of the Kibbuts and the Arabs of the village get along well and are friendly to tourists. A number of the young Arabs work at the Kibbutz. Often we can hear the Muslim prayers echoing up the valley from the village. We thought we knew the way, but there were many paths. We walked through the Tzuba vineyard. The trail wound around following the terraces of the land. At one point I was able to take a picture of the village. We eventually made our way to the village, but the only way into the city from the grassy path we took was through someone's private property. We did not want to walk through a yard, and decided that we didn't have time to make any sort of visit, without having to walk in unfamiliar territory in the dark. So, we just walked back to the Kibbutz. We will make another trek and actually make it into the village.

The trip was not a waste, however. I took a couple of pictures of the vineyard. The Hebrew for "vineyard" is kerem (accented on the first syllable). You may recall that there is a biblical place name called Beth haKerem, "house of the Vineyard." We saw what was either a fox or a jackal. It saw us too, and I was unable to get my camera out soon enough. We also saw a gazelle (Hebrew: tz'bi). It kept its distance as well, but I did get this photo. The gazelle is in the center. The antlers are different than a deer's, and the way they walk and run is different. It's difficult to describe; perhaps they seem more deliberate in their movements. I'm sorry the photo is no better. We may try again to get evening photos of animals of the area.

Finally, I've mentioned that we are learning Hebrew songs. One of them is Ps 37:5. Using songs to memorize Scripture makes the task quite a bit easier. A literal translation would be, "Roll upon the Lord your way, and trust upon him; and he will act." I was having trouble getting a mental image of the first clause, in Hebrew: Gol `al Adnonai darkeka. I know how to roll something upon the floor, but how do you roll something upon the Lord? Checking Peter's computer Bible revealed that this verb is not usually followed by the preposition `al, "upon." Peter and I observed the teacher commanding students in the Jonah class, Gol eth ha-bakbuk, in English, "Roll the bottle." In Ps 37:5, "your way" is the direct object. Not too difficult, but what does it mean to "roll upon the Lord"? While looking for something else, I came across Jeremiah 11:20. Jeremiah is complaining to the Lord and he says, according to a possible reading of the verse, "For to you (Hebrew preposition 'el) I have rolled my case." That's when I understood. There is much overlap in meaning between the prepositions 'el, "to," and `al, "upon." The psalmist is probably using `al here because he also uses it with the verb "trust." The psalmist is commanding the reader to roll his way to the Lord.

"Way" in Scripture is a common metaphor for life or lifestyle or manner of life (e.g., Ps 1:1). We are not supposed to carry the burdens of life ourselves; instead we are to roll our life to the Lord as we might roll a bottle or a ball to someone. To do this is to turn over the control of our lives, with all its cares and worries, to the Lord. Then he has possession of our life. The second command is to trust upon him. The third clause gives the emphatic result: "And he will act." He will not take the bottle from us; we must roll it to him and trust him. Which would you rather trust: your own human power, or the Lord, the Creator of the universe?

Adonai `immakem! (Boaz greeting his workers, Ruth 2:4)