On Religious Sites in the Holy Land

Linda and I just returned home from nearly two weeks in Israel and Jordan.  We had originally booked Jordan with the kids back in April 2020, but the pandemic told us it didn’t want us to go back then.  So, just Linda and I went this time, we added Israel and didn’t take the kids (sorry kids…).

 

Both trips had been planned around seeing Petra, the Nabataean city the origins of which date back several millennia before the birth of Christ.  And seeing Petra did not disappoint – walking through the Siq and coming around that last bend to see the looming, majestic Treasury is breathtaking.  There is a lot to see and take in.  It added another UNESCO World Heritage site to our collection as well as another of the 7 Wonders of the World.

 

But want to know something?  Adding Israel really changed the nature of our trip.  We agreed that the original trip booked back in 2020 would have been quite different and perhaps not as engaging without Israel.

 

For example, an interesting place we visited was a former Israeli bunker on Har Benta just a few kilometers from the Syrian border.  (Everything to the left of the white road going toward the horizon in the second photo is Syria.)

 

 

There are many great places to visit and things to see in Israel.  What caught me off guard (given my lack of practical interest in Christianity as religion) was how much I enjoyed seeing the numerous sites of importance to Judaism and Christianity as more than just historical locations.  And most of these sites were in Israel.  My mother would have loved that we are able to see so many of these places.  And despite my agnostic tendencies, it would have given me pleasure to describe them to her.

 

Here are the religious sites we saw, in the chronological order of our trip: 

1.   Capernaum – this site on the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee is, according to tradition and archeological record, where St. Peter's house was located.  It is said that his house (located under a present day church - first photo) is where Christianity became more organized as a religion following the crucifixion of Christ.  It is also the site of many of the miracles performed by Jesus, some in the oldest of the two synagogues once located there (vestiges of which may be seen under the ruins of the 4^th century synagogue built on top of it - 2nd photo).

 

2.   Mount of Beatitudes – this site is not far from Capernaum and is, by tradition, the site of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  Today, the site has a Catholic chapel built in the late 1930’s and is where a mass was celebrated by John Paul II in 2000.

 

 

3.   Safed – This city is one of Israel’s four Holy Cities.  It is located north of the Sea of Galilee and we visited it on the way up to the Golan Heights.  By tradition it became the center of Kabbalah (the traditional and most commonly used term for the esoteric teachings of Judaism and for Jewish mysticism) in the 16^th century. 

 

4.   Bethlehem – We traveled through a security checkpoint and into the West Bank to visit the town of Bethlehem and the Greek Orthodox Church of the Nativity.  Christian tradition tells us that Jesus was born in the grotto beneath the altar of the church (before the church was built, of course) and placed in a manger just a few feet away.  The grotto is connected by caves to the adjacent Roman Catholic Church of St. Catherine.

 

5.   Masada – an ancient fortification in the Judaean Desert and site of the Siege of Masada in 72-73 AD, admittedly not exactly a religious site nor event.  King Herod the Great (father of Herod Antipas who asked Jesus to perform a miracle before sending him to Pontius Pilate) built two palaces with fortifications on this mountain near the Dead Sea between 37 and 31 BC.  According to Jewish Roman historian Josephus, the months long siege resulted in the Romans breaching the walls only to find that its Jewish defenders had set all the buildings except the food storerooms ablaze and, so as not to be taken prisoner by the Romans, committed mass suicide or killed each other, 960 men, women, and children in total.  Only two women and five children were found alive.

 

6.   Church of the Holy Sepulchre – this church is in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City.  Several locations within this church are Christian holy sites.  First, Calvary, the location of the crucifixion of Christ, a site that was a quarry at the time, is now encompassed within the church.  Second, the stone of anointing, where tradition tells us Jesus’ body was prepared for burial.  And last, the tomb of Jesus.  We were able to see the first two, but not the tomb as a mass was underway in the chapel in which it is located. The church also contains the sites of the final 4 or 5 Stations of the Cross.

 

 

 

 

7.   Via Dolorosa – the processional route through Jerusalem the cross-bearing Jesus took from the Antonia Fortress to Calvary along which the events of the Stations of the Cross took place.  We walked in reverse order from the Church of the Sepulchre to see 5 of the 14 stations.  The first two at which Jesus encounters and is convicted by Pontius Pilate are located within what is now a school and are largely inaccessible.  We walked past #7 – Jesus falls for the 2^nd time, #6 – Veronica wipes the face of Jesus, #5 – Simon of Cyrene is made to bear the cross, #4 – Jesus meets his mother, and #3 – Jesus falls for the first time.

 

 

 

 

 

8.   The Western Wall – Located at the base of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  According to this site, the Western Wall is considered to be the holiest place and spiritual epicenter to the Jewish people (also where the Holy of Holies was located) given access restrictions to the Temple Mount.

 

9.   Mt. Zion – the location of the Cenacle, or Upper Rooms, site of the Last Supper with Jesus and his disciples.  Located below it is the supposed Tomb of King David (there is not consensus of this as fact). 

 

10. Bethany – After crossing the border into Jordan (which due to border tension took the better part of a day...), we visited Bethany.  Known as Al-Maghtas in Arabic, it is the site on the Jordan river where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. 

 

11.  Mount Nebo – this ridge in Northern Jordan is where tradition tells us Moses ascended and from where he saw the Land of Canaan (the promised land).  He later died there. A Christian church from the Byzantine era sites at the summit.   

 

Until next time..