The Land of The Bible
Bethlehem and the Church of the Annunciation with its beautifully carved door.
“The Bible is a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends ... No interpretation, no matter how subtle, can (for me) change this.” ― Albert Einstein
I find it fascinating that these lands are claimed by three of the major religions of the world. Along with Islam and Judaism these lands are also the birthplace of Christianity. Any visit here would be incomplete regardless of your religious preferences if you missed out on all the landmarks of Christianity.
Starting from Tel Aviv where we visited St. Peter’s Church to Caesarea the bastion of the Romans where Christians were imprisoned or sacrificed in the Hippodrome we finally arrived in Nazareth and the Galilee valley where Jesus lived and preached his sermons and overall carried on his day-to-day earthly ministry.
From the beautiful church of the Annunciation the site where the archangel Gabriel gave Mary the joyous tidings of the birth of Christ to Capernaum where Jesus spent much of his time tending to his human flock we lived and breathed the stories of the bible particularly the secular version that I had grown up with in my Moral Science classes while studying in a convent school in India.
I want to emphasize that we were on a tour of discovery and not a religious believer’s tour, so our objective was to explore this part of the country in much the same way as we explored other facets. Possibly we did not visit every site associated with the bible, but we covered enough to feel like we walked in the footsteps of believers.
After an interesting drive with hairpin curves and traffic jams, we finally made our way into Mary’s house where she received the visit from the angel Gabriel.
People come to pay their respects here and pray before heading upstairs to the church.
The church is dedicated to Mary. The walls are decorated with large pictures donated from the various countries around the world depicting in their local crafts their vision of the Annunciation.
This is a beautiful church with such a strong sense of peace as people walk around awestruck looking at all the paintings and art. It is one of the few churches that is dedicated to the Madonna.
Then on to the nearby Mount of Precipice where the people of Nazareth rejected Jesus as the Messiah and threw him from the mountain top, but Jesus was able to transform to mist and walk away.
There was a church group visiting and having discourse with their priest as we walked around and looked at the fertile Jezreel valley and the area that had served as Jesus’ earthly ministry.
From the top of Mount Precipice, we could see Mount Tabor which is referred to as the Mount of Transfiguration. The story goes that Jesus went up the mountain with three of his disciples Peter, James and John to pray. There he began to glow with a radiance. This is where he was first referred to as the son of God.
The chapel at the Mount of the Beatitudes where Jesus preached the sermon on the mount. The path to the chapel is lined with stones inscribed with the Beatitudes. One of the gentlemen in our group had started to talk about Monty Python and all the way to the chapel we were laughing at his dialogs on the short walk from the parking lot to the church.
Not a very reverent attitude but we did have fun.
Capernaum or the town of Jesus as it is referred to. Located on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, this was a popular stopping place for Jesus especially since Peter and two of his other disciples are reputed to have lived here. The house of Peter has been transformed into a very modern looking church through the original remains can still be viewed here. This is a great site to stop at because it also has the remains of two Jewish Temples as well as myriad jars and tools that were used during the biblical times on a day to day basis.
Many miracles from the bible are supposed to have taken place here, healing the sick, turning water into wine, etc.
We should have been able to see the Sea of Galilee from the Mount of Beatitudes but due to the early morning timing and a bit of fog it wasn’t until we got here to Capernaum that we had our first glimpse of the Galilee.
As we gazed out at the calm waters and looked at the scenery around here including the Golan Heights in the distance it’s not hard to give your imagination free rein to imagine Jesus, sailing along these waters and stopping to greet fishermen. One can only imagine the miracle of the fishes and loaves along these shores to provide food for the hungry masses.
Then onto the Yigal Allon Museum which houses the ancient boat excavated from the Galilee. This boat is reminiscent of the boats used in the biblical times and again you can imagine Jesus and his disciples sailing along the Galilee in these boats as they traveled preaching to the masses.
We stepped out of the backdoor to overlook the Sea of Galilee and saw people sailing along the waters and while the boats were different it’s easy to imagine people leading a similar life hundred, or thousands of years ago.
Before Jesus began his ministry, He was baptized by John the Baptist. This baptismal site is currently located within Jordan, but we did get to visit it and the river Jordan.
When the pope made his landmark trip to this part of the world, he visited here and there is a little mosaic to commemorate that visit.
While we did not visit Bethlehem and countless other Christian sites that are located in these lands, we did of course visit Jerusalem and walk along the Via Dolorosa tracing Jesus Christ’s journey carrying the cross to the Rock of Golgotha.
Each of the stops that are mentioned in the bible are labeled as the stations of the cross and pilgrims stop at each station and relive the occurrence. We did not visit the stations that are located in the Muslim quarter where the sentencing happened, and the journey began.
We walked the Via Dolorosa and stopped at each of the stations to relive the story of that station: where Jesus first beheld his mother, where Simon shared the burden and carried the cross a little way, where the local women shed tears for his plight. Regardless of your religious affiliation it’s hard not to get caught up in the emotion of the story of this journey.
This is the spot where Jesus stumbled and fell and left a handprint. There is a similar story about the handprint of Guru Nanak that is now located in Pakistan, while I have not visited that site, I did place my hand here in the handprint.
The journey along the Via Dolorosa ends at the church of the Holy Sepulcher. In the church are the final stations of the cross where Jesus’, clothes were taken in the room with the blue dome, and then he climbed up to where he was nailed to the cross which is the spot right on top of the church.
The original church was founded by the Empress Helena mother to Constantine the Great after he found Christianity. Subsequently the church fell into disrepair and this current shape was a gift of Queen Melisende.
Ownership of the church is shared between the Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox and Catholics. The Coptic, Syriac and Ethiopian communities have rights to use certain areas. You can see the differences between the various areas and chapels as you tour the church.
Inside the church are more stations. Here the body was removed and given to his mother and laid on this stone called the stone of Anointing where the body was prepared for burial.
People kneel and cross the stone in reverence.
The Armenian side of the burial cave where it is believed the head rested.
The entrance to the burial cave, the inside is very narrow and only 2 -3 people can stand in there at a time.
Inside the church.
This trip has been one of the top travel experiences in my life. Every aspect met and exceeded my expectations.
Did I ever imagine as a child reading the bible stories as a part of my secular upbringing that I would someday visit some of the sites from these stories? I am grateful to be able to smell, hear, see and feel the world of my books in technicolor. A bonus indeed for a child with a vivid imagination and a love of reading.