June 14, Saturday - Hiking around the Galilee area

Surprise, surprise…. Another busy day for us.  Up at 6, breakfast at 7, on the bus at 7:30, hiking by 8.  If you are looking for a relaxing vacation – THIS IS NOT IT! But if you want one that will challenge your mind, soul, and body I don’t know that you could find a better trip to take.

Part of the trail

Our first stop today was Mount Arbel.  It stands about 2700 ft above the Sea of Galilee and we started pretty close to the bottom.  It was a steep climb to say the least, so much so that parts of it had metal hand holds which had been pounded into the rock so you had something to grab on to and also step on as you climbed. 

Part way up the mountain we came across caves.  These had been used by Jews who were fighting Herod in 43 BC as a place to hide their families while they fought.  Eventually the Romans found them and massacred them.  Now 70 years later Jesus is telling the descendants of those murdered to love your enemy.  Jesus was not bringing an easy message to this area.  It is sometimes just as hard for us to accept this today.

Each of our hikes is also meant to help us experience something of ancient times and John explained that rabbis of the time of Jesus often would come here to be alone to pray and think before starting their day – another indication that these guys were in great physical shape if this is how they start their day!  This is where scholars believe Jesus gave his disciples the direction to ‘go out and make disciples of all the nations’. 

Caves along the trail

Looking back down

From the top of this mountain we could see the main area where Jesus taught.  They estimate that 80% of his time was spent in the northern section of Galilee primarily because there were devout Jews in the area who were waiting for the Messiah and the concept of a rabbi and discipleship was practiced in this area.












One of the main cities he taught in was Chorazin.  It was a small typical city around Galilee where one of the main things they did was to make olive oil.  It also had one of the oldest synagogues uncovered in Israel.  We studied the various elements of a synagogue (ritual bath area before entering the synagogue, Moses seat where the person scheduled to read from the Torah would sit, place from where the Torah was read, etc.). 

Looking into synagogue from entrance

One of the things which each synagogue would have was a school room attached to the back or side of the building.  It was here that young children would study Torah until age 12.  At that point if you were a boy you would either start learning your father’s trade or, if you were gifted in studying scripture, you would continue studying until about age 15.  At that point you would either start working the family business, or you could ask a rabbi if he would take you on as a disciple.  If you did not find one, then off to work.  By about 18 you would then get married.  The significance of this is that, as we discussed, only Peter was married so that could well mean that Jesus picked (and it was rare for the rabbi to pick the disciples) teenage boys who essentially flunked out of religion since they were working with their families.  It was this simple group of boys who carried his message throughout the area, eventually reaching the whole world!  

Hill beyond the trees is sight for feeding 5000

Bethsaida was a fishing village (the name actually means house of fishing) probably right on the Sea of Galilee (the shoreline no longer comes right up to the village).  All of these villages were fairly small with only 400-500 people living in each.  What is remarkable is that Jesus called Peter, James, Andrew, John, and Phillip from here!  It was just a short way from here in one direction that Jesus fed the 5000 and a short way the other direction where he fed the 4000.  So of course this is where we ate lunch. 

We discussed the section of the bible where Jesus’ disciples are discussing the fact that they had forgotten to bring bread on one of their trips and they only had 1 loaf and worrying about what to do. (Mark 8: 13-21)  Jesus said: Didn’t I just feed 5000 with 5 loaves and 4000 with seven?  Don’t you get it yet?

Jesus was not saying that he could easily feed them with the 1 loaf but that we don’t need to worry about the more mundane things – He knows what we need and will provide it.  We just need to trust in Him.  In other words – don’t sweat the small stuff (and most is small stuff)!

After lunch we drove over to a place where you can reach the Jordan River.  Don’t let the name fool you, it is more like the Jordan stream.  John said that except for flood stage during the rainy season this is pretty much what it would look like.  During the time of Jesus water signified chaos or the devil.  When water is described in the bible it often involves storms or other trouble or danger.  By coming out of the water, John’s baptism signified coming out of the chaos into order.

Me in the Jordan River

John told us how his children were baptized in the Jordan last year and he called any of us who wanted to be baptized to come on in (he was standing in the water at this point).  He also said that normally the person would have gone out into the river themselves, gone under the water, and come back out.  So he also invited any of us who wanted to do this to also feel free to do it.  Several of our group went out with John to be baptized and others of us re-dedicated ourselves to God by immersing ourselves in the Jordan.  Even for those who did not feel moved to go into the water it was a wonderful time of fellowship.

A cool spot for bible study!

We talked about how every time you make a choice in your life that cannot be undone (getting married, having a child, etc.) you are essentially reborn because you start a totally new life.  It is important to keep God in all your re-births, not just if you consider yourself reborn in Christ.

As if we did not already have enough to think about this day (it is already taking me 2 days to summarize it!) we still had two more lesson sites to visit.

Harbor area where Simon was fishing

The Tabgha Springs is a location at the edge of the Sea of Galilee where local fishermen would come to rinse their nets when they were done fishing.  This is because there as a group of 7 springs in this area which provided clean water plus it was located in a natural harbor area.  Simon was here with his partners James and John cleaning there nets when Jesus came by.  Jesus had already raised someone from the dead and performed many other miracles so there was quite a crowd following him.  He asked Simon to take him out in a boat so he could teach out a little from the shore.  When He was done he told Simon to lower his nets to fish.  They had fished all night but not caught anything but when they lowered the nets they caught so many fish it almost sank 2 boats.  They were both amazed and afraid but Jesus reassured them and asked them to follow him as disciples.  I always wondered about the part in the text where it then said they dropped everything and left to follow him.  But as John explained – here was the ‘rock star’ rabbi of the period asking them if they wanted to be his disciples (remember, rabbis did not ask disciples to follow them, boys would ask to be a disciple).  I can now imagine them jumping at the chance before Jesus changed his mind. 

Our faith lesson was to learn to leave behind anything which keeps us from following Jesus in our life.

The Spring

Our final stop for the day was actually just across the street from the Tabgha springs.  Along with being a natural harbor, the hillside forms a natural amphitheater.  This is the traditional location for the Sermon on the Mount.  We discussed how Jesus would not have instructed his disciples in all of these things all at once but instead they would have spent quite a lot of time going over each point.  It may be that this was a favorite spot for Jesus to take his disciples to discuss these various topics and that often there would be crowds who followed to listen in.  The gospel writers may have just grouped all these teachings together as if it was one long sermon.  Perhaps the better title would be teachings on the mount. 

We also discussed the story of the Prodigal Son and how the father actually had 2 sons who were ‘lost’ in terms of their obligations to him.  The first by wanting his inheritance right then and the second for being resentful when his brother returns and not helping his father rejoice. 

Inside the Church of the Beatitudes

As the rest of the group headed back to the hotel I did a little extra hiking out to the Church of the Beatitudes.  I thought I might be able to find them having Saturday evening mass but arrived to find them about to close to tourists for the day.  They were nice enough to let me in for a quick visit since I had obviously hiked up there (nice way to say I was pretty dirty and sweaty with my hiking poles in hand).  It was refreshing to sit in the church (more the size of a chapel than a church) and read parts of the Sermon on the Mount teachings.  The only bad part of the extra hike was about 50 yards of weedy field I had to hike through after leaving the road.  (I was still feeling that the next day with all the small scratches – but it was well worth it.) 

Church of the Beatitudes

The hotel was within walking distance but the extra hike added about 2.5 miles to my day.  Not counting that side trip we hiked 4 miles today (mostly up hill) for a total of 25.75 miles so far.  I suspect that I have a shorter stride set on my pedometer than I’ve actually been walking and hope to double check that in the next day or so.  I’ve been recording the number of steps per day so if I find that this is off (seems low based on how my feet feel at the end of the day) I’ll post the updated distance.

Some additional pictures:
Some of the excavation work at Bethsaida is being done by people from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and some of the finds are also on exhibit there.  This is the sign that says this.  Bryan and I were surprised to find a reference to Omaha way out here.  

(NOTE: Text, links, and photos are complete for this day.)