Day 14-16 Saturday

Saturday, we went to Genessaret (sp?). This is a kibbutz that houses a 1st century fishing vessel uncovered here in the Sea of Galilee about 23 years ago when there was a drought and the level of the sea had gone down. This was the first (only?) 1st century fishing vessel ever found and it was in nearly complete form. They carefully excavated it and moved it within 13 days!!! (limited time b/c water level was coming up). They moved it to a secure place and then soaked it in a chemical solution of some kind for 10 years that slowly replaced the water in the wood cells. The wood was so water logged that it was like cardboard and would fall apart if they were not careful. The water was gradually replaced and now the wood is hard/sturdy and the boat is on display. The Passion Play of Eureka Springs has a replica of this boat at their New Holy Land Tour. The groups that I have taken there have seen this before.

From there we headed to the Mt. of Beatitudes. There is a church or monastery there, but we didn't pay to go in. We went onto the slopes of the hill that led down to the sea and discussed the Sermon on the Mount.

We traveled to Hazor (another place mentioned along with Gezer and Megiddo as a city that Solomon fortified). Each of these cities is located at key locations on the Via Maris ("way/road of the sea") that connected Egypt to Anatoth (Turkey/Asia Minor) and Mesopatamia (Assyria and Babylon and Persia). This road carried rich caravans of supplies and treasures as well as marching armies. These three cities were key in securing and assuring Israelite control.

We headed North of the Sea of Galilee to tel Dan near Caesarea Philippi. This is the remains of the ancient city of Dan, generally referred to as the northern most point of ancient Israel ("from Dan [in the north] to Beersheba [in the south, visited there last week]"). It is at this location that a archaeology photographer accidentally uncovered an amazing find a couple of years ago. You may not be aware of this fact, but in many academic circles the existence of Solomon and David are thought to be fictitious/mythical characters made up by Jews during the monarchy era (920-586 BC) to create some heroic figures of their history/faith. Outside of the Bible, neither of these names appear in any documentation (Egyptian, Babylonian, Assyrian, etc.). However, all that changed when this photographer accidentally knocked over a stone as she was putting her tripod away, and on the bottom of it had an Aramaic inscription. The text is fragmentary, but it had the words "bet dvd," which many scholars believer says "beth David" (house of David) and is referring to king of David. It is a Syrian document discussing some Israelite kings that have been subjugated (probably Jehoram/Joram and Ahaziah) and refers to them as from the "bt dvd" ("House of David"). This was a huge find since this is the first time prior to 500 BC that David is referred to outside the Bible. Lots of other cool stuff.

I'll finish my blog for the weekend tour tomorrow and upload some pics. Time for bed!

Shalom!

Trey

We went to Caesarea Philippi near Mt. Hermon.