Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee

Hi Grandkids and Family and Friends

We travelled north along the coast to Mt. Carmel where Elijah challenged the priests of Baal to a contest to decide who was the true God.  Catholics have purchased the land and built churches and monasteries to commemorate Bible story places.  Some of the people of Israel had a long journey to assemble at Carmel to watch the contest. On the way to lunch we stopped at a tomb with a round rock like was used to seal the tomb of Jesus- this tomb was discovered recently as they were building the road.  We next visited Tel Meddigo, which is an archaeological site with more than 25 layers of city re-constructions.  Cities were built on mountains for defense with walls and gates.  Gates are often found in the ruins because they are so massive. This city was fortified by David or Solomon or one of the early kings of Israel.  They built a shaft and tunnel to reach a spring in a cave that was the city water supply, and then sealed the cave from the outside so the water supply would be secure even when the city was besieged.  Normally you can walk down the steps and through the tunnel but today the electricity was out so we couldn't go in. Finding a water supply- spring or well- was always an important requirement for a town. The temperature reached 110 F today so we were glad to arrive at our hotel in Tiberius.  This was a Roman city so Jesus probably didn’t come here but he would have visited all of the Jewish towns around the Sea of Galilee.

The next morning we took a ride in a wooden boat with a large covered deck across the lake and visited a museum with a fishing boat discovered in 1987 during a drought when the fishing boat was found well preserved in the mud.  The people from the nearby Kibbutz called in marine archaeologists who carefully excavated the mud and artifacts and raised the boat, after coating the boat in a fiberglass foam. 

Then we visited the church and beautiful gardens that commemorates the sermon on the mount with the beatitudes and teachings of Jesus.  Next we visited the synagogue at Capernaum with a church that is built over the house foundation for Peter’s mother-in-law. We had lunch where Peter’s fish (whole or fillet) was served. And we visited a recent discovery of a synagogue site at the town of Magdela- where Mary was from.  

The next day we visited Nazareth where they have a reconstructed village with houses and a synagogue and sheep and a donkey eating the vegetation and a wine-press and vineyards.  Our guide was a Christian Arab who spoke English very well and told us many verses about Jesus’ illustrations using farming and animal stories. This reconstructed village was very well done and helped us imagine the real village where Jesus was raised 2000 years ago.  And our mini-bus driver took us to the ridge surrounding Nazareth where they took Jesus to throw him off the cliff after he read from Isaiah and claimed to be God himself- the Messiah.  So now we have "seen" where Jesus grew up and where he taught the people who would listen and follow him.