A Dead Sea Day
My Saturday in Israel began very early.
I arose before 4am and caught a sherut to the airport to rent a vehicle for our trip. I was back to Jerusalem with the car at 7:30, just in time for our last breakfast at Christ Church Guest House—great breakfast every morning! We rented a seven passenger vehicle for six people, so let’s say it took some creative packing to get us and the luggage in the vehicle. A van would have cost us at least $1k more, and I did not want to drive that large of vehicle. The day bore that out with a few tight parking situations.
After squeezing in (everybody is fairly comfortable), we made our way under East Jerusalem through a tunnel, ascended Mount Scopus (almost a continuous ridge to the north with the Mount of Olives), then began the steep descent past Bethany to the south and Anathoth to the north (the home of Jeremiah) down toward Jericho.
As soon as we crossed the crest, the landscape changed dramatically.
While Jerusalem is quite green, especially in spring, the landscape on the east slope of the Mount of Olives down to the Jordan River is mostly brown with scarce green plants holding to what little water is in the soil.
This is the Judean wilderness.
This is the place of Jesus’s forty day fast.
This is the setting for the Parable of the Good Samaritan. When Jesus said “A certain man went down to Jericho” he meant it. It is easy to visualize robbers in this desolate area.
We passed the giant Jewish settlement city of Ma’ale Addumim, then pulled off a few miles further and down a narrow, curvy 1 ½ lane road to a gate that led down to St. George of Koziba Monastery. The only way to see the monastery is to actually hike down a very steep road for about a half mile, but the first view is breathtaking.
The huge monastery clings to the south side of the Wadi Quilt and looks as though it grew out of the wadi walls. The monastery was established and first built in the late fifth and sixth centuries AD, destroyed by Persians, rebuilt in the 12th century, fell into disrepair, then restored from 1878-1901.1 We did not go across the wadi to the monastery for time’s sake, but the view itself was worth the hike.
Our next stop was Khirbet Qumran, the ruins of the Essenes settlement where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Our visit to the Shrine of the Book on Thursday set the perfect stage for what we saw.
A couple of things stood out.
First, to try to live in the desert by the Dead Sea was a feat. The residents constructed a water system that collected winter rains, stored it, and brought it in to the settlement via a small aqueduct. They needed quite a bit of water. The other notable sight was the five mikva’ot in the settlement, one huge, for the twice daily purification baths the adherents took before meals.
We observed the famous Cave Four right near the site where many thousands of scroll fragments were found. Other of the scrolls caves meant a long steep and very rocky hike, so we declined.
Our next stop was supposed to be En-Gedi, but the Shabbat visitors filled the parking lot to overflowing and I knew that Wadi Arugot was just south, so we went there. It was quite busy too, but not as much. Both spots feature spring-fed streams from high up the western wall of the Dead Sea, and constitute a major oasis—David and his men hid there from Saul. The springs provide water for and amazing array of wildlife and for some date cultivation toward the Dead Sea. We only hiked in a half-mile or so to see the stream coming down the wade (a cool slide for swimmers in one spot). A true spring in the desert.
Another short drive brought us to the highlight of the day, Masada, a towering butte about two thirds of the way south on the west side of the Dead Sea. Herod chose this monolith for one of his audacious building projects, a fortress with two palaces, one of which had three levels built into the north end of the butte. Even the ruins are spectacular. Many years after Herod died, Jewish Zealots made their last stand against the Romans on Masada, a story in itself.
We accessed the top two ways. Two took the tram up and four of us went up the so-called “Snake Trail.” Today it is a wide gravel trail with many steps and some hand rails that switches back and forth to the top. When I went up it 30 years ago the trail was about two to three feet wide with no stairs and nothing but sheer cliffs to the side. I am sure that some accidents led to the current state. In any case, it was a good climb with the temp about 80° and we enjoyed the ruins at the top.
Our last stop of the day was at Neve Zohar on the Dead Sea where everyone but me floated in the dense salt water (I have done it several times before and have no desire to again). We then proceeded a short drive further to the town of Arad for our lodging and dinner.
Another good, but tiring day in Israel!
An Invitation
Are you interested in learning New Testament Greek? I will be teaching an intensive course with 50 hours of live instruction via Zoom from June to August. Please contact me at jack.painter@gmail.com or go to https://www.rightonmission.org/intro-to-new-testament-greek for more information. I would love to have you!
This information comes from Jerome Murphy-O’Conner, The Holy Land, An Archaeological Guide.
Wow. Thanks. With these views of the way from Jerusalem to Jericho I decided that I am going to talk about the Good Samaritan passage this Wednesday