Back in Jerusalem
A tour, a museum, and some rest
After a difficult trip to Hebron, it was good to have a couple of “down days.”
Before coming I had asked the president of Jerusalem University College (JUC), Dr. Oliver Hersey, if he would give our group a tour of the JUC campus. All of the trips I have made with students since 2004 have been under the auspices of JUC, and I have always stayed on campus, so I wanted our group to see it. Besides that, the campus has a great deal of historical and archaeological interest on a number of levels.
After breakfast we made our way down to JUC, a ten minute walk outside the west wall of the Old City. Along the way, we observed the remains of the entrance to Herod’s Palace, the most likely place of Jesus’s trial and torture.
Upon arriving at the gate and announcing our arrival, Dr. Hersey met us and after introductions gave us a short history of the campus. It was built as a boys school for local children around 1850 by the Anglican Bishop Gobat , the counterpart to the girls school at Christ Church (we are staying in the girls school building). It served as such until WW2, but was abandoned when war broke out in 1948. It remained that way until JUC moved in as the Institute of Holy Land Studies in 1967, right after the six day war. The building interiors have been updated over the years, but the character has remained the same. Bullet holes from the ’67 war still pock the walls.
The main archaeological interest is that the campus buildings are built into the bedrock and lie directly on top of the wall first built by King Hezekiah, then rebuilt by the Romans. The current Old City walls built by Saladin in the 1500s are several hundred yards to the north.
Speaking of archaeology, JUC now has an archaeology lab full of artifacts from the dig at Gezer to the east—added since I was there in 2019.
After showing us around the buildings, Dr. Hersey took us to the Protestant Cemetery directly next to the campus. Unfortunately there was some recent vandalism of the graves by some Jewish boys. Nonetheless we saw some graves of several prominent archaeologists of the past, most notably Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, also the founder of JUC Dr. G. Douglas Young, and that of Horatio Spafford, the author of “It is well with my soul.” Spafford lived in Jerusalem for many years as a member of the American Colony, a 19th century Christian sect.
At the end of the cemetery was another archaeological treat. First we saw the remains of what is almost certainly the Essene Gate in the south wall mentioned by Josephus. Further, we saw recently excavated Jewish stepped ritual purification baths (mikvaot) from the first century, recently discovered, which were right inside the ancient walls. More and more finds from the time of Jesus come to light almost daily it seems.
JUC itself is an evangelical Christian college that provides long and short-term programs primarily aimed at helping Christians to connect with the history and geography of the Holy Land, so they can better understand the Bible. I have personally benefitted immensely from JUC in my personal understanding of the Bible and for my teaching. I am happy to see them flourishing, even in the midst of ups and downs politically and socially around them. JUC has remained laser focused on their mission and it shows.
When we left we turned down the steps toward the Hinnom valley and went down a concrete tunnel that the Israelis had constructed for an escape route prior to the 1967 war.
Cool.
After lunch we walked a mile and a half to the Israel Museum.
The highlight was seeing actual Dead Sea Scrolls in the Shrine of the Book—amazing!
They also have a fantastic archaeological wing (to be expected) and a tremendous collection of 15th to 20th century art, including some Rembrandts, Van Gohs, Gauguins, Cezannes, Monets, and Picassos, among others (not so expected).
Our walk to and from the museum took us through West Jerusalem and past the American Embassy. It was another long day, but well worth it.
Today (I am including today because we are hitting the road tomorrow and I don’t know when I’ll get another post out) was a “rest” day. A truer statement would be “unscripted.” In the morning several of us walked up to the (unmarked) Herod’s family tomb that Herod the Great constructed for his family (he built himself a huge mausoleum at Herodion). What is cool is the perfectly round hewn stone that rolled over the entrance—exactly like what would have been in front of Jesus’s tomb.
From there we walked a hundred yards or so up the hill to the King David Hotel, hotel to hundreds of famous world leaders, entertainers, and others for the past ninety years. See if you can recognize any signatures in the photo below. Going up some steps I saw photos of Jimmy Carter, Menachem Begin, Anwar Sadat, Simon Perez, the Clintons, Angela Merkel, and many others. I hear tell the current room rate is $1400 per night.
We then went on down the hill another mile to the Monastery of the Cross, a monastery begun in the 6th century to commemorate the tree that Jesus’s cross was hewn from. Needless to say legend is involved, but the church was beautiful and very old (11th century). It was well worth the walk.
Besides a bit of shopping I chilled for the rest of the day (and got this written). We also are packing to leave early tomorrow. I am going at 4:45am to get a rental car at the airport, drive back and get the others. We then begin the second half of our adventure: traveling around the country for the next week. I hope I have time to post, but I am sure it will be more sporadic. Please keep us in your prayers for safe travel.
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!
I am glad to see the latest post. Thank you.
When you said something had happened, I shared it only with Tom and Rosemary and Gloria. Each day at breakfast we prayed for you all.
Not knowing any specifics we prayed that we know God is above us and He may be below us, He may be in front of us or behind us. But we also know He is right beside us! So put your arm around Him and rest