Arad, Jonas, and Jerusalem

Last Tuesday afternoon I traveled down to Arad, volunteering at the Olive Branch. As usual the ride to through the territories is an adventure to say the least. Passport in hand and pedal to the metal, we arrived without incident about an hour an hour later. I was given the evening and the morning of the next day to work on my thesis and then I met up with my Director for lunch. He had the volunteers over and I learned more about the kinds of people that are attracted to his compassion-institution.

After lunch he took Jonas and me to the Bedouin village where we met Muhammad, the principal of the school. Then he took me to the Laundromat and set me up with a few tools and supplies. He had a washer with a loose front panel. I took his only flat-head screwdriver into the hardware store on my way to pick-up bolts and nuts and the receptionist asked what I was doing with a dentist tool... Use what you have, I suppose. I finished up and made my way back to the shelter just in time to finish up a few chores before packing.

Thursday morning, we headed back to Jerusalem and my director asked me to take one of his volunteers around. After grabbing a bite to eat at school and showing Jonas the gardens, we started out in front of the school where I gave him a lecture on the main geographical features in Jerusalem and how its Hills and Valleys are connected with the world around it. This also included a brief sketch on the major happenings in the biblical world. We then went up to the summit of the Western Hill atop the, so called, tomb of David. The room of the Last Supper is venerated in this location and we climbed to the roof in order to look toward the east. Here, I introduced many horizon markers, which helped to orient the rest of the trip. There we had a chat about overlapping Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions and land-claims, etc.

Then we went inside and read a few stories from the Gospels thinking about Jesus' interaction with the Disciples in the "Upper-room". After this we made our way to the city of David noting important views and features along the way: Zion gate, Nea tower overlook, etc. The city of David is a fantastic site full of regalia and legacy. The view from the overlook atop the Cinema at the City of David park sets a context that fits Ps 121 so well: "I look to the hills where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord!" The encircling mountains and the compact city both stand as a witness to the sentiments alive in the early inhabitants of this ancient city!

We talked quite a lot about the significance of Jerusalem in the Hebrew Bible and in the New Testament making sense of why David chose to conquer, etc. Then we went through the so called Palace area down through area G. There I made quite a number of comments regarding Jerusalem's last stand against Nebuchadnezzar and the living context alive and well in periods before this e.g. Ahiel's four room house. We moved into the Water system and talked quite a lot about the represented MB and Iron Age periods. Then we walked through the tunnel down to the Siloam pool. I had heard the night before that the Herodian drainage line had been made accessible all the way up to the Davidson Archaeological park. So after a word about John's record of Jesus healing the man born blind in John 9, we made our way through the ancient refuse shaft up to the "pinnacle of the temple" or if you prefer the southwest corner of the Temple mount. Here, I retraced a bit and talked/ made sense of Herod's coming into power and then we talked about the features that you can see exposed by Benjamin Mazar's dig: the agora over the Cardio Valencias, the place of the trumpeter etc. We made our way around to the southern stairs and talked a bit about ritual-purity laws/ the institutionalization of cleanliness laws in the second temple period... all that is required to enter the sacred precincts on top of the Temple Mount. We talked about teachings and teachers found on these steps in the first century: what they said and why - interfacing the geographical/ archaeological witness with texts that we have on these things. 

Then we went for lunch and made our way to St. Anne's for a chat on Asclepion and Jesus - John's record of Jesus' healing of the lame man and the dialog that followed. Then we traveled back to the Western Wall esplanade, then to the Holy Sepulchral where we chatted briefly about the second Wall and its significance in the discussion of the validity of the Holy Sep. as the site of Jesus' death and burial and resurrection. There are so many more things I would like to tell you about our time together in Jerusalem but I don't have the time. 

All in all, I Jonas had a good time and we both learned a lot from each other. I am confident that our love for the God grew. It did as we reflected time and again on Gods involvement with a city and a people within  particular historical setting in the face of Jesus.

Soli Deo Gloria

Photos from the trip