Day 7 in pictures.

We started off the day by going to Capernaum, which was Jesus’ sort of “base of operations” during his ministry. In Jesus’ time, the town was a small fishing village with a population of only about 1,500. There were several important reasons why Capernaum would have made a good location for Jesus to base his ministry. The town is right on the Via Maris, a major trade road, and it is close to Tiberias. The proximity to Tiberias is important not only because Tiberias is a larger town, but because of the hot springs at Tiberias. Sick people would have naturally come to the hot springs, and, when they weren’t cured by them, it would have been easy for them to travel to Capernaum to see this man people said had the power of healing.

There were two important structures at the site we went to. One was a synagogue that was built in the 5th century, AD. Synagogues were (and still are) used as general meeting places in addition to the religious center of the Jewish community. The second structure was the remains of an octagonal church built over what is believed to be the remains of St. Peter’s mother-in-law’s home. However, there was a church built above these ruins in the late 90’s that doesn’t really add to the feel of the place. It can best be described as a space ship. In fact, Mishi opened his explanation of the area with, “Before the aliens landed…”

From Capernaum, we went to see the “Jesus Boat” exhibit. But, before viewing the exhibit itself, we went on a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. The boat we went on wasn’t anything like what Jesus would have used. Ours was a very large boat that could have easily handled a group of tourists even larger than us. It was still a wonderful experience. The weather was gorgeous and being out on the lake was extremely relaxing. Scott even took a nap for a part of the ride. It was also great to be able to see so much of the surrounding area from out on the lake. I think I have a better understanding of where the different villages are situated and their relative distance from each other now. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay on the boat forever, and it was soon time to head back to land.

Then, we went to the exhibit. In the 80’s there was a drought and the Sea of Galilee receded so far back that there was about a half mile of extra shore to walk on. Some fishermen were walking along this area and found an ancient boat. Experts were quickly called in to excavate and restore it. The boat isn’t really Jesus’ boat, but it is from around the time that Jesus was on earth, so it gives a good representation of what kind of boats Jesus would have traveled in. The boat itself is a fairly simple affair, at least by our standards, but would have been large enough to seat several people comfortably. It also exactly matches a mosaic found at Capernaum that depicts a boat from the same time period.

Lunch was at a local restaurant where we were served St. Peter’s Fish. This was fun because they left the fish whole, head and all. To start with we had the increasingly familiar pita bread stuffed with various salads. Then, Mishi gave a short presentation on how to correctly cut and eat a whole fish, and we started in. There were plenty of funny comments from people that didn’t like their meal staring back at them while they ate, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The fish was quite tasty too.

Mishi also gave an explanation that puts a different light on the miracle of Peter finding the coin in the fish’s mouth. Apparently this particular kind of fish keeps its young in its mouth until they are grown enough to live on their own. Then, after the young fish have gone away, they mother fish instinctively wants to find something to put in its mouth. So, anything shiny on the floor of the lake would have been fair game. It is still common to find coins in the mouths of these fish, so that wasn’t the miracle. The miracle was in the timing.

The next stop was Banias. This site has an important spring that is one of the main sources of the Jordan River. Because of the spring, the site has been a place of worship for centuries. The oldest temple was dedicated to the god Pan, but there were also temples to Augustus, Zeus and Nemesis. Part of the worship of Pan involved a dancing goat ceremony. They actually trained goats to dance for their services! The Biblical importance of this site is that Jesus went to this area to get away from the crowds and teach his disciples. This is also where Jesus told Peter that he would be the rock on which His church would be built and the gates of Hades would not destroy it. The reference to the gates of Hades is actually significant to the area because it was believed that springs were the gates to Hades.

We were going to visit Tel Dan, but we were about 15 minutes too late and they had already closed the site. So, we drove the bus around back and at least got to look at some of the walls and the ruins of a gate from outside the fence. Dan is important because it was the traditional northern limit of the kingdom and is also where Jeroboam put an altar with a golden calf to prevent the people of Israel from going down the Jerusalem after the monarchy split.

Last on the list of sites for the day was Hazor. This was also closed, but we just climbed over the gate. Mishi told us that if anyone asked, we weren’t supposed to say who was in charge of the group! Hazor was the largest Israelite town of Biblical times. It covers an area of over 200 acres and had a population of 20,000-40,000. While listening to the site presentation from Jonathan, we could hear the Israeli army doing some live ammo drills in the distance.

Day 7 in pictures.