GEOLOGICAL AND TRIBULATION FEATURES ON ISRAELI TOUR PATHS
PART 6A
Jerusalem
and Bethlehem – Normal Sixth Day of Tours in two Parts
Part 1 of 2 Parts on Day 6
Jerusalem Portion
Mount Zion
The modern Mt. Zion is a misnomer applied by Byzantine pilgrims who thought that the larger, flatter Western Hill must be the original City of David.
Archaeological evidence has shown that this hill was only incorporated within the city’s fortifications in the 8th century B.C. but the name has stuck. The Hinnom Valley borders this hill on its western and southern sides
The Upper Room and David’s Tomb
The room v isited by tour
ists today is a Crusader structure as evidenced by the architecture. On the first floor below this room is the traditional tomb of David. The location of this “tomb” outside of the City of David precludes its authenticity but some suggest that evidence in the “tomb” indicates an early Jewish-Christian presence (or synagogue). If so, this could support this general area as the location of the biblical “Upper Room.”
Dormitian Abbey
Crowning the summit of
the modern Mt. Zion is Dormitian Abbey. Commemorating the rest that Mary entered into, this complex was constructed by Kaiser Wilhelm II beginning in 1900. The church was built in response to a request to have a German Catholic church in the city following the Kaiser’s support for the construction of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in 1898.
St. Peter in Gallicantu
On the southeastern slope of the hill is one of the traditional locations for the house of Caiaphas. Gallicantu means “cock crowing” and it remembers the three denials of Peter. Built atop the ruins of a Byzantine church and monastery, Catholic pilgrims believe that the prison in which Christ was held is located inside the church. Others believe that a more likely location for Caiaphas’ house is in the Armenian property outside Zion Gate.
Herodian Quarter and Wohl Archeological Museum in Jerusalem
The Herodian Quarter and Wohl Archeological Museum in Jerusalem is one of the most popular places of sightseeing in Jerusalem.
According to the history of Jerusalem, in the time of Herod, the area of the modern-day Jewish Quarter was part of a luxurious “Upper City,” occupied primarily by the families of important and rich Jewish Temple priests. Excavations after the 1967 war exposed the visually arresting remains of several mansions dating to this period which makees it one of the most attractive museums of Jerusalem.
The rediscovered Herodian Quarter now lies from 3 to 7 meters below street level, preserved in the Wohl Archaeological Museum. In the museum you can see the geometrically patterned mosaic floors, colorful frescoes, and costly glassware, stone objects, and ceramics that provide a peek into domestic life at the top in the days of Herod and Jesus.
In the first part of the Herodian Quarter and Wohl Archeological Museum in Jerusalem, called the Western House, several small stone cisterns have been identified as private mikveh, Jewish ritual baths; holograms depict their use. A small ascending staircase which ends abruptly reminds us that nothing above ground level survived the Roman devastation of AD 70.
Next you’ll find the Middle Complex which consists of the remains of two separate houses where archaeologists discovered a maze-pattern mosaic floor covered in burnt wood. This is believed to be fire damage from the Roman attack on Jerusalem. The largest and most complete of the Herodian houses is the Palatial Mansion, which also has indications of fire damage as well as mosaic floors and ritual baths.
You can get a combined ticket for Herodian Quarter and Wohl Archeological Museum in Jerusalem also grants admission to the nearby Burnt House, dating to the same period. A stone weight discovered among the debris reads “son of Kathos,” indicating that the house belonged to a wealthy family of high priests. The family is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud, written between the 3rd and 6th centuries AD. The rooms here are introduced by a slide show and include a kitchen, four bedrooms, and a bathroom with a ritual bath.
The Shrine of the Book
The Shrine of the Book houses the famous Dead Sea Scrolls, possibly the most important archaeological discovery ever made in Israel.
The first of the 2,000 year old scrolls were discovered in 1947 by a young Bedouin shepherd. From the eleven caves around the Qumran area scholars have recovered the manuscripts of almost 700 works, both Biblical and sectarian. Some of the works are complete scrolls, while others are only fragments containing a few sentences.
The texts of the books of the Hebrew Bible number more than 170, and each Biblical book (with the sole exception of the book of Esther) can be found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
From the outside the Shrine looks like the lid of a clay jar — like the ones many of the scrolls were found in. The display case pictured above is in the form of an ancient scroll.
The most prized exhibits at the Shrine are the two oldest copies of the book of Isaiah in existence.
These Isaiah scrolls are 1,000 years older than any other known Hebrew Biblical text — they were written only six centuries after Isaiah first penned his marvelous words, as he looked forward to the Messiah!
The Knesset
The Knesset sits on a hilltop in western Jerusalem in a district known as Sheikh Badr before the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and now known as Givat Ram. It was financed by James A. de Rothschild as a gift to the State of Israel. It was built on land leased from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Before the construction of its permanent home, the Knesset met in the Jewish Agency building in Jerusalem, the Kessem Cinema building in Tel Aviv and the Froumine building in Jerusalem.
The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset enacts laws, elects the president and prime minister (although s/he is ceremonially appointed by the President), supervises the work of the government, reserves the power to remove the President of the State and the State Comptroller from office and to dissolve itself and call new elections.
The Knesset first convened on February 14, 1949, following the elections held on January 20th 1949. Every 4 years (or sooner if an early election is called, as is often the case), 120 members of the Knesset (MKs) are elected by Israeli citizens who must be at least 18 years old to vote.
The Government of Isr ael must be
approved by a majority vote of the Knesset.
The Knesset has de jure parliamentary supremacy and can pass any law by a simple majority, even one that might arguably conflict with the Basic Laws of Israel; in accordance with a plan adopted in 1950, the Basic Laws have themselves been adopted (and occasionally amended) over the course of the years by the Knesset, acting in its capacity as a Constituent Assembly.
In practice, the Knesset’s ability to legislate has often been limited in consequence of the system of low-threshold party list proportional representation, which has tended to produce governments formed of unstable coalitions of multiple factions.[citation needed] Also, even though no Basic Law adopted thus far has formally granted a power of judicial review to the courts, the Supreme Court of Israel has in recent years asserted its authority, when sitting as the High Court of Justice, to invalidate provisions of laws it finds to to be inconsistent with a Basic Law. The Knesset is guarded by the Knesset Guard.
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem (Hebrew: יד ושם also spelled Yad VaShem; “Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority”) is Israel’s official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. The origin of the name is from a Biblical verse: “And to them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name (Yad Vashem) that shall not be cut off.” (Isaiah, chapter 56, verse 5). (A note on orthography: the two nouns in Hebrew, yad [memorial/hand] and “shem” [name] are often capitalized in English transliterations; similarly, the Hebrew sign for “and” [“v”] is sometimes lowercased.)
Located at the foot of Mount Herzl on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem, Yad Vashem is a 45-acre (180,000 m2) complex containing the Holocaust History Museum, memorial sites, such as the Children’s Memorial and the Hall of Remembrance, The Museum of Holocaust Art, sculptures, outdoor commemorative sites such as the Valley of the Communities, a synagogue, archives, a research institute, library, publishing house and an educational center, The International School for Holocaust Studies. Non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust, at personal risk, are honored by Yad Vashem as “Righteous Among the Nations.”
The Model City of Jerusalem
At the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, there is a scale model of ancient Jerusalem from the time of the Second Temple (516 B.C-70 A.D.). With extreme attention to detail, the model shows, at one-fiftieth the actual size, what this prosperous and magnificent city of 70,000 people looked like when the Second Temple stood. In the model, 1/4 inch is equivalent to one foot of the real city. The model was made using the same materials that were used in the times of the original construction, such as marble, stone, wood, copper and iron. The model was completed in 1969, but it is continuously updated based on the latest archaeological findings.
In 1003 B.C.E., King David made Jerusalem the capital of his kingdom. The First Temple was built about 40 years later by his son, Solomon, who turned Jerusalem into the prosperous capital of his empire.
Unfortunately, in 586 B.C.E., the Babylonians conquered the city, exiled the people and destroyed the Temple. The Jews built the Second Temple on the site of the First and it stood from 516 B.C. to 70 A.D.
Reestablishing Jewish independence, the Maccabees restored and rededicated the Temple between 164 B.C. and 63 A.D. Later, King Herod reconstructed and expanded the Temple. It was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D.
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