City of David
City of David
This archelogical dig of ancient Jerusalem is incredibly difficult to describe. we entered into the side of the hill outside the “old city’ wall. We then wound our way through various water channels. The orgininal was built by cananites for irrigation 3800 years ago.
3800 year old tunnel
2200 years ago hezejiah redirected and tunneled the water course to run underground back within the city walls. All this was
necessary because the only large spring was outside the city wall. And here we were walking through these water courses under thick bedrock. They had the technology to coat the walls with a clay based plaster to keep the water from leaching out. That plaster is still functioning today!! We had to skip the hike through one of Hezekiahs tunnels that had water up to thigh deep. Nobody was upfor that adventure. Finally, we headed up the storm drain into the old city. I suspect the word storm drain is a euphemism.
There was also a covered, fortifified path from inside the city walls to make it safe to get the water. What is hard to grasp is that the city during David’s time was south of the current old city. We will try to show that when we talk about the model of first century jerusalem model at the Israel museum in our next blof post.
While wandering underground, you slowly, very slowly get a picture of Jerusalem in Davids time..
Pool of Siloam
Deep in one of these tunnels, we came cross remains of the pool of Siloam. This pool is connected to two passages of scripture that are very important to me. The first one is the book of John chapter 9. This is where Jesus heal it heals the blind man. One of my favorite lines in the Bible is when the Pharisees were questioning the man that was healed. They said we know this man is a sinner. He said “well I don’t know if he is a center or not. Buto The first one is the book of John chapter 9. This is where Jesus heal heals the blind man. One of my favorite lines in the Bible is when the Pharisees were questioning the man that was healed. They said we know this man is a sinner. He said “well I don’t know if he is a center or not. But ONE THING I do know, I was blind but now I can see. The second thing connected to this pool, is John chapter 7 starting with verse 37. On the last and greatest day of the feast Jesus stood up and shouted to the crowd if anyone is Thirsty, come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this he meant the Spirit that those who believed in him were later to receive.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
It is a surreal experience walking through the streets of Jerusalem. It is like being transported back in time. Our next stop was the Church of the Holy sepulchre. This church is placed over the site that Queen Helen declared to be the spot of the crucifixion and nearby in the same church, the burial and resurrection of Jesusl. It is also a great example of denominational ridiculous power 
struggles. Six different denominations fight for control. Each has their own area for Mass. there are disputed areas where no one denomination can do any repairs or even pick up litter because that would admit theirright to control it.. Representatives of all six groups have to gather every evening to clean up disputed areas together. In my opinion, they are all acting like children.
Many of the Christian sites have evidence for and against their accuracy. As mentioned in earlier posts, some of them have no evidence of any kind. We know that the crucifixion was outside the city, but the wall from thatera has not been found. The location of thechurch is certainly plausible . However the slab where Jesus body was prepared for burial,people kissing it are unaware it is the second or third replacement.
Personally, I would rather focus on the risen, living Jesus that called me out of darkness into His Marvelous light. Nonetheless, it is is incredible` to be in the vicinity where it all happened.
up until today we have been walking approximately 4 miles per day , every day. However, today it was six miles, and it was up and down, a thousand times at a more rapid pace with our new, more intense guide for jerusalem. I will do post on all our guides. We are exhausted and ate at the first restaurant we found up the street. We had a red lentil daal and an Asian stir fry which was a nice break from standard middle eastern fare.
The interesting event of the night was the 4 ultraorhodox jews in full regalia walking around trying to shame the jews who were eating at a restaurant,not observing sabbath, which started at sundown. They apparently recognized us as irrelevant foreigners and left us alone.
We were shortly after dinner In bed and asleep soon thereafter.
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