Day 5- May 4/Dome of the Rock/St.Anne's/Pools of Bethesda/Gethsemane Grotto/King David's Tomb/Bethlehem/Church of the Nativity/Shepherd's Fields/City of David/Hezekiah's Tunnel/Pool of Siloam

The view outside our hotel room!

Thursday

 When your entire group is on the bus and pulling out by 6:45 AM you can have the Temple Mount to yourselves! Incredible! It isn’t part of the formal itinerary because there are no promises. The Temple Mount is a point of high contention and access; and hours for visitors is very limited. Some in our group witnessed a silent protest as a group of Jewish men walked up to the steps, were not allowed onto the steps, they stood there for a minute while armed guards stood in front of them and then they walked away.

Here is some info about the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount:

Located in Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock is a holy shrine built on the Temple Mount as a monument to the Prophet Muhammad's ascent to heaven.

The exposed bedrock within the Dome of the Rock is called the Foundation Stone, considered by all three Abrahamic faiths to be the site from which all creation sprang when God created the world on the first day.

The Dome of the Rock stands on the Temple Mount, a mountainous formation named for the previous two temples built in the exact location. Erected over the Foundation Stone, Jewish traditions state that this is the location where all creation began, and subsequently collected the dust that He used to form the first man, Adam. The site is also believed to be the location where Abraham nearly sacrificed Isaac to demonstrate his faith to God.

In Jewish history, the Temple Mount is believed to be where King Solomon built the First Temple ca. 1000 BCE (housing the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the Ten Commandments), but was destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar's army during his siege of Jerusalem. Later, in 516 BCE, King Herod built the Second Temple on the same site, which stood, and was periodically renovated, for over five hundred years until it was destroyed in retribution by the Roman general Titus_ in 70 CE. Additionally, for Christians, the further significance of the Temple Mount relates to the life of Jesus Christ. Still, it is most famously associated with the teachings of Jesus Christ, such as his denouncement of the money lenders and his crucifixion by the Romans.     

Jew are not allowed to enter. Non Muslims were also not allowed to enter until 1967. Now they are, but are forbidden to wear religious clothing, read scripture or pray on the grounds. 

John made it VERY clear to leave our scriptures on the bus.

He was even hesitant to use his phone scriptures and kept his "preaching" words over the microphone to a minimum.  He sent us a list of scriptures where Christ would have been at or near the temple that we could study or ponder on our own as we sat on the mount. He did talk to us about how Jesus confronts people with hard things. He tells them they are missing the mark. Everything points to him.

Outside of these "windows" and directly down were the southern steps leading up to the temple. 

We were so lucky to get to come here and didn't even have to wait in any lines! However, the majority of the group was not dressed appropriately, according to the guards. No parts of your leg can show. I tried to wrap my shawl around my legs but it wasn't good enough for them. We were all given brown bag-like skirts to put on over our clothes. 

Amazing that we could get these pictures without lots of people behind us. This is what the grounds normally look like. If you're not Muslim, you cannot enter the shrine, so we just admired from the outside.

A visual of what used to be there before the Dome of the Rock.

This was Solomons Temple and the site of the Second Jewish Temple. 

Now its a big blue tiled building with a gold, round top. 

Our next stop was Saint Anne’s Church. Aren't these purple flowers beautiful?! So picturesque jutting out from the white, stone walls.

Although unlikely, tradition says this is where Mary’s mother grew up. The gardens surrounding the church were beautiful! It was a very peaceful place to visit. John had us stand on the alter steps and sing “Be Still My Soul” because it has such great acoustics. I was not prepared for how powerful that experience would be. The Spirit filled the room and I had a hard time finishing the song for how emotional I became. This stop became one of my very favorites. I liked the statue of Mary’s mother teaching her and to consider Deuteronomy 6.

Be still, my soul the Lord is on thy side. Leave to thy God to order and provide. Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end. 

Next to St. Anne's are the Pools of Bethesda (“house of mercy”) It was a double pool where sheep were washed before they were sacrificed in the temple. It's also where Jesus healed a lame man (John

5:1-­­16).  Do you want to be made whole? Why did Jesus ask that? Jesus honors our agency. 

Another view of Lions Gate.
There are 7 open gates of the Old City of Jerusalem. 

This one leads into the Muslim quarter. 

We stopped at Gethsemane Grotto, a cave where tradition says the disciples of Jesus slept while he prayed as well as the Armenian Greek Orthodox Church where many believe Mary was buried. We went to the traditional room of the Last Supper, over the traditional site of King David’s Tomb. I thought it was interesting to note that the earliest account of the last supper was written in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. The word shew means proclaim, when we partake the sacrament we publicly announce or proclaim our testimony of Christ. John also pointed out that in John 13:4-34 the new and last commandment is to love one another. John focused his account of the last supper on the washing of the feet not on the sacrament. How important it is that we love one another.

Walking down to King David's Tomb.

Gallincantu

You can see the church just to the right of center.

This is the site we remember Peter denying Christ. 

How willing is the spirit and how weak is the flesh. 

You can barely see it, but the spire on top of the tall tower is a golden rooster!

This ancient staircase leads down towards the Kidron Valley. 

This may have been a passage from the upper city to the lower city during the First Temple period.

Many Christians believe that Jesus followed this path down to Gethsemane the night of his arrest.

Inside The Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu

Trying some of the tasty breads commonly sold on the streets. Also bought a spice called zahtar that is popular here that John recommended. We dipped our bread in it and it was delicious!

After our beautiful morning in the Old City we got back on the buses and entered Palestine. I felt safe, but there was definitely a different feel to the West Bank. It is a place of political unrest and poverty. You have to cross a guarded checkpoint to enter.

Bethlehem is an important historic city in the West Bank, about 10km (6.2 miles) south of Jerusalem. Bethlehem, or beit lechem means “House of Bread” in Hebrew.  Rachel’s Tomb is at the northern entrance of Bethlehem and is an important Jewish holy site. More notably, the Old Testament identifies Bethlehem as the city where David was from and where he was crowned the first king of Israel.

First stop was at The Church of the Nativity.

The Church of the Nativity was built around a grotto that is known by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus Christ and is Christianity's oldest continuously used place of worship. The basilica is also the oldest major church in Israel. Here is the view from the outside.

To enter you must go through the door of humility. 

We bow down to enter because we have been
 asked to be the humble followers of Christ. 

This place was packed with people. It felt dark and gaudy, with brass lanterns hanging everywhere. Kind of amusing how they hung Christmas ornaments from all the lanterns though. The line to see the grotto was a couple hours long, so we passed. It is hard to feel the spirit because of the churches that have been built on these sites, but John did an incredible job of helping us to see the goodness in the ways that others worship and the beauty in all faith. Here, he reviewed Luke 2 and Matthew 2 going through the door of humility where we bow down to enter because we have been asked to be the humble followers of Christ.

The Grotto of the Nativity, where Jesus is said to have been born, is an underground cave in the crypt of the Church of the Nativity underneath the main altar and can be accessed by two staircases. The Grotto is part of a cave network that is accessed from the adjacent St. Catherine’s Church. The cave has a niche believed to be the exact spot where Jesus was born. It is marked by the Altar of Nativity and a 14-pointed silver star with the Latin inscription that translates to “Here Jesus Christ was born to the Virgin Mary”-1717.

Finally time for lunch! We were on our own so the 4 of us found a decent restaurant and had the usual hummus, salad and pita bread but also some fries haha!

Mary must have been around 16-17 when they fled to Egypt. The legend is that when they were leaving Jerusalem a drop of her milk fell and turned the cave white. We stopped at the Milk Grotto to honor the courage of Mary and Joseph. 

I liked this quote I saw on a billboard from Pope Frances.

On our way to the Shepherd's Field's, we couldn't help but snag a photo opportunity with a real lamb!

His little lamb face is seriously adorable. 

The Arab village of Beit-Sahur, which sits in the middle of the Booz fields mentioned in the book of Ruth (Ruth 3:5), has been identified by tradition as the Shepherds’ Field, that is, the place where the announcement of Jesus’ birth to the shepherds by the angels took place.

This site is marked by the magnificent Chapel of the Angels (Chapel of the Shepherds’ Field), designed by Antonio Barluzzi in 1954. The chapel is shaped like a field tent that the shepherds may have used. Above the chapel entrance is the bronze figure of an angel. The chapel has a cement and glass dome that lets in light symbolizing the great light brought by the angel. The church holds breathtaking murals depicting the angel appearing to the shepherds; the shepherds paying their respects to Jesus and celebrating the birth of Christ.

The Franciscan church encompasses an ancient cave that the shepherds may have used. Alongside the Chapel of the Angels are the remains of a 4th century church and monastery; this shows that the site was identified as Shepherds’ Field as early as the 4th century.

This church became another top favorite memory of the trip. It was a rather small church and there was a sign to only stay 5 min. so others could come in and see the murals. John told us to gather around in a large circle and start singing the Christmas hymns, starting with Joy to the World and going down the list in the hymn book until we finished with The First Noel. He said we would just sing one verse then move onto the next hymn (13 total) and do this until the employee guarding the church asked us to leave. So we got started singing and very quickly the other people there stopped to listen. The most beautiful spirit completely filled the room. Then some started joining in with us. Then more and more. I kept looking around, soaking in the joy on all the faces around me. And we kept singing and singing and was never asked to leave! I loved joining voices with strangers, praising and worshiping our Lord in the place of His birth. Words cannot do justice to this experience. How many people can say they have sung Christmas hymns in Bethlehem?! So sublime! 

Afterward, we gathered outside overlooking the fields and John taught and invited others to share their thoughts on Christ's birth, which Travis did. After being in the dusty, crowded Church of the Nativity, the Shepherd's Field's really redeemed Bethlehem for me!

Shopping time!

This is the place for all things olive wood! And it's real olive wood from Israel!

John gave us 30 minutes.

The other bus had been there for 2 hours, and still going.

Grateful for the 30 minute timeline.

How much olive wood could one need?

I guess people will drop thousands of dollars on place settings and massive

nativity sets to ship home. I agonized probably too much. I got a little manger scene for myself, my mom, Paula and Marcie. And then I bought manger scene Christmas tree ornaments for the other siblings and in-laws and some friends. 

The City of David, is the name given to an archaeological site considered by most scholars to be the original settlement core of Jerusalem during the Bronze and Iron Ages. It is situated on southern part of the eastern ridge of ancient Jerusalem, west of the Kidron Valley and east of the Tyropoeon Valley, to the immediate south of the Temple Mount. The City of David is not a typical archaeological site as it is located in a neighborhood where people live. 

The name "City of David" originates in the biblical narrative where Israelite king David conquers Jerusalem, then known as Jebus, from the Jebusites. David's conquest of the city is described twice in the Bible: once in the Books of Samuel and once in the Books of Chronicles;

Looking out over the City of David and the Mount of Olives

The area is one of the most intensively excavated sites in the Holy Land.

The possible location of David’s Palace is at the entrance of Hezekiah’s Tunnel. We looked at the story of Nehemiah 1-6. Nehemiah had a plan and went to work. It was hard. They had to work as a team to make it happen. We can learn to not leave the work when we are engaged in a good cause even if the resistance becomes great. When the Lord commands, put your whole heart into it. This story can be contrasted with Alma 47 where Lehonti was asked 4 times (like Nehemiah) to come down and he was overtaken. Don’t cave to temptation. 

The Gihon Spring, which lies on the eastern slope of the southeastern hill of Jerusalem aka the City of David, and is generally considered the very reason why the city first emerged at this specific location. It has been noted that above the Gihon Spring was found a massive town wall, which wall is used to determine the location of the ancient settlement. 

So the Siloam Tunnel or Hezekiah's Tunnel is a 1,750-foot (about 1/3 mile) tunnel carved during the reign of Hezekiah to bring water from one side of the city to the other. Hezekiah’s Tunnel together with the 6th-century tunnel of Euphalios in Greece are considered the greatest works of water engineering technology in the pre-Classical period. According to the Siloam inscription, the tunnel was carved out of the living rock by two teams, one starting at each end of the tunnel and then meeting in the middle. The Bible says that King Hezekiah (c. 8th century BC), fearful that the Assyrians would lay siege to the city, blocked the spring's water outside the city and diverted it through a channel into the then Pool of Siloam.

So, at first it seemed really fun to walk through the tunnel! It was an adventure. It was cool underground and fun to splash in the water! I had to pull my dress way up because the water went above my knees sometimes. I also had to hunch over because I was too tall to walk upright. We laughed and joked and walked. And walked. And walked. In a straight line, hunched over. Surrounded on all sides by rock. Men with broad shoulders had to walk slightly turned. It was dark so we used the flashlights on our phones. We probably walked for a straight 10 minutes when the anxiety crept in. We were so squished in this tight, seemingly never ending space and I had no idea how much longer. You couldn't turn around because there was a steady line of people behind you. I didn't know if we were half way, almost done, or what. What if someone twisted an ankle? Or had some medical event/emergency? What would we do? There was NOTHING we could do! What had I gotten myself into? I had to start working on my thoughts. It was amazing to think how long we had gone in this tiny tunnel. How had they chiseled this out?! I focused on my breathing and putting one foot in front of the other. We kept walking and walking. How long was this stupid thing?! Why hadn't John warned us that if you were in the least bit claustrophobic to NOT do this. FINALLY we got to the end. Hallelujah!!!! We figured we had walked for at least 20 minutes in that cramped tunnel for ants. Never again, Hezekiah. Never again.

At the end of Hezekaiah’s Tunnel is the Pool of Siloam where, according to John 9, Jesus restored the eyesight of a blind man by making clay with his spittle, and spreading it on the man's eyes. The man was then ordered, “Go was in the pool of Siloam” . . . So he went and washed, and came back seeing.

Recently, Jerusalem archaeologists reported significant progress in the excavation of the Pool of Siloam. A set of eight more steps has been unearthed descending into the pool, which was about the size of two Olympic swimming pools, and was used by millions of Jewish pilgrims as a ritual bath or mikveh before entering the Temple.

During the Second Temple period, millions of pilgrims visiting Jerusalem would wash in the pool before ascending to the Temple Mount along the path archaeologists call the “Pilgrimage Road.” This was the city’s main street that led directly to the Temple. At that time the pool had been renovated and expanded to its largest size, about 1 1⁄4 acres.

It was really cool to see the active excavation going on!

Back to the hotel for another scrumptious night of eating!! We enjoyed sitting with different people in our tour and getting to know them. Besides Carrie and Josh and two other couples, everyone was in their 60's or older. Definitely felt like young bucks in this crowd!