Day 6, Thursday, March 8, 2018 - Capernaum and Nazareth

Our first stop this morning was Nazareth, heading around the bottom of the Sea of Galilee and heading west halfway across Israel along a rather winding road. We visited the Roman Catholic Church of the Annunciation which is where it is believed that the Archangel Gabriel informed Mary that she would conceive Jesus. There is currently a huge Catholic church from the 1970s which is the largest Christian church in the middle-east. Inside are the remnants of a church from the time of the Crusades and below, parts of a Byzantine church from the 4th century. In this church is part of a cave in which Mary and Joseph are alleged to have lived. Inside and outside the Catholic church are representations of the Virgin Mary from many of the countries around the world - very interesting to see.

The streets of Nazareth are lined with both typical shops for locals as well as many for tourists. Nazareth is also the site of Jesus first miracle of turning water to wine which has resulted in shops with names like "The First Miracle Souvenir and Coffee Shop"! A huge Catholic church is under construction to help visitors and pilgrims celebrate this miracle.

From there we headed back towards Galilee to the Kibutz Degania Bet near the Jordan River where we had a tour of the Kibutz followed by lunch in the Kibutz dining room. The Kibutz was founded by mostly secular Jews from eastern Europe in 1920. Everything is owned in community and everyone contributed what they could, similar to the ideology of Communism but true to its intent, with no authoritarian control. All decisions are made by votes of the members. One of the original members became Prime Minister of Israel from 1963 to 1969. He remained humble, with the same small quarters as everyone else and working in the kitchen when he returned from his work leading the Knesset! There are old photos of him plowing fields behind a horse and doing other menial labor. Many of the jobs at the kibutz are now filled by outside laborers, especially as the median age of its members was 68 until recent new members brought it down to 58. There are numerous bomb shelters that were constructed for protection from Syrian missiles from the Golan Heights, now controlled by Israel. But even so, the bomb shelters were activated a few days ago due to concerns about a threat from Syria. The kibutz has large land holdings that are used for growing bananas, almonds and dates as well as a dairy farm - we had fresh made ice cream from the dairy.

As we crossed the Jordan River for the 3rd time today, we could see people dressed in white going down steps into the Jordan in order to be baptized. The Jordan is not any wider than the Sawkill Creek near Woodstock but probably a bit deeper.

From there we headed north along the western shore of Galilee to a Catholic Church alleged to be at the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus gave the "Sermon on the Mount" as recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. It is a beautiful octagonal church above Galilee surrounded by pathways with signs of the Beatitudes.

Further north we visited Capernaum to the alleged site of the house of St. Peter when he was called to follow Jesus. There is an excavation of a house that dates to that time period. Jesus came here because Capernaum was a large enough town to financially support a synagogue while Nazareth was just a small village of 300 or so people. There is a large excavation of the town which looks quite different because buildings were made of black basalt rock rather than the limestone in the other areas of Israel we visited. Surprisingly, the 4th century synagogue currently excavated uses limestone for the pillars and walls.

From there we headed around the north end of Galilee back to our hotel. Along the road are large signs warning not to go into areas still containing landmines from the conflict with Syria. Today it was so hazy from dust that we couldn't see across the lake to Tiberias and the wind was creating large waves on the lake perhaps like the passages in the Gospels about concerns of the boat sinking and Jesus calming the waves. I went swimming again and was thoroughly refreshed.

I finally got photos uploaded and added to previous days blog entries.

Mary and Joseph's cave in Nazareth

Pomegranates and other fruit for sale. Also fresh pomegranate juice.

Capitalizing on Jesus miracle

A bit of irony

Mosaic from the floor of St. Peter's house

Capernaum ruins with St. Peter's house under modern Catholic Church

Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 8, 2018 at 2:24 PM

    Thanks Dave, I am really enjoying your narrative. It is a fascinating trip that I would love to do sometime. You do a really great job of sharing the experience, Thanks- I will be waiting for the next installment--Regards--dave

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