Nazareth
Luke 1: 24-38
Birth of Christ foretold
Luke 4:16-30
Jesus went to a synagogue to read. Announces himself and says the scripture is fulfilled. He was thrown out and almost thrown off a bluff.
Megiddo
2 Kings: 23:28-30:
Josiah went to fight Egyptians and was killed and buried at Megiddo Revelations: 16:12-16: Impure spirits (3) rise up and prepare for battle. They come as a thief. Be aware of the thief in the night. Gathered the kings at Armageddon
Caesarea
Acts: 10, 25, 26
A centurion (Cornelius) sent men to get Peter and brought him to Cornelius’s house to teach God’s word. Festus, King Agrippa pleads his case, Paul pleads his case, predicts Paul what???
Well, it was a long day today! Started off by going to the Church of the Immaculate Conception. On the way, as we were leaving Tiberius, we stopped on the side of the road to get one last look back at the town and the Sea of Galilee. Happened to stop right at Sea Level sign. A couple of good shots to show how Tiberius is about 700 feet below sea level.
From here we headed to Nazareth to see the church. Completed in 2006, it is a very modern building. Inside there is a replica of the type of house that Mary may have lived in. One must realize that at the time of Jesus’s living in Nazareth, it probably was a small village of about 20 families or 250-500 people. These people came here on their return from exile so it was not much of a place – farming and probably subsistence living. But it is here that Mary was visited by an angel to announce the Virgin Birth. There are a LOT of icons that various countries sent to the church to be displayed to symbolize that country’s depiction of the birth. There is an excavation at the church that depicts what Nazareth may have looked like at the time of Jesus. There was also a labyrinth to walk.
From here we went to Megiddo. This is one of their most significant archeological sites in Israel. It consists of an enormous tell that has about 25 layers where a layer corresponds to a civilization. If you look at a map of this part of Israel, the Jezreel Valley, in particular, you will see that this is an area where many roads pass through and Megiddo was the center of this road complex. So people traveling from Egypt, Syria, and places to the east and many more came through here. As it was on an important trade route it ‘changed hands’ many times. Many battles were fought here and in Revelation, it declares the Final battle (Armageddon) will be fought here. It is a very large tell and a considerable amount of excavation has been done. One of the most impressive components was a tunnel to springs outside the city walls. See the pictures as it is an extremely interesting feature of the tell! We ate lunch, here saw a small museum and most of us went to walk through the water tunnel.
Before Jesus, Herod built a very extensive Roman complex at Caesarea including a hippodrome, theater, coliseum, town, harbor aqueduct and much more. After we left Megiddo we headed for Caesarea to see this complex. The first stop was at an old Roman aqueduct (about 26 miles long).
Then we went to the main complex of Caesarea to look at the Coliseum, how people lived and other items mentioned above. Matter of fact, the Colosseum is still used for concerts, etc., and seats about 7,000 people. Herod’s palace on a small peninsula sticking out into the Mediterranean Sea had a freshwater pool. Highly interesting complex. After we wrapped up here we headed for Jerusalem to The Olive Tree hotel in Jerusalem. This is where we will spend the rest of our time. Got checked in, took a bath and headed for bed.
Additional Information
Highlights:
Church of the Immaculate Conception
Nazareth
Megiddo
Caesarea
Photos:
