Wednesday

Wednesday we got up a little bit earlier than usual for our boat ride on the Sea of Galilee!  It was your typical boat ride except for it was ON THE SEA OF GALILEE!  This is the sea that Jesus calmed and upon which Jesus walked.  It is also where the disciples who were fishermen fished...pretty cool!

Our boat ride had a certain mystique to it.  At the very beginning of the ride, all of the sudden the Star Spangled Banner started playing and the boat driver asked one of us to raise the US flag...not what we expected.  I stood up because that's what Westwood Elementary School taught me to do and then everybody else was standing and singing the Star Spangled Banner on the Sea of Galilee.  Yeah, once again, didn't see that one coming.  The rest of the boat ride consisted of a lot of surrealness and trying to feed birds.

Me on our boat ride on the Sea of Galilee:


Cana

Our next stop of the day was Cana which is a 20 minute drive from the Sea of Galilee.  Cana was a good sized modern city which is a bit confusing because I always think of Biblical cities as being stuck in Jesus' time.

The Cana Steak House


We then visited the traditional site of the Wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11) where there is the Wedding church...obviously!  Our guide was married here which I thought was really cool.  A theory is that the wedding was for someone related to Jesus' mother Mary because it is typical for relatives of the couple getting married to be in charge of getting more wine when they run out.  So, that's a new theory I had not heard before.

The wedding chapel at the Wedding church at Cana:


What the jars in which Jesus ordered water to be put which was turned into wine would have looked like (Stone was a kosher way of keeping liquids, unlike wood and other liquid holders):



Nazareth

We then journeyed to Nazareth which is right next to Cana (you can see Nazareth from Cana from a tall rooftop and vice versa).  Nazareth is where Joseph and Mary came after they returned from exile in Egypt with Jesus.  Therefore, this is where Jesus was brought up.  Nazareth is a city of 200,000 people now, but our professor says that back in Jesus' day it was a town of 200-300 people.

We visited the Church of Annunciation where the Angel appeared to Mary and told her she was going to have a child: Luke 1:26-38.  It was an enormous Catholic church which houses the traditional spot where the angel appeared to Mary.  This is a category 3.  However, it was such a small town that we were definitely in the vicinity of it.  Furthermore, it is a cave as are most of the Biblical places we have visited.  It is really different than I envisioned because on VeggieTales and Bible cartoons Jesus is in a wooden manger and Mary is met by the Angel in a built home, but nope that's not how it was.  I'm going to write some strongly worded letters to VeggieTales about all this!

The most unusual moment of our time in Nazareth occurred when we were all gathered around our guide Peter as he explained the history of the Church of the Annunciation to us.  As Peter talked the Call to Prayer rang out from every Mosque in town.  Then all of the sudden 2 F16s flew over and right when they were over Nazareth they turned on their afterburners and drowned out all other sounds.  It was pretty obvious that the Israeli F16s were trying to intimidate the Muslims which was really sad.

View of the cave where traditionally the Angel appeared to Mary:



Close up view of the cave where traditionally the Angel appeared to Mary:


Gaza Protest


Beit She'an

Beit She'an was impressive and overwhelming!  There were more ancient ruins here than anywhere else we went.  Biblically it is mentioned as a Canaanite city in the book of Joshua.  Otherwise, it was just impressive and a flash back to all of my Roman history in Latin classes.  Please click on the blue Beit She'an above if you want to learn more.  Too much information for me to write.

Beit She'an:


Model of how Beit She'an use to look:



Almost half of our group using the Roman Latrines (Amazing picture):


The Serious Roman Latrine Users: