Day 8 Wednesday 30 May
2018
Masada, Dead Sea and
Jerash
Our
last full day in the lands of the Bible.
We are to move back to Amman for this evening and then to the Airport
tomorrow morning. But we have places to
visit and things to see on this day. To
that end, we left at the crack of dawn, wait has dawn cracked? Is that the Moon? Why yes, it is. From our hotel window at 6:00 AM.
We
were packed, fed and loaded in the bus by about 7:15. We drove south out of Jericho mostly along
the western shore of the Dead Sea. Our
first stop was Masada.
Masada
is a mountain fortress that was the last place that Jewish Rebels held out
against Roman forces in the rebellion that started in 66 AD. Nero sent a Roman army under the command of
Vespasian. The rebellion ended badly and resulted in the destruction of the
temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD. A group of
Jewish rebels fled to Masada and held out here for 3 or 4 more years.
Masada
was largely built, perhaps on the ruins of a previous fortress, by Herod the
Great as both a place of refuge and winter palace. Herod spent a lot of time and money building
places to retreat in case his authority was challenged by the people. You will recall that he was very
paranoid. So much so that when the birth
of Jesus was announced and the heard that wise men from the East were coming to
worship the new king he plotted to have the Magi return and tell him where this
new king had been born. They got wind of
his intent and returned a different route.
This kind of upset King Herod and the result was the order to kill all
the babies under the age of 2.
So,
Herod built what he thought was an in penetrable fortress. It was quiet the place. The walls were casemate type. These were double walls with rooms between
them where soldiers could be quartered and defend the wall if needed. Large cisterns were created as well as many
store rooms for food.
The
snake route up the side of the mountain to the fortress on top was not at all
difficult to defend. It was said that a
handful of men on top could hold off a few thousand coming up this way.
The
good news is that we tourist, despite the idiots in this picture, can ride the
cable car from the bottom to the top and back down.
Lydianne, Nikki, Mariah,
Noah, Ethan riding in comfort.
When
you get off the cable car the thrill continues as you walk to the gate in the wall.
Masada
is a national park and a world heritage site.
They have done a great job of preserving and restoring much of the structures. If you are like me and have seen pictures or
visited ancient ruins (like in Rome or England) you get so used to seeing the
bare stone walls that it is easy to forget that the places when in use would
not have had those stones exposed. It is
like seeing an old house with just the wood studs and assuming that the people
who lived there did not have that covered in something. In this picture you can see the column and
walls that would have been covered in plaster.
The dark jagged line indicates how tall the intact wall remains were
when they archeologist began to excavate.
In
some of the places they have found preserved the painting on the plaster. These rooms would have been very lovely
indeed.
These
were some of the large storage areas for food and arms.
This
room was a synagogue. Some scrolls
(Ezekiel’s dry bones) were found in a pit in the back room. This was likely used as a synagogue during
the time of the second temple which was destroyed in 70 AD.
After
the destruction of the temple some of the last remaining rebels fled to Masada
and began staging raids on Romans from here.
The Romans did not like this and in 73 AD the Romans under the command
of Flavius Silva led 8000 Romans to defeat the Jewish rebels. The Romans built eight camps around the base
of the mountain to prevent the rebels from leaving the fortress.
You
can see the outline of one of the camps taken from a top the wall.
They
then built a ramp of earth ad wood up the side of the mountain to the
wall. They used Jewish conscripts to
build the ramp and the Jewish rebels would not fire (arrows not Uzis) at their
fellow countrymen and the ramp was constructed.
It
became clear that the end of their rebellion was near. Eleazer Ben Yair the leader of the 960
members of the community gave the following speech to the people.
Josephus Flavius, The Wars of the
Jews, VII 8.6, translated by William Whiston.
"Since
we, long ago, my generous friends, resolved never to be servants to the Romans,
nor to any other than to God himself, who alone is the true and just Lord of
mankind, the time is now come that obliges us to make that resolution true in
practice. And let us not at this time bring a reproach upon ourselves for
self-contradiction, while we formerly would not undergo slavery, though it were
then without danger, but must now, together with slavery, choose such
punishments also as are intolerable; I mean this, upon the supposition that the
Romans once reduce us under their power while we are alive. We were the very
first that revolted from them, and we are the last that fight against them; and
I cannot but esteem it as a favor that God hath granted us, that it is still in
our power to die bravely, and in a state of freedom, which hath not been the
case of others, who were conquered unexpectedly. It is very plain that we shall
be taken within a day's time; but it is still an eligible thing to die after a
glorious manner, together with our dearest friends. This is what our enemies
themselves cannot by any means hinder, although they be very desirous to take
us alive. Nor can we propose to ourselves any more to fight them, and beat
them. It had been proper indeed for us to have conjectured at the purpose of
God much sooner, and at the very first, when we were so desirous of defending
our liberty, and when we received such sore treatment from one another, and
worse treatment from our enemies, and to have been sensible that the same God,
who had of old taken the Jewish nation into his favor, had now condemned them
to destruction; for had he either continued favorable, or been but in a lesser
degree displeased with us, he had not overlooked the destruction of so many men,
or delivered his most holy city to be burnt and demolished by our enemies. To
be sure we weakly hoped to have preserved ourselves, and ourselves alone, still
in a state of freedom, as if we had been guilty of no sins ourselves against
God, nor been partners with those of others; we also taught other men to
preserve their liberty. Wherefore, consider how God hath convinced us that our
hopes were in vain, by bringing such distress upon us in the desperate state we
are now in, and which is beyond all our expectations; for the nature of this
fortress which was in itself unconquerable, hath not proved a means of our
deliverance; and even while we have still great abundance of food, and a great
quantity of arms, and other necessaries more than we want, we are openly
deprived by God himself of all hope of deliverance; for that fire which was
driven upon our enemies did not of its own accord turn back upon the wall which
we had built; this was the effect of God's anger against us for our
manifold sins, which we have been guilty of in a most insolent and extravagant
manner with regard to our own countrymen; the punishments of which let us not
receive from the Romans, but from God himself, as executed by our own hands;
for these will be more moderate than the other. Let our wives die before they
are abused, and our children before they have tasted of slavery; and after we
have slain them, let us bestow that glorious benefit upon one another mutually,
and preserve ourselves in freedom, as an excellent funeral monument for us. But
first let us destroy our money and the fortress by fire; for I am well assured
that this will be a great grief to the Romans, that they shall not be able to
seize upon our bodies, and shall fall of our wealth also; and let us spare
nothing but our provisions; for they will be a testimonial when we are dead
that we were not subdued for want of necessaries, but that, according to our
original resolution, we have preferred death before slavery."
The
excavation of Masada led to the discovery of these ostraca, inscriptions on
pottery sherds, a group had names including one with Ben Yair. Josephus recounts that story of the last
days. They drew lots to determine who
would be the ones to put to death the willing victims and then one of the ten
was selected to kill the other nine and finally fall on his own sword. When the Romans breached the wall and entered
Masada they found it eerily quiet. All
were dead except two women and five children who were found hiding in the
cisterns on the mountain top. They told
the account of the events to the Romans and Josephus recorded the events that
happened on the 15th of Nissan the first day of Passover in 73 or 74
AD. This was the last battle of the
first Jewish rebellion.
We
left Masada and headed to the Dead Sea or in Hebrew The Salt Sea. The road we traveled passed by these cliffs
to the west of the Dead Sea. This may
have been the cave where King Saul took a dump.
1
Samuel 24 New International Version (NIV)
David Spares Saul’s Life
24 [a]After Saul returned from
pursuing the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the Desert of En Gedi.” 2 So Saul took three
thousand able young men from all Israel and set out to look for David and
his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats.
3 He came to the sheep
pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relievehimself.
David and his men were far back in the cave. 4 The men said, “This is
the day the Lord spoke of
when he said[b] to you, ‘I will
give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’” Then
David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.
5 Afterward, David was
conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. 6 He said to his men,
“The Lord forbid that I
should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s
anointed,or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.” 7 With these words David
sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left
the cave and went his way.
We
also made a stop at Wadi David. This is
one of the locations of Ein Gedi where David hid from Saul when Saul was dead
set on killing David. It is also the
location from where water was carried to Masada.
For
the life of me I could not figure where the source of the water was, for the
springs that feed these water falls.
Surrounding these hills are deserts.
There are some hot springs in this area so the source may be far underground
where volcanic forces bring the water to the surface. I guess this is a case of looking a gift
horse in the mouth. If I was wandering
around in the desert a nice spring would undoubtedly be welcome even if I could
not figure the source.
We
had been driving by the Dead Sea all day and now we got to stop.
This
location was a popular beach site for both locals and tourists.
The
surface of the Dead Sea is 1400 feet below sea level. This is about 100 feet lower than what it was
in the 1960s when Jordan and Israel began to divert much of the water of the
Jordan River, the main source of water flowing into the Dead Sea. The water level continues to drop about 3
feet per year. As the waters recede the
shore line expands leaving what was the extraordinarily highly concentrated
minerals at the bottom of the lake exposed.
There are some minor fresh water contributors on the edges of the lake. This water is seeping in and dissolving the
shore line resulting in massive sink holes.
But
I digress. We came to the Dead Sea so
some of the not so wise among us could get in and float. Personally, I am not a big fan of the salt
water you find at the normal ocean beaches of the world. I have been to a lot of them. This water is 9.6
times SALTIER than ocean water. I was
certain if I got in that the salt would remain on me for some weeks to
come. I did not get in. But several of our traveling troupe did enter
the waters.
Elvin
walking down the Beach to the water’s edge.
But look he spots some one engaging in a common practice of slather Dead
Sea mud all over yourself. This is
supposed to make you beautiful.
Obviously this means after you wash it off.
Elvin
and the Mud-Girl from the swamp.
Elvin
adjusts his wing flaps as he enters the water.
Plopping
in next to Kendra.
As
soon as you take the weight off the feet they pop to the surface.
Some
of the crew decided to just wade in the water.
Shhh!
Don’t tell Elvin that water comes directly from the Dead Sea!
Leaving
the Dead Sea we made our way back across the border from Israel to Jordan. The first crossing from Jordan into Israel
was very very through and careful. Going
back into Jordan was less fastidious. They
did make us carry all our luggage through the building and it was loaded on the
Jordanian Bus. We were reunited with our
Jordanian tour guide (still nice but also still worthless) and we got a
Jordanian armed tourist policeman. Dr. A
said he was there to make sure we did not harm any Jordanians.
As
we pass back into Jordan I am reminded of the very noticeable difference in the
amount of litter and trash you see when you are in Israel proper vs a
Palestinian or Jordanian region. You see
trash everywhere you go in Arab community.
In one of the Palestinian towns I saw a shop keeper sweeping the front
of his store but rather than pick it up he had piled the trash just off the
edge of the step where there was a considerable pile of trash accumulating.
Denise
and Bruce Hoover who were traveling companions live in Saudi Arabia. I asked Denise about this phenomenon. She said the same thing was true in
Saudi. She theorized two possible explanations. One might be pride in a convoluted sort of
way. That taking care of garbage is
somehow beneath them. The other theory was that it is perhaps a holdover from
the Bedouin history. Bedouin were and
still are a nomadic tent dwelling people.
In the past the Bedouin people created very little if any
non-biodegradable trash. They bought
nothing and reused most everything. So
about the only thing to dispose of was some bones and sinew. Those could be tossed out the door of the
tent and the animals and insects would dispose of them quickly. But in today’s world there are plastic
bottles and bags, cardboard boxes and all manner of other packaging. These do not biodegrade but they still get
thrown out or dropped on the ground.
I
do not know which if either of these theories is correct but I can say that the
trash is far more noticeable in Arab areas.
While
I am talking about cultural differences I would point out another thing I noticed
in Jordan. While driving down the
highway in a bus you can look down into the cars passing or being passed. Sadly, about every 5th car you
pass has a mother in the passenger seat holding an infant in her lap or see a 3-year-old
child standing in the floor of the back seat looking into the front. It looked like 1958 all over again. It disturbs me when people post memes about
sleeping behind the back seat, or riding in the back of a pickup, or not
wearing seat belts and saying something about we survived just fine. The just fine part is debatable but the truth
is that thousands of our peers did not survive at all and those that did were
sometimes crippled for life.
This
is US vehicle deaths. The yellow line is
the one to pay attention to. The number
of vehicles on the road has increase dramatically so the deaths per 100,000
vehicles on the road is the rate figure and it has dropped ever so much since
the 1950s and even before.
Our
last stop on our trip was Jarash. It is
located about 30 miles north of Amman.
It is one of the best and largest excavated Roman city sites in the
world. Only a part of the ancient city
has been excavated. This may have been
the city in the foreign country which Jesus had in mind as he told the story of
the prodigal son.
Some
of the scenes from Jarash.
The
Emperor Hadrian visited Jerash in AD 129–130. The
triumphal arch (or Arch of Hadrian) was built to celebrate his visit.
There
were colonnades everywhere in Jarash.
The
main streets would have housed shops of all kinds.
This
was the wedding chapel. The whole
structure would have been covered in a marble facade. The niches contained pagan gods and goddesses
that were related to fertility.
The
holes in the niches were part of the water works where fountains poured out of
these and then into drains on the platform and out structures on the front side
of the stage and then into little fish pools.
It
would have all been very fancy and lovely.
Our
last supper was not as memorable as THE Last Supper of our Lord but it was
pretty cool. We were served a lovely
buffet on the 21st floor of the hotel. Arabs are observing Ramadan at this time
which means they are fasting during sunlight hours. So each evening as the sun goes down they
will break the fast in a big way. About
4 families came to this buffet a few minutes before sundown. A TV was turned on to the live Mosque
channel. At exactly sundown there was a
call to prayer on TV and the Imam began to pray. Not unlike some of the Christians in our
churches the families pretty much ignored the praying and went about breaking
the fast.
We
got up the next morning and ate breakfast in the dining room at the bottom of
the hotel. Loaded our bags and went to
the airport.
The
check in went fine until one final check of my carry-on bag where I had stuffed
my elastic clothes line I purchased from Rick Steves because my old one disintegrated
when I tried to stretch it. The
Jordanian security guard asked what it was and I told him. He then called his supervisor and together
they concluded that this was a dangerous weapon and I had to leave it before boarding
the airplane.
The
flight home was fine.
Snow
in the mountains of some country between Amman and Chicago.
We
arrived in Chicago and my first experience of using the Global Entry line went
very smoothly and very quickly. The
quickness came to a complete stop when we discovered that the Tram System at Ohara
Airport was closed down. This was the
first day of about a year that the tram would not be running and people would
be bused from the international terminal to all the other domestic terminals
and the parking lots. On the first day
they had not yet worked out the bugs in the logistics of this.
This
is just waiting to get to a different terminal.
We
had several hours between flight so this was not an issue for us. But a few people were rather harried with the
wait.
I
highly recommend a trip to Bible Lands.
It was so very wonderful to experience this under the leadership of Dr.
Jim Anderson. He is so very
knowledgeable and he loves our Lord so very much. What a privilege.
I
made it home. I had a little over 48
hours in Liberty before we were to leave with the family and head to Florida.
I
will post some pictures and comments about our Florida trip in the coming days.
Thanks
for reading.
