The Arbel Pass - A narrow point next to the Sea of Galilee on the major route from Egypt and the Mediterranean coast of Israel to the lands in the north including Damascus and Assyria.

Your thwarts in pieces, Your mooring rope cut


Ancient Assyrian Poetry


Translated by Erica Reiner

Why are you adrift, like a boat, in the midst of the river,


Your thwarts in pieces, your mooring rope cut?


Your face covered, you cross the river of the Inner City.


How could I not be adrift, how could my mooring rope not be cut?


The day I bore the fruit, how happy I was,


Happy was I, happy my husband.


The day of my going into labor, my face became darkened,


The day of my giving birth, my eyes became clouded.


With open hands I prayed to Beletili:


You too have borne a child, save my life!


Hearing this Beletili veiled her face.


‘Why do you keep praying to me?’


My husband who loved me uttered a cry,


Why do you take from me the wife in whom I rejoice?


I loved her for years on end.


All those many days I was with my husband,


I lived with him who was my lover.


Death came creeping into my bedroom:


It drove me from my house,


It tore me from my husband,


It set my feet into a land of darkness.

It is very difficult to date this text closer than about 2000-1000 BC. This is roughly the age of the patriarchs, Abraham and the stories of Genesis. It is written in Cuneiform script on a clay tablet that has survived to this day. I have taken the liberty to smooth out several of the textual problems that were left un-translated in the original publication. Unlike much Babylonian literature that was copied over and over in an anthology of sorts there is only one known copy of this work. Therefore this poem is particularly interesting as the honest plea of one who has known one of the most painful of all life experiences.

In the Assyrian/Babylonian culture a ship coming to port was a common metaphor for a child that was about to be born. Hence the thwarts and mooring rope language of the initial lines would have been a clear indication of the subject and tragedy of the poem.

The gripping nature of this elegy gives us a window into the minds of those that came before us. People familiar with death and tragedy, love and joy. There is something in the human soul that transcends time and culture. We are a people seeking for the answers to life’s hard questions wondering in our most painful hour why we have been treated as we are. The woman in this writing prays to Beletili a god of childbirth. It is stunning when the goddess who has borne children herself turns her back on her and allows her to fade into the darkness. I praise the Living God that he has revealed himself to us and that he never turns his back on us. Though in this world we will face trouble, perhaps the same exact fate of this woman, we know that Christ never turns his back on us and that he listens and cares for us in the midst of trouble. He is always faithful and always just. When we eventually fall victim to the struggles of this world we will rest in Him forever. How wrenching it is to know that many people in our world today still do not know the hope and the peace that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. What must we do to reach them so that they do not go to the earth grasping at what is false?

~Though you have not seen him you love him; and even though you do not see him now you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. I Peter 1:8-9

Hey everyone! I figured that I should make one last post from Israel. I have had a great experience and have been extremely blessed by the program and how so many people continue to encourage and support me as I prepare for ministry. Here is a picture from a while back when we were in Petra. Here is what I am up to for the next few weeks. Tomorrow morning I will take my last final exam and on Friday morning I leave on a bus for Egypt where I will spend a week seeing Mt. Sinai, Cairo and the temples in Luxor. When I return I will spend a week volunteering at a Christian ministry in Nazareth called Nazareth Village. It is a reenactment village that allows tourists to see and experience what life in the first century would have been like. I am not exactly sure what I will be doing but it will probably involve some type of maintenance on the buildings and grounds. After a week in Nazareth I will return to the States and begin work as a Chaplain at Cook Forest and Clear Creek State Parks in Pennsylvania. I will also be taking a few classes over the summer and doing a lot of studying and sermon preparation as I will be giving a message each Sunday in the two different parks. Thank you all for reading along with me. I will probably still post thoughts and pictures here from time to time so you may want to stop back in a month or so.

Grace and Peace to all of you!

Jordan Bedouin Experience

This past weekend I was in Jordan learning about the desert Bedouin way of life that was lived by the patriarchs. The place is a gorgeous desert environment that is a nature reserve called Wadi Rum. This picture was taken from the visitor's center before we really got started. The mountain is called the Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

Although sometimes stubborn the camels can be a lot of fun.

We rode little Toyota trucks back to the site.

When we first arrived we found out that a baby goat had been born just ten minutes before. This is her first attempt at standing up.

The next order of business was dinner. This poor fella was the chosen beast.

Here is the same sheep about twenty minutes later. I will spare you the pictures in between. I have to admit the slaughter was pretty dramatic with a knife to the throat.

Dinner was cooked in a below ground steel drum. A wood fire was built in the bottom with lots of coals the food was loaded in and in two and a half hours it was all done.

After the rice goes the sheep.

A blanket keeps the sand out.

The sand keeps the heat in. In the desert wood is often hard to come by so fuel conserving cooking methods like this are important.

Some women making flat bread in the traditional way. They stretch out the dough like a pizza crust and then throw it on this hot steel dome. They are really good at the whole process, turning the dough with their bare hands and not burning themselves.

A view of the desert from high in the cliffs.

Sunset at Wadi Rum.

A Bedouin breakfast of olives, goat cheese and flat bread.

Galilee and Beyond

Hello everyone! I apologize that it has been so long since I have posted. The end of the semester has brought many multi day field studies and lots of papers and assignments to keep up with. As an added bonus my computer locked up and I was afraid I had lost all of my data but a computer company here in Israel was able to recover my files and reformatted the hard drive. Crisis averted but I still am out a bit of cash for the whole ordeal and now am the proud owner of an external hard drive which is busily copying all of my files and pictures as I am typing to you. The semester is drawing to a close and I think that I will be ready to come home when the day arrives. I have had a great experience and look forward to sharing more of it with all of you when I get back. In the above photo I am standing on an extinct volcano called the Horns of Hittin. You can't see the mountain from this picture but the crater of the volcano has eroded to the point where there are now two peaks giving it the appearance of having "horns." In the background you can see the sea of Galilee at dusk.

This is the waterfall at a place called Banias. It is just downstream a bit from the site of Biblical Dan. Dan is in the very north of the land and is used by the biblical writers as the northern most point of the kingdom in the phrase "From Dan to Beer-Sheba" with Beer-Sheba being the southern most point of the idyllic kingdom in the Negev. The spring at Dan is the source of the water for the waterfall. It is an impressive spring, the largest in the Middle East; it is surrounded by a beautiful park with the headwaters area nicknamed the Garden of Eden. These are Eucalyptus trees at the site of Biblical Dan. They are not native to the area and were not present in biblical times but are very common throughout the north today.
In the north Israel has land East of the Jordan and it was laced with landmines by its various enemies I think prior to the 1967 war. Obviously from the sign they are still in place and most of the open land in transjordan in fenced and marked for mines.
This is a typical look at class in action. On the left is Dr. Wright teaching and from left to right is Dan, Jeff and Christina hard at work. The stones on the maps represent Joshua's attack against the northern kings upon Isreal's entrance into the promised land. The northern kings were unified under the king of Hazor which is the city we were sitting on top of. (See Joshua Chapter 11)
The Jordan River north of the Sea of Galilee at its spring high.
This is a look into the Jezreel Valley from Nazareth Ridge, the site of Biblical Nazareth, the home of Jesus.


One of the Herodian Aqueducts at Caeserea by the Mediterranean Sea.
A flower that was in bloom when I was hiking on Mount Carmel over reading week. The southern part of the Dead Sea. This is also over reading week. We climbed to this ridge from the road below. The mountain is completely made of salt from the base up to about one third of the way from the top. Today the southern half of the Dead Sea is used for recovering salt by letting it into shallow pools and then harvesting the salt and minerals once the water evaporated. The pools are visible in the distance.

Village Life at The Ancient Site of Mareshah

Last weekend I spent the day on Sunday poking around the site of Tel Mareshah located in the southwestern foothills of Judea. It was a beautiful and productive day. It is not a terribly important biblical site but it is mentioned in a few places. However, as you will see, the site is interesting and has some very well preserved remains. There are a handful of references to the site in the Old Testament but the most famous one (Especially among geography buffs-whom I hang around with these days) is II Chronicles 11:5-12. This is where King Rehoboam is attempting to fortify his quickly diminishing kingdom that he inherited from his father, King Solomon. You may remember the context of the story where all of Israel and Judah comes to Rehoboam and says something to the effect of: "Your father worked us too hard be easy on us and we will serve you all your days." Rehoboam tells them that he will respond to them in three days. Meanwhile he seeks council from the elders of the kingdom and his younger friends. He foolishly takes the advice of his peers who concoct something like: "your little finger is stronger than your father's waist." So being bolstered by foolish council (Rehoboam was no child at this time he was 40 years old) he responded harshly to the kingdom claiming that he would scourge them with scorpions among other things. At this everyone walked away and the kingdom was divided. God intervened and stopped Rehoboam from attacking the north. Following this he makes fortifications for the heartland of Judah which show a clear loss of territory from the days of his father. Even with the fortifications Egypt runs over him in the third year of his reign and takes everything up to Jerusalem. That was a lot for a little context.... Here is the scripture:

5 Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem and built up towns for defense in Judah: 6 Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, 7 Beth Zur, Soco, Adullam, 8 Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, 9 Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, 10 Zorah, Aijalon and Hebron. These were fortified cities in Judah and Benjamin. 11 He strengthened their defenses and put commanders in them, with supplies of food, olive oil and wine. 12 He put shields and spears in all the cities, and made them very strong. So Judah and Benjamin were his.

The cool thing about this passage is that we know very close to where every one of the cities listed is located and beyond that the list also makes perfect sense. All of the fortified cities are placed along major routes into the heartland of Judah. So by studying this list you realize where the important routes were and how the kingdom functioned.This is a view off of Tel Mareshah overlooking the Guvrin valley that it is located on and defends. If you look closely you can see the dark green grains planted in the valley bottom that would have been a possible attack route from Egypt or the coast, the land of the Philistines.
From here on the pictures are from excavations at the town at the base of the Tel. This is a Columbarium. A very large pigeon coup. Apparently raising pigeons was big business because these underground systems with holes carved in the walls are a common find. The pigeons would have been used for food, temple sacrifices, and for their manure as fertilizer. This network of tunnels would have held several thousand pigeons.
At the site there are a number of well preserved olive oil production facilities. The reason why they are so well preserved is because they are underground. The limestone in this area is soft with a three foot thick layer of harder stone on the surface. This makes it easy to harvest the stone underneath without removing all of the hard surface material forming a type of man made cave. The stone is not hard enough for large building stones but it makes a perfect brick. It was used for building homes or for trade and then the empty spaces were used for other activities. This is a crusher for olives. The wood is reconstructed to help you picture how it would have functioned. A donkey would have been attached to the system and would pull the stone around and around pulverizing the olives pits and all.
Here is the other side of the room from the photo above. This area housed two presses to remove the oil. A log is inserted into a hole in the wall, baskets of pulverized olives are stacked under the log near the wall and the very large stones visible in the picture are hoisted up with the smaller log cranks. This puts pressure on the olives and the oil is squeezed out into a hole through the floor. Notice the mini temple carved into the middle of the room. Workers would have to bow to the diety to enter the back room and add or remove olives that were being pressed. It is thought that this region supplied much of the oil for Egypt as Olive trees do not grow well in their hotter climate. This facility probably dates to the second century BC. The man in the picture is my archaeology professor Dr. Barkay. It is a joy to study with him as he is one of the leading scholars in Biblical Archaeology anywhere. It was on one of his digs that the oldest known scripture in the world was found. It is a silver scroll with a few verses of a priestly blessing written in the ancient Hebrew script that is securely dated to the 7th Century BC. Before this find many scholars believed that much of the Bible was written at least a hundred years after that date. Now they are back to the drawing board.A partially reconstructed house with access to its mined out lower level and the famous stone bricks in action. Nothing gives an archaeologist more joy than finding homes that were destroyed by war or some other tragic disaster. This means that the house collapsed and the owners likely did not have time to pack up all of their belongings leaving them for us to find. In this very house a jar of silver coins was found with the latest coin dating to 113BC. A date that coincides with other historical sources stating when the community was besieged by an advancing army so the date is secure.
Below the house. Actually I don't think that this is exactly below the house above but they all more or less look the same. Round pits that have been mined out for the stone and at some later point converted into a columbarium for raising pigeons.
A larger mining project that did not include housing above. These mines are valuable archaeologically because they contain inscriptions on the walls. Arabic writing and and Christian symbols such as crosses prove that there were Arabic speaking Christians excavating the stone. The original mining took place in the 7th or 8th century AD.

When I stepped into this arena I felt like I was on the stage of Gladiator. This is the same kind of Roman Amphitheatre that is shown in the movie with Maximus fighting for his life out in the hinterland. This one is well preserved and even has subsurface pits for storing the animals and such. Today there are bleachers reconstructed in the half of the circle that you do not see and the arena is again used for public events. The upper level is mostly fallen down and the nice stone seats have long since been stolen but there is still a well preserved tunnel that goes through the entire ring of the Amphitheatre. The acoustics are excellent as you can hear your voice being amplified inside of it when you are talking at normal levels. The white pillars that you see are a later edition from when the arena was used as a marketplace.

Blessed by Prayer

One of the things that I asked people to pray for when I was preparing to come to Israel was that I would really grow in a deeper and more complete knowledge of God's Word. I really believe that God has and is answering those prayers in my life. Lately I have been having a deeper desire to spend more time in the word. I find myself chasing ideas back and forth through the pages of scripture gaining insight that I did not have before. I have also been blessed with the opportunity to memorize some scripture that has helped my prayer life and in general encouraged me to pursue holiness. I have never been especially strong at memorizing scripture but in the past month or so I have been able to learn several substantial passages that have already blessed my walk with God. I say this not out of boasting but out of thankfulness for not two single words would stick in my mind with out His strength. One of the passages that I have just finished is Psalm 103. One line in the Psalm says: "He knows that we are dust. As for man his days are like grass the wind blows and it is gone and its place remembers it no more." It struck me when I was in the negev and the southern desert that this is exactly what happens to grass in many places here; the grass and flowers flourish in the winter months when their is ample rain but then when summer comes and the "wind blows" the grass dies and is gone. This is our life in a nutshell. It is very humbling. We flourish by God's grace and then "our place remembers us no more." The good news is that we live eternally through Jesus Christ when we believe in and fear him. It is our role as followers of Jesus to rely on him and to "flourish" for the glory of his kingdom. Here is the Psalm, I hope you enjoy it and the promises that God gives to us who fear Him.

"Praise the Lord oh my soul, all my inmost being praise his holy name, praise the Lord all my soul and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems you out of the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies you with good things so that your soul may be renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse nor will he harbor his anger forever. For the Lord does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth so great is his love for those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west so far has he separated us from our transgressions. As a father has compassion on his children so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. For he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. As for man his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field, the wind blows over it and it is gone and its place remembers it no more. From everlasting to everlasting the love of the Lord is with those who fear him, his righteousness with his children's children, with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all. Praise the Lord you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word, praise the Lord you his heavenly host, you his servants who obey his will. Praise the Lord all his works, everywhere in his dominion. Praise the Lord oh my soul."

Sights of the Old City

A man wearing Jordanian (red) colors.
Cleaning and selling local produce. A busy spice shop.
I have no idea what this stuff is!
A woman purchasing flatbread.
A cobbler working on this man's shoe. The inside of the dome of the Holy Sepulchre. Previously I was not able to get this picture because of the bright light coming in the center but I played with my camera settings a little bit and was quite pleased with the result. The dome was recently replaced and the inner design was created by an American Christian through a design contest. The view almost looks like a drawing and interestingly it really looked that way today when I took the photo. In reality the rays of light are three dimensional and suspended from the ceiling of the dome.

O' Little Town of Bethlehem

I have spent a lot of time in Bethlehem the past few weeks. Bethlehem is very close to Jerusalem however it is included within the West Bank and is quickly becoming completely separated by this large concrete wall. Most key places along the border already have the wall in place and everywhere else construction is underway.

This is the Bethlehem checkpoint one of the most rigorous inspection points for crossing into the West Bank. This is the view from inside the first gate. To get into the checkpoint you first enter a fenced gate with a large inspection house for passport screening. You quickly find that a US passport is as good as gold. While Palestinians are being thoroughly questioned and have their documents closely examined you are usually waved through without even opening your passport at all.

An unmanned power checkpoint that you pass through after passport screening but before you get to the above plaza. If for some reason the guards are suspicious of you they can lock this gate.

This is the fenced path that you must go through after you walk across the plaza that you saw in the above photo. Getting in to the West Bank is a bit easier than getting out. On the way in their is only one checkpoint with a guard where when you return there are three separate checkpoints and airport style security. But again as Americans we do not have to do the bag screening or take our shoes and belts off as the Palestinians do. As they are being hassled we just flash the cover of our passport and keep walking.

This is a view of a guard tower from inside of Bethlehem. I pass this tower every Tuesday when I walk to Bethlehem Bible College to teach English classes to members of the community. Above I was mentioning how closely checked people are who are crossing the border. That is assuming that you can cross the border at all. Most citizens of Palestine cannot ever go over to Jerusalem. Some people have passes for jobs in the city but are restricted to only go back and forth for work. Most people are confined to the West Bank that has very little economic opportunity. The unemployment rate in Bethlehem is about 70%. Israel has imported thousands of foreign workers to makeup for the Palestinians who used to work across the line. To Israel's credit since the wall was put in place there has not been a bombing in a major city in Israel for almost a year. There was one bombing recently down by the Red Sea but it is thought that that person did not come from the West Bank.

It has just been in the past couple of weeks that I have really been getting a good feel for and understanding of how the Palestinians feel the realities that they live with. I know there is guilt on both sides and I am not claiming one side is more noble than the other. At this point however, Israel is the much stronger half and has the West Bank squeezed down tight. This building is a public policy institute that tracks the activities of Israel and attempts to make them known to the world. Never mind the sign that says that it is in Jerusalem it is definitely in Bethlehem. The people here have excellent data that show how Israel is breaking certain United Nations resolutions that have been passed over the years. For example Israel is not supposed to be adding settlers to the West Bank, but since 2002 they have added a mere 25,000 settlements. And not only that but they are placing them in corridors across the West Bank that will serve as dividing lines for further segregation of the land. Already there are many internal checkpoints that restrict movement throughout the West Bank. Long lines at these checkpoints make what formerly was a 10 minute drive into a half an hour or more. Also Israel is in the process of making a new highway system in the West Bank that will only be for citizens of Israel. Palestinians will be forced to use the old or back routes and everyone else can use the new highways. This is getting long fast but Palestinians also cannot cross the wall in their own vehicles. So if you have a car it can only be used in the West Bank (they have green license plates instead of yellow) but Israeli cars can drive wherever they want. Another fact presented to us is that only 22% of the security wall is being built on the 1967 border of the West Bank. Other sections of the wall are significantly inside the line taking open land for development by Israeli settlers. It is standard procedure for Israel to take farmland and otherwise "undeveloped" land and place settlement homes on it. It is fairly clear in my mind that Israel wants all of the land to be incorporated into its official territory as soon as possible. I really do not think this is a value statement just a compilation of the given data. At the same time I realize that if Palestinians had any power they would be doing the same thing. After being on the ground and seeing first hand what is going on I now have little hope for a Palestinian state. Israel has so much invested in the land that I cannot really see them giving it up. They gave up Gaza but at the same time they have it walled in as well. There is a wall all the way around it on the land, a sea wall/fence and now plans in the works for a canal on the Egyptian border. It is a perplexing situation with no clear solution on the horizon. I believe that Israel must defend itself but it is also clear that the wall is doing more than a good job with security. This view from a hilltop in Beth Jala (Adjacent to Bethlehem) shows an example of the many loops and total enclosures along the border. It by no means is a straight line.

This is a very common site in Bethlehem. Almost every flat surface has the remains of posters of martyrs on them. Very few new ones have been placed recently.

This is a refugee camp from the 1948 war. These people left their homes thinking that they would return after Israel lost the war. Instead their communities were bulldozed and made into parks. They are still hoping to return to their grandparents land. Even though they have been here multiple generations they maintain official refugee status and services are maintained by the UN. 12,000 people live in a 1/2 square kilometer of land. They are free to move anywhere in the West Bank but many stay out of pride in their cause. Almost all of them still possess the keys to their grandparent's homes.A gate left as a memorial at the front of the camp. Jewish soldiers used to man a perimeter fence and this was the only way in or out. The gate opened at 6:00am and was locked at 6:00pm.Children playing in the street at the Refuge camp. The wheelchair is simply a fun toy.

More children at the refuge camp. Bethlehem Evangelical Church. This is an Arabic speaking church that my friend attends. He is an Arabic Christian that is from Bethlehem and studies at our school. He invited several of us over for church and lunch at his home this past Sunday. The church has a western contemporary feel to it except everything is in Arabic. They have headsets and a translator so we were able to hear the service in English.

This is my friend with his mother and me. We had one of his favorite meals, a very traditional Palestinian dish, boiled cabbage rolls with rice and beef inside. It was very good. Inside a recreated Bedouin tent. A woman in Bethlehem that is fairly well off has a shop that preserves Palestinian tradition and also is an outlet for local women to sell their weavings and embroidery. A grain grinder. You feed the grain into the whole in the center and spin the wheel and the ground grain comes out the edges.Two boys in Bethlehem with dinner.
Despite the restrictions placed on the West Bank there are many thriving markets such as this one in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is considered one of the safest cities in the West Bank. Most of their economy is dependent upon tourism so they treat you very well when you come. Lately tourism has been way down so they are doing everything they can to encourage visitors. I took this and the following pictures today and found the merchants to be in general more cordial than merchants in the Old City.
A Muslim woman shopping for what I think is lamb in the open market.
A typical market street in Bethlehem. This is slightly off the main path for tourists but not far. With the decrease in tourism it leaves the city with a very authentic feel.
Another market square. Notice the typical intermingling of traditional and more western style clothing. Everyone in this picture is native to Bethlehem. A man selling sesame seed loaf. I bought a kilo and a half of it for 18 shekels or about 5 dollars. It is a traditional desert/snack. Sesame seeds are grown locally and used for many things. It is three inches thick of nothing but sesame held together with sugar and a few peanuts on top. The white blocks are some kind of Coconut loaf. It is not all that good but it is not bad either.

Wow, we covered a lot of ground and there is still so much more to say. If you have questions I will do my best. The modern situation really gets you thinking about right and wrong and how to grapple with the problems of the world from a Christian perspective. Maybe I will give some more reflections later on what impact this is having on me spiritually. But as for now I don't think I know yet. Grace and Peace to you all! (and that's another thing...I have never been in a land where people are wishing themselves peace all the time but their is such a shortage of it...every conversation Muslim or Jewish almost always ends in Shalom-Hebrew or Siloam-Arabic...)