Here's To Abner...

Abner Chou. A man among men. Remember that name, because he is going to be the next great Bible scholar from America.

And I have the privilege of being his student and friend.

Abner is an absolutely brilliant guy. He is a genuine genius. The wealth of knowledge that he has in his mind is boggling, and the way that he can recall it is even more baffling. His thought process is incredible. Heck, he can even read two pages of a book at a time. God has given him a truly amazing mind. But more importantly, he is an incredible teacher. He relates with his students extremely well. His humility in spite of his acute mind is inspiring. And on top of all that, he is only a few years older than I am. I think he is around 26, and he is finishing his doctorate program already (he graduated from seminary in three years with multiple degrees).

But he is also a friend as well. We are doing Greek New Testament reading with a couple other guys one night a week, and his home is almost always open if we want to come over and hang out. I'm not writing this to suck up to him or anything. I assume you readers want to know what its like out here. Studying with Abner is one of the great joys and privileges that I have here in Israel. And I'm serious, in 15-20 years, I'm sure that he will be known as one of the next great Bible scholars.

On a different note, here are some pictures from our last field study:

This is the Beth-Horon ridge. It was an important ridge for travel. One of the events which happened here was when the Lord pounded the Amorites with hailstones and Joshua asked the Lord for the sun to stand still in Joshua 10.

Here are some ruins from a Crusader-era church built on the site of Nebi-Samwil, the traditional site of Samuel's burial (though its probably not really it).

I'm hanging out in the abandoned and unfinished home of the former Jordanian King Hussein in the West Bank (the West Bank is quite safe; the dangerous part of Israel is Gaza). It also stands upon the ancient city of Gibeah.

"The Pass" between Michmash and Geba. Jonathan and his armor bearer crawled up its side and attacked the Philistines in 1 Samuel 13.

This is just an IDF soldier at a checkpoint as we crossed into Jericho, which has been granted control by the Palestinians.

This mosaic was at Jericho.

The walls of Jericho which were brought down by Joshua and the Israelites.

Dirt and Sun

I'm kind of tired and have some other things to do, so I'm going to make this short, but I'll put some pictures up later of the day's events. We went all around the land of Benjamin today. I didn't know all of the history that happened in the land. We started out by taking some of the passes and roads along the ridges that were commonly traversed in the Old Testament. There were numerous battles fought along these passes and ridges, including the one where Joshua had the Amorites in pursuit, in which God sent hailstones upon the Amorites and Joshua asked for the sun to be stopped.

I think the sun was still stopped today, because it was a long day and the sun beat down on us in relentless fashion. Later, we went out to the Judean wilderness, where it was quite barren and very hot. But it was still a good time. We went to a few places of interest, such as the pass between Michmash and Geba in which Jonathan and his armor bearer climbed up and launched a suprise attack on the Philistines. We finished off the day by going to Jericho. We saw the lower parts of the stone walls which were excavated (because it seems that only the clay upper walls collapsed, forming a ramp for Joshua and the Israelites to enter the city). The site was also littered with ancient pottery shards, which I helped myself to.

Anyway, I'm beat. I'll make a more in-depth post later with some bonus photos.

Boker Tov

I've been pretty busy, but I'm not sure if there has been anything absolutely noteworthy that needs to be said. The weekend was good. I went into the Old City to hang out most of the afternoon and evening. Eric and I spent some time getting lost in the Muslim Quarter, walking up and down a lot of side streets and going to places you can't necessarily go to with a larger group. Then we went to Christ Church (which is the first church in Israel - see two posts earlier) to hang out and read at their coffee shop and cafe which they have with their hostel.

Later, we went to a little outdoor cafe to get some shawarma for dinner. It was the first time I had ever had it, and it was awesome. For those of you who don't know, its a type of Middle Eastern sandwich consisting of a pita filled with hummus, curried chicken, spices, and various sorts of vegetables (mine had onions and pickles). Very good, and very flavorful. The man who we got it from kept telling us that it was "the best shawarma in Jerusalem!" I also got a cup of freshly squeezed pomegranate juice.

The walls of the Old City lit up at night.

We also came across a time travel device called the "time elevator."