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."

Weird Things Happen Here

I just thought I would take a few minutes to let you know how strange and quirky of a place Moshav YadHashmonah is. First off, its a living community outside of Jerusalem founded around 1950 by Finnish Christians. If that is not quirky enough, there are always random bizarre things happening almost every single night. So far, I've experienced on the Moshav:

- either a wedding, bar mitzvah, or other form of celebratory party outside on the patio...every single night.

- said parties have featured such entertainment as Israeli pop music, accordian players, and a bagpiper in full Scottish regalia.

- a visit from the foreign minister of Finland.

- a lunch stop for a group of tourists associated with Benny Hinn.

- and to take the cake, tonight towards the end of dinner, there was a circumcision taking place on the opposite side of our dining area.

I couldn't make this stuff up. There is always something interesting happening around here. It makes me wonder what other odd things I'm going to witness.

Though it is pretty cool being here. No more than half a mile away on a hilltop lies Kiryat Yearim, which was where the Ark of the Covenant was kept until it was relocated to Jerusalem by David. I'm actually outside looking at it right now.

By the way, this is a picture I took from a hilltop at the Moshav early on a foggy morning...

Another Day

Today we went into the Old City and walked around with more of a New Testament emphasis. It was a good day, with a lot more time spent in museums (with A/C) rather than, say, on the original temple mount steps in the blazing sun. This is going to be a short post, so I'll just put up some pictures.


Don't worry...we haven't converted to Islam. But the Dome of the Rock is still a beautiful building, and it sits right over the probable place of the Holy of Holies on the Temple Mount.

This is the first Protestant church in Israel. It's an Anglican church built around 1850, and they work on Jewish outreach.

We went to the Western (Wailing) Wall again. This time it wasn't Shabbat, so I was able to get some pictures.
















Cameron and I eating fresh pita outside the Damascus Gate.
















This is the non-traditional site of Golgotha and the Garden Tomb. The traditional and more probable location is at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. But it was still neat to go to and remember Christ, His work on the cross, and His resurrection. This is their supposed Golgotha, followed by their supposed Garden Tomb.



































A coonskin moment at the Garden Tomb. He is risen indeed!




















When we got back this evening, there was a wedding party going on here at the Moshav. I feel sorry that this guy at the party has to share his name with a certain someone else.

















UPDATE:
Actually, I found out the next day it wasn't a wedding party. There was actually a tour going through Israel funded by Benny Hinn, and they stopped at the Moshav for lunch.

Fast Times at Yad HaShmonah

The past few days have been pretty busy. I'll fill you in pretty quick here, and I might even show you a few pictures if you promise to be good.

Two days ago, we had some free time in Old City Jerusalem. I went to the Wailing Wall, which was quite an experience. In addition to the prayers and the notes at the wall, there was a synagogue in a tunnel against the wall full of Orthodox Jews saying prayers, which I explored for a bit. I also bartered with a merchant and snagged an intricate wooden chess set. I'll tell you what, some of those Arab merchants can be pretty ruthless in their barter tactics.

Yesterday we spent all day in Old Jerusalem looking at some of the sites relating to the Old Testament. We walked around the destroyed Temple Mount, which was pretty cool. That place was absolutely huge. We read the Psalms of Ascent while standing on the Temple Mount steps, which was also really neat. We also went to a few other sites not related to the Old Testament, such as the traditional site of the Upper Room.

Probably the best part was slogging through Hezekiah's Tunnel. For those of you who don't know, when the Assyrians came up against Jerusalem, Hezekiah built a wall to fortify the city (which we saw the remains of, also) and dug a tunnel to channel water into the city. So we started on one end, sloshed through the dark and watery tunnel underneath the City of David, and ended up at the Pool of Siloam (which was also the place where Jesus healed a blind man in John 9).

Also today, we went to the model city of Jerusalem before its destruction by Rome in 70 AD, located at Hebrew University's (I think) museum. We've been getting all these maps and diagrams of what everything looked like, and saw the ruins of much of it also, so I found it interesting to see a realistic representation of it in its original state. But perhaps the coolest thing I saw at the museum today was the Dead Sea Scrolls. They house a good portion of the Dead Sea Scrolls, so I was able to take a look at some really old manuscripts of Isaiah.

Okay, you've been pretty good, so here are some pictures:

This is a section of the remains of Hezekiah's wall. It used to be a lot taller.






















The Hinnom Valley to the south of the Old City.
















A Coonskin Moment atop a pile of rubble from the Temple Mount.
















The Pool of Siloam at the end of Hezekiah's Tunnel.





















The tombs of David. Might he have been buried here?

















The Temple atop the Temple Mount at the model city. I felt like Godzilla walking around.

Shabbat

So this evening marks my first ever Shabbat. For those of you non-Jews, that is the Sabbath. It starts at sundown on Friday and ends at sundown on Saturday. Unlike Americans, their day of rest really is a day of rest. Not to the point of everything shutting down, but it is a time where people rest from their daily duties. It should be interesting. We have a group dinner on Friday nights followed by chapel, so I'll be leaving here pretty soon to get ready for that.

We also have assembly on Saturdays instead of Sundays. Once again, for you non-Israelis, assembly is what people in Israel call church. The reason its called "assembly" or "gathering" is because to most in Israel, the word "church" refers to the Catholic church. On a side note, Jewish Christians are called "believers" rather than "Christians." The reason is the same as the reason its called assembly, but also because to most Arabs and Muslims in Israel (and the whole Middle East), a "Christian" is an American or a white person.

Life has been pretty good on Moshav YadHashmonah thus far. Class has been good so far. They are proving to be great already. For those of you who don't know, I'm taking the Land and the Bible, the History of Ancient Israel, the History of the Modern State of Israel, and the Life of Christ. Also, there are field trips galore for them all, so that should be awesome also. We're taking another full day going back into the Old City again on Sunday for class, with an emphasis on Old Testament history. I'm not sure all the places we are going to go see, but I do know as a fact that we are going to walk/crawl/stumble all the way through Hezekiah's water tunnel he built during the Assyrian siege.

I've also gotten some good perspective on some life things here as well. For one, I feel I can really relate to and empathize with a refugee coming to a smaller town in the midwest. Its not that I feel I'm hated or not wanted at the Moshav, or even in much of the city. I just feel like I stick out like a sore thumb, particularly because I'm not exactly a tourist or short-term visitor. And to make things even more awkward, I have a hard time communicating with those who don't speak English (though many do). Like I said, its not a feeling of unwantedness; I just feel a bit out of place. Its a bit odd.

By the way, I've got a wallet full of shekels. Israeli paper money is awesome, way cooler looking than American paper money.