Today was another special day. Devotions sitting on a rock looking over the Sea of Galilee are just amazing. I watched two fisherman close to the water while I was praying and reading. Our first trip was to Gamala, a city that held out from the Romans during the First Jewish War that lasted from 66 to 70 AD. The city is almost impregnable. [caption id="attachment_462" align="alignleft" width="243" caption="View of Gamala from above with the Sea of Galilee in background"][/caption] It sits on a rocky ridge that is only accessible by a narrow ridge. The Sea of Galilee is in the distance. After an initial defeat the Roman General Titus returned and in typical Roman fashion systematically reduced the gates and undermined the wall. Once the walls were breached the inhabitants were either killed by the Romans or committed suicide by jumping over the cliffs. N.T. wright points out that the rebellion against Roman rule was directly related to the leadership of Judaism rejecting Jesus' way of peace. In fact, you can see from the top of Gamala the likely spot for the Feeding of the 5,000 where they tried to force Jesus to be an earthly king,a Messiah for Me (John 6). Jesus' Weeping or lament over Jerusalem (that Luke records in chapter 13, 17, and 23) came from him knowing that Israel was headed for disaster because they had rejected his way of peace. Titus' catapults are directly related to their rejection of Jesus. Oddly enough, the chief charge against Jesus during the Roman phase of his trial was that he was fermenting rebellion against Rome...the very thought that Jesus so strongly rejected. [caption id="attachment_467" align="alignright" width="270" caption="Jill hiking to Gamala"][/caption] The site of Gamala was stunning: the birds, the wild flowers, and the views were almost hard to take in. Gamala had the first pre-70 AD synagogue unearthed. Prior to this discovery quite a few scholars thought that synagogues were post-Jewish War thus making the Gospels mentioning of synagogues anachronistic, i.e. that shows the gospels were not written by contemporaries of Jesus. [caption id="attachment_469" align="alignleft" width="243" caption="Synagogue at Gamala"][/caption]     Since the Gamala discovery they have found many other synagogues dating from Jesus' time.       [caption id="attachment_463" align="alignright" width="270" caption="Chorazin destroyed"][/caption]   Next we traveled to Chorazin, one of the towns that Jesus pronounced a woe on in Matthew 13. The town, along with it's two sister cities (Bethsaida and Capernaum) that Jesus cursed is in ruins. The micvah or ritual baths were used for constant purification for sins. You would walk into the ritual bath for cleansing from sins. You would do this in a line, not letting your body touch the person in front or back of you. In the late afternoon three of the tour participants made a profession of faith and were baptized in the Sea of Galilee by Pastor Ed Hardesty our tour leader. The contrast was striking between the once for all character of Jesus baptism and the continued need for baptism in Talmudic Judaism. [caption id="attachment_464" align="alignleft" width="270" caption="Chorazin Moses Seat first mentioned by Jesus"][/caption]   Jill was the one who pointed out the contrast. She reads Leviticus every February and complains her way through the book. That constant reading helped her make the connection. [caption id="attachment_465" align="alignright" width="270" caption="Chorazin synagogue head of Medusa"][/caption]       We were all struck at Chorazin by the decorations in the synagogue which included images of Medusa and Adam and Eve. This 2nd and 3rd century synagogue was beginning to be captured by the Greek culture.     [caption id="attachment_466" align="alignleft" width="270" caption="Hazor Solomonic gates"][/caption]   We had lunch at McDonald's and then traveled to Hazor. It had a high altar just like at Tell Dan and it had the same Solomonic gates as Tell Dan. It was a massive site. The city at 1800 BC had 15,000 people in it...at the time of Abram. Almost certainly Abram walked through these walls on is way south. [caption id="attachment_468" align="alignright" width="270" caption="Jill waiting for her secret gift in a Tiberias store . Turned out to be a bookmark!"][/caption] It controlled the junction of two ancient roads, including the Via Maris that Abram would have taken.