Visiting the Holy Land – Part 2
Jean Jones continues the account of her visit to the Holy Land.
Jean
Next was a visit to the Kidron Valley and the site of Hezekiah’s tunnel. Jerusalem’s safety in former years had been secured by King Hezekiah who had instructed that the waters from the Gihon spring, outside the city walls, be diverted via an underground tunnel into a huge cistern so that when Jerusalem was under siege from invading forces the people survived because of the water supply.
We went down snaking paths and lots of steps, past fig trees and oleander flowers, geraniums, nasturtiums to the tunnel entrance. It was a narrow entrance cut in the stone with water from the Gihon spring rushing through it Forty of us lined up and followed each other into the tunnel with hand torches to light our way. The water became deep – up to our knees at the start and then levelled off to ankle depth. Sometimes the roof was low enough for us to have to bend our necks but most of the time it was very high but always very narrow and winding. It seemed a long way-about a mile – and we turned our torches off at one stage and clambered along in the dark -singing songs including This little light of mine’. The ones at the front couldn’t hear the singing of those at the back who were probably singing something completely different. We were just a line of pilgrims walking through history.
In the tunnel
At the end of the tunnel we emerged at the set of steps with a small pool in it but when we came through the gate we found some newly excavated (in 2006) steps and an area much bigger which has since been identified as ‘the’ Pool of Siloam where the blind man was healed. (John 9) The water in the Pool of Siloam is considered sacred and is taken to the temple on the Feast of Tabernacles.
In the Israel museum there is a model of Jerusalem built on a scale of 1-60 as it was in biblical days which was enthralling. The model was built by Josephus, a Jewish scholar, between 1964 and 1971. The style of the homes is based on Roman homes found in Spain and Italy. There were three walls, the first around the temple, the second around the City of David and the third outer wall was built in 44AD. The rocky outcrop just outside the second wall was Golgotha on which now stands the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
In the Temple
The Temple itself stands high with the various courtyards around it, the Court of the Women, The Court of the Priests, and the Holy of Holies, the Sanctuary. This door is eight storeys high. Even Herod was not allowed in the Holy courtyard of the Priests. To exert his authority he built the fortress to overlook the temple. This was where Jesus was taken and tried – the Praetorium. The Gate Beautiful led into the Court of the Women.
Nearby was the ‘Shrine of the Book’ where the Dead Sea Scrolls are housed. The scrolls are made of ibex or goatskin and were found by Bedouins in Qumran. We were privileged to see the actual scroll of Isaiah 35 beautifully scripted in Hebrew – said to be the most important finding as the Isaiah scroll is the complete book and the earliest Bible by 1,000 years. Today’s Bible is almost exactly the same as 2,000 years ago. There was a temporary exhibition of a tiny silver amulet measuring, unrolled, approx. 1″ x 4″, found by a schoolboy helping some archaeologists. This was eventually identified as containing the priestly benediction from Numbers 6: 24-26. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.’
The walk down the Mount of Olives was very steep and about halfway down is the Teardrop Church commemorating the spot where Jesus wept over Jerusalem. There are some newly excavated burial caves nearby. These are Christian caves with stone burial boxes on display in which the bones of those buried in caves would have been kept in niches in the walls
Finally, we went to the Garden of Gethsemane where a small private garden to the right of the roadway had been booked for us to use for prayer and quiet time amongst the old olive trees. There were lots of poppies, roses, geraniums and rosemary in the garden. We read from Matt. 26: 36-46 and all spent time in private prayer. This was a very special time when I felt very close to God and was really blessed. Then we went to the other side of the roadway to the public Garden of Gethsemane where there are some massive olive trees, said to be over 2000 years old.
Gethsemane
There were lots of other places visited but these will have to wait for another time.