Pictures from Yesterday, Northern Israel

Now that I am home and have been able to download my pictures, I can give you some visuals to go with yesterday's blog entry.

First, pics from the Hellenistic (and then Roman) site of Beth She'an:

One of the cities of the Decapolis, known then as Scythopolis, was a major "Greek" city in the region

Signs of the earthquake that eventually ended Beth She'an

Like all good Greek cities, Scythopolis had a great theater

And every stage needs an actor!

Tel Dan is the area in northernmost Israel where the tribe of Dan relocated in the Book of the Judges. It is the site of springs that serve as some of the headwaters of the Jordan river.

The water literally flows out of rocks, which provides interesting christological symbolism

What started slow, small, and shallow, becomes a rushing torrent, much like the stream of water from the altar of the temple in the visions of Ezekiel and Zechariah

At the division of Solomon's kingdom, Jeroboam of the northern kingdom of Israel built and altar in Dan and set up a calf here. This is the remains of the high place as later reconstructed by Ahab.

"From Dan to Beersheba." Dan marked the northern border of Israel, then and now. Here we are looking across the border to Lebanon.

Not far from Dan is the site of Banias, ancient Panias (a cave and spring dedicated to the Greek god Pan). Herod Philip established the capital of his tetrarchy here, calling it Caesarea Philippi.  Nearby Peter made his famous declaration that Jesus was the Christ (see Matt 16:16).

Caesarea was a Hellenized site with several temples, including one to Augustus Caesar, who portrayed himself as the son of a God (the deified Julius Caesar). Here or nearby Peter proclaimed the true Son of God.

Cave and niches of Greek and Hellenized deities.

Har Bental, a high mountain post at the extreme north end of Israel was the scene of terrible fighting in 1967 and 1973. Here today it provides an overlook into Syria.

The rather dangerous Syrian border has nonetheless been quiet for almost forty years.

Israeli trenches left over from the 67 and 73 wars.

We ended a rather fast day of touring yesterday at Ein Gev, a kibbutz where are students and the program "relocate" for almost two weeks each semester as we do much of our study of the New Testament.

The sun sets over the Sea of Galilee

Ein Gev has a number of money raising enterprises associated with it, including a banana plantation, a boat company, a resort, and this restaurant.

For dinner I had fried "St. Peter's Fish," a type of sweet water fish native to the Sea of Galilee (though now grown on fish farms)

With the Jerusalem Center director, Eran Hayet, the outgoing academic associate director, Ray Huntington, and my colleague Steve Harper. In the right corner is a New Jersey Jewish man named Eric who visited with us and told us all about life on the kibbutz.