Galilee Archives - Page 71 of 84

Arms Raid Nets Antiquities Collection in Galilee

Police officers stumbled on a large stash of jugs and coins dating back from the Second Temple era in the Galilee village of Mazara on Thursday, during an arms raid. The archeological finds were kept in a yard belonging to family suspected by police of keeping arms. "We’re looking to see how it got to this yard," a Galilee police spokesman told The Jerusalem Post. After finding the artifacts, a representative of the Israel Antiquities Authority was called out to the scene, and he dated the findings to the Second Temple period, the spokesman added.

Mazara (Mazra’a) is an Israeli Arab village located near the coast, midway between Acco and Nahariya. The Jerusalem Post has five photographs of the loot.

Tagged Galilee

A Fishless Sea of Galilee?

Scientists fear that they may not be able to halt the precipitous drop of the fish population in the Sea of Galilee. In 1999, a total of 2,144 tons of fish was caught. Ten years later, the total was less than 10% of that (157 tons). Contributing to the crisis are many years of drought. From the Jerusalem Post:

The ministry wrote that “the data raised real concerns of an ecological disaster that will occur in the Kinneret following the loss of fish resources, turning Lake Kinneret into a fish-less lake.”
The announcement came only a few weeks after the Water Authority released dismal reports on the below-average rainfal that has plagued the lake for the last decade, with water levels reaching their lowest average since the 1920s.
The years 2001 to 2010 treated Lake Kinneret particularly poorly, the Water Authority said Monday. Moreover, according to its summary of 2010, Lake Kinneret has dropped back down to last year’s water level because of the severe lack of rain despite the state having reduced pumping this year.
Except for a few major showers at the beginning and the end of the year, Lake Kinneret’s water levels steadily dropped from May to December. Despite pumping less water out of the lake, the water level has dropped from what it was last year and is now significantly below the bottom red line. In fact, the water level rested below the bottom red line for most of the year, with the exception of the months of March to June.

The full story is here.

Fishermen in the Sea of Galilee, early 1900s (photo source)

Tagged American Colony Photos, Galilee

A Hike Through Galilee

Most tourists see Israel through a bus window. The advantages of modern transportation are obvious, but the drawbacks are more apparent after a day on the trail. Some trips incorporate a small amount of walking, but time factors often preclude a half-day, a full day, or more seeing the land as Abraham and David did. In my experience, the land “looks different” when your legs are aching and your canteen is getting low.

Israel is crisscrossed with many well-marked trails, but various logistical challenges prevent most tourists from ever enjoying them. The short-term visitor to Israel may have difficulty finding a hiking map (especially in English) and determining a safe and appropriate route.

A new opportunity now exists which eliminates a number of these hurdles. The “Jesus Trail” provides a convenient path through a beautiful and historically significant area. While I wish that the developers had chosen a different name (such as the “Nazareth to Capernaum Trail”), I am impressed with how much careful work has been done to make this a viable option for many future tourists.

I’ve noted the existence of the trail before (here and here and here and here), but I was unaware of a website that provides numerous resources for the future visitor. There is too much to mention here, but I would suggest a few sections as of interest to all, whether potential hikers or not.

Start with the map showing the points of interest. From there you can visit individual sites. I went immediately to the “Roman Road,” but you might prefer the Sea of Galilee or Arbel National Park.

From there I would head over to the blog, which has a number of interesting entries, including one with a free flyer with a map showing historical features and visitor facilities. If you want to see more detail, check out the day hikes and stage maps. As I said, this is a very well thought-out program and resource. There is also a new guidebook (see sample chapters here). If anything is missing, it must be the adventure that comes from not knowing where you are going.

If you’ve not been to Israel before, you may want to consider a trip that incorporates time on a trail such as this one. If you have been to Israel, this may be the impetus to get you back for a return trip.

There’s no reason to do the same thing twice!

Sea of Galilee from Mount Arbel. The view certainly was more enjoyable to me after hiking 70 miles from Dan to the Sea of Galilee on the Israel Trail.

Tagged Galilee, Resources, Tourism

Anderson on “Jesus: The Man”

Was Jesus a carpenter?
Did Jesus have short hair?
Did Jesus grow up with siblings?
Did Jesus work in Tiberias and Sepphoris?

These and other issues are discussed in a review article by Paul N. Anderson on the National Geographic special, “Jesus: The Man.” Anderson recommends the program but his summary and analysis may be read without seeing this episode in the “Mysteries of the Bible” series.

Anderson explains the value of the presentation:

The value of this larger series, and this episode in particular, is that they cast valuable archaeological and historical light on the story of Jesus presented in the gospels. The correctives to some supposed knowledge are helpful in that they create new understandings of Jesus—the realism of his engaging Greco-Roman society, the ethical-political thrust of John’s ministry, economic and social backdrops of Jesus’ teachings on the Kingdom of God. The peasant-class status of Jesus and his family helps contextualize Jesus’ ministry, and imagining a worker with stone helps some of his teachings in the gospels come alive, including (I might add) later references to Jesus’ being referred to as the stone the builders rejected, which ironically became the cornerstone of the new household of God (Ac. 4:11; 1 Pet. 2:1-10).

The article is worth reading. One quibble: his comment about the scribal conjecture of Bethany gets the evidence backwards. The earliest manuscripts read Bethany, but Origen couldn’t find a Bethany on the east side of the Jordan River and changed it to Bethabara. For more, see J. Carl Laney’s article (pdf) or my comment to this post.

Tagged Galilee

Jesus at Hazor

Gordon Franz has just written a unique article entitled “Jesus at Hazor.” It’s unique because while there are many biblical stories that explicitly mention the city and area of Hazor, none of them are from the New Testament. Yet Franz has found a number of connections. He writes:

In this essay, a case will be suggested that Jesus walked past the mound on at least two occasions with His disciples. The first time they might have visited Hazor was when Jesus took His disciples on a tour of the cities and villages of Galilee. The second time might have been when Jesus and His disciples went to Tyre and Sidon. They could have viewed the site from a distance when they went to and from Caesarea Philippi.

Franz gives a careful look at the sites and routes in Galilee that Jesus probably visited and traveled upon, but which are not known by many tourists or students today. He also has written a separate article on spiritual lessons that Jesus might have taught the disciples while at Hazor.

Hazor from southwest

Tagged Galilee

Hazor 2010 Season Report

The archaeologists working at Tel Hazor have posted a brief summary of the 2010 season results. Work was focused on a large structure similar to Yadin’s stable/storehouse complex.

The whole area [M] is divided by seven parallel wide walls, about one meter wide each, running through the area from west to east (Fig. 1). It appears that these walls belong to two large buildings, similar in plan to the Three Halls Structures known from Yadin’s excavations and the renewed excavations in area A-2. The two buildings share a common wall with a 4 meters wide entrance in its center, and thus form one administrative complex of unparalleled size at Hazor and even elsewhere in the period.

The archaeologists conclude that this one functioned as a storehouse. The report mentions the basalt workshop and cuneiform tablet and includes several good photographs of Area M.

Tagged Excavations, Galilee