Leaving the Land

It's hard to believe that my time here has come to an end. I fly out at midnight tonight, but we are going to take the rental car and see a few more sights today and then head to the airport.

I will keep updating this after I get back and get settled in. I haven't really posted much from the Old City and other places, so I'll do that then. So, if you're interested, keep checking back.

Encountering the Canaanites

Another stop on Saturday's tour was Arad. This is the first Canaanite city conquered by the Israelites within the land of Canaan itself (the Canaanite kings Sihon and Og were defeated by the Israelites and their land conquered, but their territory was outside the boundaries of Canaan).

The site includes a governor's palace and storerooms for supplying the troops stationed there. You can see the defensible position in this picture:



Here is a Canaanite altar, with no horns on it:

More Samson

After Delilah convinced Samson to reveal the secret of his strength, he was captured by the Philistines.

Judges 16:21 says:

Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison.

At the museum in Tel Aviv, we saw a grinder that may have been similar to the one Samson used in prison. Here is a picture of one of our instructors, Gary, playing the part of Samson. Note Gary's long hair -- he is perfect for playing the part of a life-long Nazirite (See Numbers 6:1-21).



(Click to enlarge)

On the Road

As we drove across the desert, we saw something one doesn't see every day, at least not in Minnesota:

Beersheba

We rented a car for the weekend, so we have been able to go a bit farther afield. Today, we went to Beersheba, Arad, and Masada.

Beersheba is the site of a number of interesting events in the Bible. The name means "Seven Wells," or "Well of the Oath" and was so named because Abraham made a treaty with Abimelek there. He also lived there for a time. Genesis 21:31-34 says:

So that place was called Beersheba, because the two men swore an oath there. After the treaty had been made at Beersheba, Abimelek and Phicol the commander of his forces returned to the land of the Philistines. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the LORD, the Eternal God. And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for a long time. (TNIV)

The site has been well-excavated and there are many interesting things to see there. There is a well (naturally!) as well as a reconstructed altar used for sacrifice (the stones for the altar were found used in another building on the site). There is even a tamarisk tree (though I doubt it is 4000 years old!).

Here are some pictures (click to enlarge):

This a four-horned altar. (Speaking of the altar in the Tabernacle, Exodus 38:2 [TNIV] says, "They made a horn at each of the four corners, so that the horns and the altar were of one piece, and they overlaid the altar with bronze.")



Here is the well just outside the city gate:



This is a tamarisk tree, like the one planted by Abraham:

Philistine Pottery

At a museum in Tel Aviv, we saw examples of Philistine pottery. It differs from Canaanite and Israelite pottery, most noticeably in the decoration that is present.

Here are a couple of wine or water vessels:

Class dismissed!

We finished up the class today, with a final exam. (Until this summer, it had been years since I have taken a final exam! I give them a lot, but I haven't been on the other side of the desk in a long time!)

I am very pleased with how far I have come in these five weeks. I am reading much more fluently, and am beginning to be able to produce more effectively and efficiently. Perhaps most importantly, I have LOTS of ideas for how to continue to improve my teaching effectiveness. I have also found a great network of people who are willing to help me as I seek to continue to develop.

I now have the weekend before I head back to the US. I will post some more here before I go, and will likely post some follow up posts after I get back. We have rented a car and will roam a bit more widely over the next few days.

Stay tuned!

The Philistines

We took a trip to Ashkelon and Tel Qasila the other day. Ashkelon is one of the 5 major cities of the Philistines, who were "sea people." They came from Crete to Egypt, and then migrated to Canaan later on. They established cities on the Mediterranean coast, and the Israelites fought against them frequently throughout their history. (Goliath, for example, was a Philistine.)

In our reading and examination of the account of Samson in Judges 13-16, we have been reading about the Philistines. Judges 13:1 says:

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. (TNIV)

Samson was called to "deliver" Israel from the Philistines, but despite this calling he becomes increasingly enamored of them. He marries a Philistine woman, but when that goes sour (read all about it in Judges 13), he fights against the Philistines. Finally, in what is probably the most famous part of the account of Samson, he falls in love with Delilah, another Philistine woman. You can see all the tragic details in Judges 16.

Ashkelon enters the picture in Judges 14. To pay off a bet, Samson goes to Ashkelon to steal the items he needed. Ashkelon at the time was a large, fortified city. We saw remnants of an ancient wall (though later than the one that existed in Samson's day). We also saw a city-gate that dates to around Samson's time.

Here are a couple of pictures:

This is the city gate that dates to about 1850 BC. (Click to enlarge)


These are parts of the city wall of Ashkelon. Although these particular ruins are much later than Samson's time, the later wall was built on the foundation of the city wall that would have existed then.

Odd Weather in Jerusalem

The weather here is very constant in the summer. We have hot days (mid to upper 80s) with clear blue skies. In the afternoon, winds from the Mediterranean pick up and keep things very pleasant.

This is the normal view from my balcony (posted earlier):


Occasionally, the mornings have been foggy, which burns off quickly as the sun rises. Here is the same view on a foggy morning:










This morning, we had overcast skies, and even some rain! That is very unusual for Jerusalem. It didn't keep us from doing anything and it stopped quickly, but it was strange!

Inspiring Students: Drs. Bosanquet

There are two classes going on here at the kibbutz. One is the intermediate course in which I am participating, and the other is a beginning course. (I observe the teaching of that course to learn the pedagogy better.) Most of the students in the beginning course started 3 weeks ago knowing little or no Hebrew. They are now reading through the book of Jonah in Hebrew.

Many of the students involved in the courses are or will be seminary or Bible college students. Most are preparing for vocational Christian ministry of some sort.

The exceptions are remarkable, and very inspiring to me. Among them are David and Amanda Bosanquet, from Wales. Both are medical doctors. David is a surgeon (and so, in the UK medical system is now properly referred to as "Mr." rather than "Dr."), and Amanda is a family practice doctor.

Both are here because they want to understand the Bible as best they can. They have no plans to abandon the practice of medicine for a career teaching Bible or theology. Rather, they want to be more effective in living out their faith by being able to better understand the Bible.

This, to me, is remarkable. I often tell my students that if they want to be the best interpreter of Scripture they can be, they will need to have facility in the original languages. (That doesn't mean that one can't be a good interpreter without knowledge of the languages or that knowledge of Scripture is accessible exclusively through knowledge of the languages, but rather understanding is enhanced when one can access the text in the original languages.) This is true for all readers, not just those who will be leaders in the Church. Amanda and David are a tremendous and inspiring example.

May the Lord raise up more such people in his Church!

Pedagogy in Action

One of the reasons I am here is to learn this pedagogy in order to increase my own effectiveness in teaching biblical Hebrew. I have certainly gained tremendous insights as to how I can do this back at Bethel Seminary.

A very simple, though effective, practice is to act out the texts we are reading. It helps the students to be able to visualize what is going on and make the account more than just squiggles on the page, but an actual account that was intended to communicate to the original audience.

Here is a picture of my group reading and acting out the account in Judges 13. It certainly adds to the interest to be reading the account of Samson's birth while sitting on the ruins of the town and having passed the fields in which the action takes place!

Studying Samson

We've moved into a new course, this one on Samson (Judges 13-16). We continue to read and discuss the text in biblical Hebrew, which is stretching but helping me immensely.

Today we took a field trip to Zorah, where Samson lived. It was a fairly strenuous hike up the mountain to the top, where the ruins of the city are. The heat was intense, and we got a sense of how difficult travel would have been in this region of the country.

The text records that

the Spirit of the LORD began to stir [Samson] while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol. Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. (Judges 13:25-14:1, TNIV)

Chapter 14 continues with a description of Samson frequently going back and forth (more accurately "up and down") to Timnah. The two places are only a little over 4 miles apart, but there is a difference of over 600 feel in elevation, most of that coming in just 2 miles or so. So, that means Samson was regularly traveling this distance over rough terrain to consort with the women of the Philistines, who had been ruling over the Israelites for the previous 40 years (Judges 13:1). Moreover, God had revealed to Samson's parents that he was going to use Samson to free the Israelites from Philistine rule.

All this is part of the way in which the author of Judges shows how far the Israelites were from being people devoted to Yahweh and being an example to the nations as to how to live out relationship with God. Though God used the judges to free his people, they were hardly paragons of virtue, and far from exemplary in their devotion to God.

Here are some pictures of the area (click to enlarge):


This is a picture of the ruins of Zorah, Samson's birthplace.



Here is the view from moutain ridge looking toward Timnah, which is out beyond the tree line that is visible in this picture.

A Hebrew Scribe

We also saw a scribe at Neot Kedumim. Though he has a day job, he also is a trained scribe, having learned from his father the skills for being a scribe. When we saw him, he was working on a scroll of the Book of Esther. He told us about all that has to be done to ensure that the scroll is kosher. It must be from the skin of a clean animal, and written with ink made from kosher ingredients. There are regulations concerning how many letters can be on a line, and how many lines can be on a column.



Here are the ingedients he uses to make the ink:




He then read to us from a Torah scroll, demonstrating two different types of chanting.

Here is what his work looked like (click to enlarge):



He told us that completed scrolls would be sold for use in synagogues somewhere in the world, and they may sell for $25000-$30000 each! He noted, however, that given the incredible amount of time it takes to complete one (about a year), it doesn't really end up being a very lucrative endeavor. So, he's keeping his day job!

Catching up

I can't believe how quickly the time goes! I feel bad for neglecting my blog. Thanks to all of you have faithfully been checking it. I'll try to do better from here on out!

Last week was focused mostly on the class. We finished reading the book of Ruth, and enjoyed acting it out and discussing the text, all in biblical Hebrew. The instructors, Aaron and Brian, are excellent teachers who helped us make so much progress in our facility with the language. They are inspirational!

We took a field trip this week to Neot Kedumim, a biblical landscape preserve. They have attempted to recreate certain aspects of the landscape that would have existed in biblical times. So, they have cleared woods that were planted in more recent times and planted plants, trees, and shrubs that would have existed earlier. I'd been here before, and it is a fascinating and wonderful place to visit.

We continued our study reading Ruth there. Ruth 3:2 says,

Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor.

There is a reconstruction of a threshing floor at Neot Kedumim, so we read the chapter while sitting in that place. Here is a picture of what a threshing floor may have been like (click to enlarge):



There was still grain left from the recent harvest, so our instructor, Brian, demonstrated how barley would have been winnowed. There was even wind so we could see how the wind blew the heavier chaff away and left the grain.




It was really fascinating!