Day Four - Benjamin, Samaria, and Jericho

It was another busy day here in Israel. Yesterday was our last day just in Jerusalem. Starting today we will be taking bus trips to different areas of the country. Today we looked at the area of the tribe of Benjamin, we looked at Samaria and then we went down to Jericho.

The first place we went to today is a place that is called Nebi Samwil, it is where the Muslims think Samuel was buried (he’s probably not buried there). From there we could see most of the tribal area of Benjamin. Nebi Samwil is probably the place that is called the high place of Gibeon in the Bible. It is where God came to Solomon and asked him what he wanted and Solomon asked for the wisdom to govern the people of Israel.

From there we went to a place called Michmash, which is where Jonathon climbed down and then up the cliff with just his armor bearer and then killed a bunch of Philistines. There were two cities there, Geba and Michmash, Saul was on one side with his troops, and the Philistines were on the other side with their troops. There was one pass between the two cities and it was being guarded by the Philistines. Jonathan ran off from Saul, climbed down and up a cliff that is really steep and then came up where the Philistines wouldn’t have expected anyone to climb.

(Hiking up in the area where Jonathan killed a bunch of Philistines)

After that we went to Shiloh. It is the place where the Tabernacle was in Israel for a long time. It is the place that Samuel grew up,

(Shiloh, in the spot wehre the tabernacle probably sat. I ran around on the rocks down there looking for an 3800 year old wall, I'm not sure I found it but I had fun.)

Then we went to Mt. Gerazim, which sits right over the ancient city of Shechem. Shechem is a really important Biblical site, it is where God came to Abraham and promised to give him and his descendents the land of Israel. It is the place where the whole nation of Israel came together with Joshua to have the blessings and the curses of God read to them. Jacob was also in Shechem, and Shechem was the place where the northern ten tribes of Israel split from Judah and created their own kingdom. Shechem is now an Arab city called Na’ablis. It is in the West bank in an area called Area A. Area A is an area that the Israelis have completely handed over to the Palestinians. As a result of this, Jews are not allowed into Area A. To be safe we didn’t go into Na'ablis, we just looked down onto ancient Samaria from Mt. Gerazim (we also saw the Palestinian refugee camp where large number of terrorists are recruited.)

There are only about 600 remaining Samaritans in the world (think Jesus talking to the woman at the well), and most of them live on Mt. Gerazim. They actually still sacrifice an animal for Passover every year and then put the blood on their doorframes.

After Mt. Gerazim, we went to Jericho. Jericho was really, really cool. There is actually archeological evidence that Jericho was destroyed at the same time that Joshua and the Israelites were taking over Canaan. And the evidence points to the walls all collapsing outward during the destruction. The walls were mud brick walls and they collapsed down over the retaining walls (that supported the foundation of the city) creating a ramp and easy access for the army that attacked Jericho. They also found jars and jars that were full of grain that were burned during the destruction, which is really strange since most of the times an army destroys a city it takes the stuff like grain and eats it. All of this evidence points to Jericho being conquered in the same way and at the same time as Joshua and the Israelites were coming through. The retaining wall that the mud bricks fell over is still standing, and we got to see it which was really cool. There is also a tower that they have found in Jericho that is made out of stone, is seven meters tall and seven meters in diameter and is dated back to 7000 BC (although our teacher Todd thinks that it is probably closer to 5000 BC.) So there was a settlement and maybe a fortified city at Jericho 7000-9000 years ago, which is pretty crazy.

(The retaining wall in Jericho. Joshua and the Isrealites marched around this wall and then walked over it when the mud brick walls collapsed on top of it.)

Tomorrow we are going to the Mount of Olives and Bethlehem among other places. Until tomorrow, thanks for reading.