School Days

It’s hard to believe we’ve been here for two weeks already. Class has been going on for 10 days and in that time I’ve learned a)how hard it is to be a student again, and b)the more I learn the less I really know. There are about 45 students in the class, and being the only Canadian I’m hearing all the jokes so far. Comments like “I’m sure you have never seen weather like this in Canada”, “Do you miss your pet seal?”, and my personal favourite, “you must know what the Israelites were like, trying to catch your own food all the time!” abound all the time (ahhh, they are so funny). But it is fun and I’ve made some great friends in class. We spend time both in class with lectures learning about the layout of the land, soils (I know that sounds like a snoozer but it’s actually cool) and also history through the years. But most of our time has been out in the field, taking a bus from place to place learning about different cultures and how they lived and most importantly why.

In our last 10 days we have done things from toured the Old City, walked around the Temple area, walked part of the Via Dolorosa, gone to places like Masada, Bethlehem, En Gedi, Qumran, and many others. It has been amazing looking out into civilizations as far back as 5000 years, to also see places that Solomon would have built (although probably with some help), and to see places where they are certain Jesus would have walked. You are constantly looking back into history while at the same time living in the present. It’s pretty amazing.

Some of the highlights? Wow, so many. One of them was yesterday morning, when some of us got up at 4:30 to hike up Masada. Through a lot of blood, sweat and tears (minus the blood) I made it up the 2 km, 1000ft-vertical hike up and got there in time for the sunrise. It was unbelievable. We later toured the area and learned about the place itself. It was built by Herod (who spared no expense in its extravagance), but later taken over by zealots during the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 70 AD. As the revolt was being crushed, Masada was really the last Jewish fortress to stand. The Romans came after them, and it took 3 years for them to build siege ramps up the mountain. When they finally broke through, they found that the zealots had committed suicide – all 960 of them - and destroyed everything because they believed that death in freedom was better than a lifetime in slavery. Pretty crazy stuff.

Another highlight was our time at Qumran. This was a place where a community of eccentric priests lived who dedicated a big portion of their lives to copying Scripture onto tablets. They later hid these in caves to keep them out of the hands of the Romans, in about 30 AD. The Romans did end up finding many of them and damaged them, then left them in the caves. These documents were not found again until 1947. The earliest copy of the Bible before this was about 1000 AD. It was pretty cool to be there, see the caves, and go into one where these scrolls were found.
We’ve got a 4-day trip up to the Northern Region starting tomorrow, and 4 more days packed with more teaching and touring. I can fill you in on more of what I’m learning