The Old City of Jerusalem

"Give thanks to The Lord for He is good, His loving kindness endures forever." These were the English words to a Hebrew song we learned on the bus as we drove up to Jerusalem. We were about to spend a day in the very city that I had read so much about in the Bible. So much history in such a small place. We stepped off the bus and started our journey through the Jaffa Gate into the Christian Quarter to Petra Hostel's roof where we got our first glimpse of the Dome of the Rock and the Old City of Jerusalem. We learned that there were seven different gates and four different quarters (Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Armenian).

After gaining a bit of our territory from the roof we made our way to the first protestant church in the Middle East, Christ's Church and then the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the traditional location for the death and burial of Christ.  There are supposedly two possible locations for the burial of Jesus, this was one, and the second is at Gordon's Calvary, the Garden Tomb. Our tour guide and professor Benj, believes that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is more probable because the tomb is a 1st century AD tomb, it has the oldest tradition, and he argued that there really has never been an opportunity for Christians to forget where the sites were. 

He also touched on the aspect of its location. Where it stands right now, the site is inside the Holy City. According to the Scriptures, Jesus was crucified and buried outside of the city. What Benj noted was that the modern walls that we see today were different than the walls of Jesus' day. According to models and ruins, the site where the church is located would have been considered outside the Jerusalem walls in Jesus' day. We did not get to go and look at "the tomb" but we did get to see an authentic shaft tomb in the walls of the church, where a body would be laid in an opening in the wall.

We then made our way through some shops and were introduced and greeted by the famous Shabban of Israel. He is a shop-keeper and money exchanger who has been friends with the IBEX groups for many years. His shop was small, but full. Everywhere your eyes went there was a new treasure to behold: purses, bags, scarves, knives, mugs, stuffed camels, menorahs, magnets, earrings, teapots, silver trinkets, wooden candlesticks, Jerusalem and Israeli memorabilia, etc, etc! 

We came out through the New Gate and walked along the wall. Near the Muslim quarter almost by the Damascus Gate was where we stopped and had our first shawarma of the semester. It was like a party in my mouth! One bite had onions, the next had tomatoes, one was pickled something, another curried chicken (or so it seemed)-the pita bread was packed full of so many things each bite had a different flavor!

After savoring the Middle Eastern goodness, we walked by a few gates, Damascus Gate and Herod's Gate and found ourselves in the Muslim Quarter.  Benj led us to a view point outside the city walls so that we could catch a glimpse of the Mount of Olives.  We took a moment and read about it in Zech. 14:1-11.  It was neat getting to go from location to location in Jerusalem, stop and open our Bible to read the story that took place there!  Another location near this Mount of Olives perch as the Lion's Gate or Stephen's Gate, believed to be where the first martyr took place. Again, another Bible story come to life. 

At some point when we were by this gate we heard a Muslim call to prayer.  We made our way from the cobblestone streets into a walled church-like fortress. The call to prayer sounded louder there as it was echoing off the rock walls. So sorrowful, and so lost. It turned out, once the call stopped, that Benj had taken us to the traditional location of the pools of Bethesda in John 5. It was here that Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath!  I love this story, and was able to study it this past semester in a Bible class.  After studying it, it was neat to actually be there and walk around!   The original pools seemed to be gone, but there were many ruins. Apparently church after church had built on the spot. What I loved about this place was that it was like an ancient ruin playground. We could go down into the ground and look at the Roman cisterns, climb the ruins, explore the hallways and passageways, etc. 

We traveled through the Muslim quarter, the Jewish quarter, saw the Via del a Rosa, an old map of Jerusalem and some more Roman cisterns, we saw many sights, and there are still more sights to see.  We closed the day with a visit to the Western/ Wailing Wall. I did not know this until we got there, but we had to go through security before approaching it, as well as segregate by gender.  On the women's side there were many women praying and crying and trying to retrieve for themselves pieces of the wall.  I am not certain of all the history that occurred there, but it was definitely neat observing the Jews as they prayed and gathered together.  These are God's people, His chosen people.  I can't wait to learn more about their culture and their language this semester! 

There were so many sights, so many sounds, so many stories, so many smells, the day seemed like it would never end, (in a good way).  Though we did not get to make it into the Armenian quarter, we did do a lot, and it is still hard to realize and grasp that I was just there. I have heard of Jerusalem my whole life, This little place is the center of so much history. God used it in the past, and He is going to use it in the future too!