Sunday in Jerusalem.
Most of the SGC Palestine of Jesus course attended the 9.30am service at St George’s cathedral, with its mix of Arabic and English. The place was packed as we had several international groups visiting at the one time. It was a great to have Naim Ateek, Founder of the Sabeel Centre, as our preacher.
It was also good to meet up again with Eric Funston from Ohio. After having been online friends for around twenty years, we finally got to met on Friday evening – but this time we took a photo to prove it!
After lunch we went to the Israel Museum, where I had the privilege of leading the group as we visited the large scale model of Jerusalem in the Second Temple period, the Shrine of the Book (where we crossed paths with the group from Truman State University who had been on the dig at Bethsaida with us), and the archaeological hall.
There was also an opportunity to visit the haunting exhibit of 9 neolithic masks.
Before dinner I presented a lecture on the archaeological evidence for Nazareth in the first century CE. This was in preparation for our visit there tomorrow. It was good to have yet another opportunity to present that material and address questions from the floor.