gregoryjenks

Tag: Nazareth

  • Bethsaida 2014 – Day Seven

    We spent today in Nazareth. What a deep blessing to be back here with a bunch of new friends to show around my favourite place.

    We began with a brief visit to the Basilica of the Annunciation, before moving just a few metres north to the Sisters of Nazareth Convent where we spent an hour or so exploring the underground excavations: the Holy Cave, the first-century Cave House, and the intact tomb with rolling stone, preparation chamber, and three burial shafts. Here we are before going down below the Convent: Sisters-Nazareth-group

     

    After that we went through the Souk (the Old Markets) to visit the Synagogue Church which happens to be alongside the Melkite church in Nazareth. Our guide, Abu Ibrahim, is from the Melkite community here, so this is his church.

     

    From there we continued through the Souk until we came to El Babour Galilee Spice Mill, where we were welcomed and entertained by the generous Tony Kanaza.

     

    Our final stop before the lunch beak was the beautiful Geek orthodox Church of St Gabriel with its ancient well:

     

    After visiting this church we had around two hours free time for people to explore the city by themselves, buy lunch from local vendors, and shop for gifts. I think was a very special part of the day. We then went to Mt Precipice, which offers panoramic views of the Jezreel Valley:

     

    From there we went to Nazareth Village with its reconstructions of first-century village life in the Galilee. As always, “Joseph” the village carpenter was one of the highlights with his first-century skills and tools:

     

    We ended the day with a visit to the Nazareth office of Sabeel, where we met with several members of the committee and had an opportunity to learn firsthand of their work.

     

     

     

  • Why visit Israel and Palestine?

    Yesterday I was asked by a journalist for a couple of lines about why I visit Israel so often, and what it means to me as a person of faith?

    For me, the most important thing about taking students to work on the dig at Bethsaida is the transformation that happens in their own lives, and in their appreciation of Scripture.

    I teach Biblical Studies, but to take a busload of students with me to Israel is to teach in the best possible classroom. The Bible comes alive for people who have been to Israel, walked by the Sea of Galilee, and stayed overnight in Nazareth. The outer realities of the experience are the study tour requirements, but the heart of the experience is pilgrimage: a risky journey to a new place from which we return but are never quite the same!

    On an even more personal level, I love the Galilee, and simply feel very much at home in Nazareth. Jerusalem is the great holy city for Jews, Christians, and Muslims; but Nazareth is the town of Jesus and very much my alternative home.

    As a Palestinian Jew from the Galilee, Jesus lived in the border lands at the edges of the Land of Israel. My Jewish and Palestinian friends live on the contested borders of their ancient homeland and their contemporary identities. As a boy from Lismore (on the northern rivers of New South Wales) who has now lived most of my life (across the state border) in Brisbane, I resonate with those ancient and contemporary borderland dynamics.

    I wrote about this in an essay for a collection of studies—about the intersection of Bible, borders, and belonging—being published early in 2014. “The sign of Jonah: Reading Jonah on the boundaries and from the boundaries.” in Bible, Borders, Belongings: Engaged Readings from Oceania, edited Jione Havea, David Neville, and Elaine Wainwright, 223–38. Semeia Studies. Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2014. (The front matter, with table of contents and details of the contributors, is already available online.)

    As an Anglican Christian, I live in the religious no man’s land between Catholics and Protestants, and as an Australian Anglican I belong to a church seeking to find a fresh identity far from the ancient privileges of England. I live in some pretty edgy places. So do my Jewish and Palestinian friends, and so did Jesus.

  • Study Leave—Week Seven

    The past week has been dominated by writing, but I guess that is one of the reasons for study leave?

    What began as a short section about Nazareth in a chapter of my new book, has drawn me into some extensive research around the archeological evidence for Nazareth at the beginning of the first century CE. I have read just about everything there is to read, and modified my views on some points of detail in the process. There has also been some really helpful feedback from colleagues such as Rami Arav, Richard Freund, and Carl Savage from the Bethsaida project. Along the way the material has  developed into a stand-alone chapter, “The Quest for the Historical Nazareth,” that will now appear in a collection of essays being edited by J. Harold Ellens. The short section in my own book has also been modified as this research continued. Some possibilities for future archaeological research in Nazareth have also emerged, so it will be interesting to see where this all leads.

    By Wednesday morning the new chapter had been finished, and mercilessly cut back to the required maximum of 6,000 words. Now it was time to begin the next chapter for my own book: ch. 9, “Son of Mary, son of Joseph.” This material had been marinating in the back of my head for some days now, so it came together pretty quickly (and hopefully pretty well). It was completed by dinner time on Friday. It was challenging to write around topics like “A Palestinian Jesus” and “A Jewish Jesus,” and then to articulate what each Jesus might say to those two communities. It was also an interesting exercise to correlate Jesus with the Millennium Development Goals.

    There were not so many events away from Tiberias this week and had there been I would doubtless not achieved so much writing. Even so, a few events stand out for mention.

    Last Saturday evening I attended a bell ringing concert in the large Salesian Church on the ridge in Nazareth. The visiting international ringers were excellent, although I find hand bells a tad underwhelming. One sour note was the large number of Jewish pieces in the concert, and the apparent lack of awareness of the Palestinian context in which they were performing.

    On Sunday I went to Haifa to worship once again with the local Anglican community there. As I did not get lost as many times as on previous occasions, I arrived about 30 minutes before the service. Before long I found myself robed in a borrowed alb, and assisting the parish priest, Asis Hatim Shehadeh, with the service. After the liturgy I enjoyed coffee and sweets with the congregation, and then an extended lunch with Hatim and his family. Having been there on several occasions now, I am beginning to feel quite at home in this community.

    On Monday and Tuesday this week, Israel observed Memorial Day and then Independence Day. In the week leading up to these events the streets and buildings had been festooned with blue and white flags, although Memorial Day is a very solemn observance that begins and ends with the wail of air raid sirens across the country. For the Arab population in Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territories this is a sad occasion as they commemorate the Nakhba, or Catastrophe. It was a powerful experiece to attend a large rally on the site of the destroyed village of Khubbayza, as part of the annual Right of Return marches around the country. The event was well organised, and a handful of Israeli police were in attendance to manage the traffic. Their presence actually gave me some hope for the future resolution of this conflict, as it seemed that the norms of civil society were in operation.

    During the week I also had an opportunity for an extended visit to the Beit Shearim necropolis. I have visited this site with groups a number of times, but it was good to have an opportunity to explore some of the less accessible caves.

    I will take a break from writing for the next few days, and focus on the coins from Bethsaida once again. On Sunday I am heading to Jerusalem for a few more days in the coin department at Israel Antiquities Authority. Hopefully I shall be there early enough to attend the 9.30am Arabic service at St George’s Cathedral.

  • Study Leave—Week Six

    The past week has been a delightful mix of experiences.

    The week began and ended with new chapters being completed. This means that half of the new book now exists in draft form, and I have some growing sets of notes for several of the other chapters. I seem to be on track to have the book finished by the end of my sabbatical. The HODOS online community that I set up in January 2001 is proving to be a great forum for exploring my ideas for the new book, and I am finding that some of the material that I generate in those discussions can be used in the book. This was certainly the case over the last few days, so I deferred plans to work on the coin chapter and followed the creative energies to complete the first draft of chapter 7, “Calling Jesus Names.”

    Most of Saturday was spent at Iqrit, a depopulated village where the people return once a month for a liturgy and community day. The church was packed, and afterwards I stayed on to mingle with the locals. After an informal picnic lunch, the music and dancing began. It was a lovely time to share with them all.

    Early Sunday morning I headed south to Jerusalem for a few days working in the coin department at Israel Antiquities Authority, arriving in time to catch the Arabic service at St George’s Cathedral. This was a very productive few days, and I am now beginning to prepare the detailed numismatic descriptions of the individual coins from 2012, 2011 and 2010. My goal is to work back to close the gap in the records since 2000, but I am starting with the most recent seasons.

    While at IAA I was able to speak with Yardenna Alexandré, who was responsible for the excavations at Mary’s Well in 1997/98 as well as the 2008/09 excavations across the street from the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth. Her detailed report on the Mary’s Well excavations has now been published by IAA, and I was able to get an informal verbal report on the unpublished finds from 2008/09. Having access to the scholars working on the digs and with the coins has been such a valuable aspect of my study leave. By week’s end I had also received my copy of the excavation report from the Franciscan excavations at the Basilica in the late 1950s and early 1960s, so I hope to have a good grasp of the major Nazareth sites soon. An essay on the archaeology of nazareth has just been accepted as a chapter in a book being edited by a colleague, so now I need to  pull together my ideas about that topic. I am looking forward to that as Nazareth is such a significant place for me.

    On Wednesday afternoon I had an extended meeting with people from the local Sabeel community to plan shared events, including their participation in the Bethsaida dig again this year. they do an amazing amount of community work, with more than 140 events in 2012. This year they are especially focusing on interfaith relations, to reduce the tendency among local Christians and Muslims to isolate themselves from one another.

    In the evening I enjoyed a concert of classical Arab music, performed by a local music and choral ensemble. This was a fund-raising event for a new unit at the Nazareth English Hospital, and the music was superb. This video of a similar concert in 2012 gives a very good sense of the event I attended.

    Most of Wednesday and all of Thursday was devoted to writing. By the end of Thursday I had the first draft of chapter seven completed, as noted above.

  • Study Leave—Week Five

    This has been a quieter week in some ways, but quite a productive one as well.

    The weekend part of the week saw an overlap between the Western Easter and the final days of the Pesach holidays. The country seemed to be on holiday mode pretty well much of the time, although I was challenged by the inability to buy anything with yeast: including (of course) pita bread, beer, and pasta. It is not just that observant Jews do not buy such products. Rather, the stores will not allow anyone to buy them, irrespective of your religious outlook. Consequently great sections of the stores are covered in plastic sheets to indicate that these items may not be purchased. Even the British Pub themed restaurant where I ate on Saturday night was not serving beer. Must be tough on their core business. (I have since learned that locals stock up with these items in advance of the holy days.)

    With so many holidays to be observed there were opportunities to visit some beautiful places, such as the Lake Huleh wetlands and the Banias Springs. There were also opportunities for lunches with friends in Nazareth, where the quantity of food served far exceeds my capacity to devour it (although I try), and is always spectacular.

    One of the highlights of the week was the opportunity to visit the small chapel where Charles de Foucauld spent many hours in prayer during the two years he spent in Nazareth. The friend who took me there prays in this chapel every day, and it was a privilege to be given that glimpse inside his private life.

    Last Saturday I had an opportunity to walk through the excavations at Tiberias itself. This is a city founded by Herod Antipas in 20 CE and continuously occupied ever since. The excavations have revealed a first century theatre as well as a Late Roman bath house that features in some of the rabbinic texts. The ruins are adjacent to the main road and close to a popular beach area. Most passers-by seem entirely unaware of the history so close at hand.

    While visiting Nazareth on Wednesday I called by the Sabeel office and happened to be there at the same time as a group of 15 or so Swedes, all members of Friends of Sabeel in Sweden. It was lovely to cross paths with them, and kind of fun to be partly in the position of welcoming them to Nazareth.

    In between all the sight-seeing and the lovely meals there has even been some opportunities to work. I have been able to track down quite a bit of literature related to the current book project, and by week’s end to complete another chapter for the book. This is the chapter that looks at Galilee in the time of Jesus, and at a few of the key places he visited. In particular, it has a couple of pages on the archaeological evidence for Nazareth during the first few decades of the first century. I may need to revise a few sentences in light of some places I am yet to be shown (although I think not), but at least the chapter itself is now done. In the week ahead I will shift my focus back to the coins project, not least because the next chapter I want to write will deal with the coins that are relevant to my study of Jesus in first century Galilee. This is certainly a good place to be located while working on such a project.

    On Thursday evening I had an opportunity to meet up with the Australian tour group led by David Pitman, from Brisbane. It was good to do that, and quite a tonic to hear their Aussie accents. Even better was the chance to see some familiar faces of friends from home. Still, it was a wicked pleasure to say as I left them , “Well, I am heading home to Tiberias now!”

  • Study Leave — Week Three

    Tiberias, Israel
    Friday, 22 March 2013

    A sunny morning in Tiberias catching up on reading

    It is now three weeks since I arrived in Israel for my sabbatical, and the place is abuzz with preparations for Passover and—for the Western Christians in Jerusalem—Holy Week.

    For the local Christians, Easter will be observed on the first weekend in May and outside Jerusalem all the Christian communities have agreed to observe the Orthodox calendar this year. This creates some liturgical dissonance for visitors such as myself, but I welcome the grassroots collaboration between often competing Christian communities and rejoice in the messiness of it all.

    The shops have been crazy; like a pre-Christmas shopping frenzy back home. And I am told the traffic will be chaotic after the weekend as people take advantage of the holidays to visit family and friends.

    During this third week of my study leave I seem to have settled into more of a pattern. I went to Jerusalem on Sunday, without needing to use the GPS (despite taking at least one wrong turn in the process). Not long after arriving at St George’s College I ran into John Stuart, an Australian serving as chaplain to SGC this year, and we made arrangements to celebrate St Patrick’s Day at a nearby Irish Pub in West Jerusalem. O’Connells did not offer Irish Stew (despite it being on the menu), so we settled for “Australian Burgers” and Guinness. It was lovely couple of hours, and we found that we have so much in common. Finding such interesting people in unexpected places is one of the joys of travel.

    Monday and Tuesday were spent in the coin department at Israel Antiquities Authority beneath the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Some real progress has been made with the coin database project, although at times it seems that really just means I am getting a clearer sense of the mess I am seeking to clean up.

    The other major project on my agenda is beginning to call for my attention. Before my study leave is finished, I need to have the first draft of a new book for Polebridge Press. This will be the long-awaited (by me, at least) ‘Jesus book’ and it will draw together some of my work at Bethsaida, as well as other historical Jesus projects and biblical studies. The last few days I was able to spend some time on questions around the towns Jesus visited and avoided, including what we now know about Nazareth in the first couple of decades of the Common Era.

    While at a wonderful concert in Nazareth on Wednesday evening, I met a local gentleman with a deep connection to Nazareth Village project. We soon discovered that we hold very different views on the size of Nazareth in the first century, and the date of its founding as a Jewish village. He has offered to guide me through some of the local archaeological sites not open to tourists, and I am very much looking forward to that. In the meantime I have done some further reading on the key archaeological investigations at Nazareth so I am well prepared for our discussions (and re-assured in my existing opinions!).

    It has been good to have a break from the obsession with coins, although it was a real thrill to hold in my hands this last week a coin minted by Cleopatra during her ill-fated relationship with Mark Antony, as well as a coin of Agrippa II (who crossed paths with Paul of Tarsus according to Acts 25) dated to 82/83 CE. This date is about 10 years after the end of the Jewish War, while Agrippa continued to reign—and around the time that Josephus was sending Agrippa drafts of his own book project, The Jewish War, for comment and correction. Both coins were found at Bethsaida in 2012.

    With the imminent holy days I am planning to take a break from the research and enjoy time with friends here. I suspect the highlight 0f the next few days will be a visit to the Herod exhibition at the Israel Museum on Sunday. I have walked past it several times already, so now I plan to go and see the exhibition for myself. From all reports it is definitely well worth seeing.

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