DAY 12 - Judean Wilderness and Qumran

The highlight of today’s field trip will be the visit to Qumran. On the way there, we will follow the Old Jericho Road, which represents a steep drop in elevation from Jerusalem to Jericho (from 800 meters/2600 feet on Mount Zion in Jerusalem) to 225 meters/740 feet below sea level. If you are counting, this is an elevation loss of about 1000 meters/3000 feet! This ancient itinerary is of course the context of the parable of the Good Samaritan as recorded in Luke 10.

Jericho (Tell es-Sultan) is a famous archaeological site with a settlement going back to some of the earliest human presence in the Jordan Valley. The site is also a matter of intense debate with respect to the destruction of the city by Joshua (Joshua 2, 6). The 20th century excavator John Garstang interpreted the archaeological evidence to support the biblical narrative that the site was destroyed during the early part of the Late Bronze Age (1400 B.C.). Kathleen Kenyon, one of the best and most colorful figures among archaeologists during the post World War II era, questioned Garstang’s conclusions. Her interpretation (now still the majority view among archaeologists) created doubts as to the veracity of the biblical record in Joshua. More recently, however, Bryant Wood has again made a strong case for the presence of a settlement at Jericho which would coincide with the biblical account of Jericho’s destruction by Joshua. If you want to dig deeper on this topic, here is a great website.

DAYS 10 & 11 of the Tour - Jerusalem

For this post, we are combining days 10 and 11 since we will spend most of our time within the walls of the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is very challenging to explore historically and archaeologically since it is a modern city with vibrant communities and traditions. We can’t simply point to an area of the site and describe the Iron Age settlement during the time of Solomon as we do at Megiddo. Instead, we need to create mental pictures of what the city might have looked like during the biblical periods. To this end, a trip to the Israel Museum on the afternoon of the first day in Jerusalem will be immensely valuable. The stunningly beautiful and expansive model of Jerusalem during the NT period will help us grasp the magnificence of the city during the Roman Period.

Earlier in the day, the visit to the Mount of Olives will afford us a general view of the city, but again, this will not be quite what the 19th century A.D. Scottish artist David Roberts was able to capture during his visit to the Holy Land. His rendering of the city from the Mount of Olives takes us a little bit closer to the stillness and quaintness of the ancient city.