Israel - Second Day

We had an early start on Thursday too.
Although at 6:30am not as early as the 5am of our First Day.
We had an appointment at 8:30am at the Ecole Biblique, one of the Christian Bible Colleges.


The College is located to the North of the Old City, so we walked across the city from the Jaffa Gate, through the Damascus Gate in the North wall, and then on to our destination. This is a picture of the present-day Damascus Gate, showing the same Gate in the wall of Herod the Great's city below.


We met with Jerome Murphy O'Connor, a famous New Testament scholar, who has been a student, teacher, and professor at Ecole Biblique most of the time since 1963. Here's a photo of him, and you can read more at Jerome Murphy O'Connor. Many of us had copies of the new edition of his book, "The Holy Land: an Oxford Archaeological Guide". He gave us a fascinating talk on his particular theories of New Testament history, such as the development of the Via Dolorosa, traditionally Jesus' journey carrying the Cross. O'Connor favours a different route beginning from Pilates' quarters in Herod's Palace in the Citadel beside the present-day Jaffa Gate, rather than from St Stephen's Gate as the present route does (see p.37-8).

After our early-morning lecture we headed farther North by bus to Sabeel. This is an Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center working amongst Palestinian Christians and others. We were given a talk on the work of Sabeel by the prime mover and founder, Rev. Dr. Naim Ateek. It was very interesting to hear the Palestinian perspective from this Christian Arab man. It was quite a contrast from the Jewish point of view that we had known best before.
Rev. Dr. Naim Ateek, founder of Sabeel.

We shared in Sabeel's weekly communion service and then we were given lunch by the Centre, finishing with aromatic Arabic Coffee! We had to rush to get on the bus back into the city centre, and I was nearly left behind. When we got off the bus to walk up the Mount of Olives, a quick headcount revealed that we had actually left someone behind! Fortunately we had told Sabeel where we were going and they put Peter on the next bus and he arrived about 5 minutes after us - a rather anxious wait for us all - although even more anxious for Peter!

The walk up the Mount of Olives was exhausting in the blazing afternoon sunshine. But the views back over the Old City across the Eastern Wall were well worth the effort. We passed part of the Jerusalem University, the Lutheran Hospital and Church, and then looked down over Gethsemane on to the Temple Mount, or Sharam esh-Sharif as it is in Arabic.


This is a good view facing the Eastern Wall, showing the Dome of the Rock and the El-Aksa Mosque to its left. The Southeast corner of the Temple Mount is clearly visible looming high above the Kedron Valley below. This highest corner of the walls was known as the Pinnacle of the Temple, due to the height of the walls, as referred to in one of Jesus' 40-day Temptations. Note the Jewish graveyard in the foreground, and the Arabic graveyard across the valley up against the Eastern Wall.


We walked down the ancient path that was the normal route between Bethany and Jerusalem, passing by the Garden of Gethsemane, and visiting the church there. After that we walked up through St Stephen's gate and visited the ruins of the Pool of Bethesda, where Jesus healed the man who had paralysed for 38 years, see John 5:2-9.










It now being 4:30pm we felt like our feet had been walked down to the bone! We were glad to get back to St. Andrews for a well-deserved dinner, with yet another special Palestinian menu. Our nightly Reflections were an Oasis of Peace.