1st Century Jerusalem

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: "May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers."  For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, "Peace be within you." For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good. Ps 122:6-9 NRSV

Today was kind of a down day as we looked at 1^st Century Jerusalem.  We started going up to the Temple Mount and walked around the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.  I got to see Gethsemane from the Temple Mount and also pray at the Wailing Wall.  The highlight of my time around the Temple Mount would have to be when we went to the excavated 2^nd Temple steps dated back to 1^st Century Jerusalem. 

Our guide told us a story of Neil Armstrong who went to the Holy Land in the 80’s.  As his guide was showing him around the Old City, he was being shown the traditional site of this event in Jesus’ life and the traditional site of that event.  He asked the guide can you show me just one place that you know that Jesus actually was at.  His guide took him over to this newly excavated place and led Neil Armstrong onto the steps leading up to the 2^nd temple.  Neil Armstrong said that standing on the steps that Jesus actually stood on was more important to him then the steps he took on the moon. 

I can’t verify the accuracy of the story, however it sounds really cool.  I would have to say that standing under the temple mount on the steps that Jesus actually walked up and down is one of my highlights to this Holy Land trip.

If you take a look at my pictures, you will see several dedicated to the 60 AD Jerusalem model at the Israel Museum of Art. This is a 50:1 scale model of the city of Jerusalem circa. 60 AD. Ten years before the city was destroyed by the Romans.  This model showed what Jerusalem looked like when Jesus was on earth and helped bring together stories of the Gospels together.  Please take a look at the pictures posted below, I tried to give as much explanation as I could to the pictures, but I know I may be a little inaccurate with some of the captions, I will look them over again to check accuracy.

Tomorrow we visit the Pool of Bethesda, walk the Via Dolorosa, and finally the Visit to Jericho and the Qumran. Thanks for reading… 4 more days ‘till I’m home!