Today was our last day of touring, and we’ve said goodbye to Joel and Susan. I’m sad that it’s over. But we did finish on a high note; it was “Jesus day.”
Our first stop was Kursi, which had a small chapel for the legion of pigs site. It also had one of those roll-the-Bible-verse-into-the-sand deals.
Next was Sepphoris, a wealthy hellenized city that may well have influenced Jesus. The main feature was the awesome collection of mosaics, including the “Nile Mosaic.”
From there we went to Nazareth and visited the two churches of the Annunciation – Greek Orthodox and Catholic. The first had “the well,” but the Catholic church was much cooler. There were all these depictions of Mary and Jesus from different countries. My favorites were Japan and Cameroon.
We went back to the Sea of Galilee and visited the chapel for the Sermon on the Mount, which was lovely. Dr. B had Matt read the beatitudes before we went in, which was kind of nice.
Not everybody got off at our next stop, a nondescript site called Korazim. It was 110 degrees today! The town had a synagogue with a “Moses seat,” and we all took turns getting pictures in it.
The best part was Capernaum, where we saw Peter’s house, one of the few holy sites that is actually very credible. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go in it, and the Jesus and Peter inscriptions had been removed to some museum.
There was also a synagogue, and we could see down to the first century foundation. My favorite thing was on a building as we walked into the city . . . A cross that said “light” and “life” in Greek.
Dr. B pointed out a bunch of inscriptions and symbols that I probably won’t remember when I get my pictures! I tried to write most of them down when we got to the bus.
Next was Tabgha, the site of the loaves and fishes. Not much, but nifty mosaics.
Our last stop was to see the newly discovered first century boat found at the bottom of the Sea of Galilee. It was really neat how they excavated and preserved it.
We ate our “last supper” to end the touring and say goodbye to Nasser. Dr. B is driving Susan and Joel to Tel Aviv at 1:00 this morning.
The kibbutz is very nice – very pretty. When we got here, our rooms weren’t ready yet, so we all sat on this grassy slope that ended in a beautiful lake. We took off our shoes and Hanan played the guitar. It was so relaxing.
Our cabin is really cozy, and homey and pretty. It’s me, Shannon, Kristi, Courtney, and Andrea in #13. Tomorrow we have a free day before we start digging, and I plan to sleep late, FINALLY!