Jericho Field Trip

We can go on each F.T. only one time while we are here, so we try to space them out.  On 1/17/11 our first bus trip with Winter Term students was to Jericho on a beautiful day.  It is 6 miles north of the Dead Sea.  At 850 ft. below sea level, it may be the lowest city on earth -- over 1/2 mile below Jerus. at 2700 feet above MSL.  So we dropped some 3500 feet in just about 25 miles!   Jericho is called "the city of palm trees" (Deut. 34:3, Judges 3:13).

With Jericho's tropical climate, fertile soil and abundant water supply, almost anything grows here.  Most of our winter fruits & vegetables come from here or the Negev Desert in southern Israel.  All four of the Jacksons came with us  -- Christine & John (MD's) and Nancy & Kent (Academic Director).

Jericho also claims to be the oldest city on earth.  En route we passed several bedouin camps, camels, donkeys and herds of sheep.  Things haven't changed much in the countryside -- although the modern city is much larger than anciently.

The locals have heavily marketed this old-age fame. Over 20,000 Palestinian Arabs now live in Jericho, which has been ceded by Israel to the Palestinian Authority, along with Bethlehem.

Mt. of Temptation. This is 1,000 feet above Jericho, perhaps where Jesus fasted for 40 days.  There the devil tempted him with appeals to appetite, honor & dominion (Matt. 4, Luke 4).  Halfway up the mt. is a monastery (Quruntul or "40," in Arabic, as in "40 days"), first built by the Byzantines after Constantine's mother thought this was near a cave where the Lord dwelled.  It was rebuilt by the Crusaders, then again in 1895 by the Greek Orthodox.

Tel Jericho.  Just beyond is a 10-acre archaeological mound or "tell," excavated over the last 200 years.  Old Jericho was rebuilt about 20 times, starting over 10,000 years ago -- until Joshua's Israelites destroyed the city in about 1250 BC. Below is a large pre-Canaanite stone tower (28' wide, 25' high), perhaps the oldest structure on earth--over 9 to 10,000 years old.

Nearby is "Kenyon's Trench," dug by the British in the 1950s to expose ruined walls built in the Middle Bronze Age.  They likely remained more than 450 years until destroyed by Joshua in the Late Bronze Age, per Yigal Yadin.

 

This was confirmed when recent Italian excavations disclosed a sloping stone base (glacis) covered with mud bricks, incl. many fallen.  After Israel marched around the city walls for 7 days blowing horns, they shouted together.  Illogical?  They still did what the Lord commanded.  Then "the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city...and took the city," climbing over this fallen debris (Joshua 6:20).

Elisha Springs.   Across the street from the tell is this ample and perennial water supply, the main reason for Jericho's existence.  It has always gushed from beheath the ground here--still at about 1,000 gallons per hour. 

In 2 Kings 2, Elisha asked for "a double portion of spirit" before his mentor Elijah went to heaven in a chariot of fire near Jericho, in about 850 bce.  Besides parting the Jordan River with Elijah's mantle, as Elijah had done, Elisha healed these brackish springs "from thence," with the use of salt.  They have flowed continually to this day.  Elisha often came to Jericho (2 Kings 6).

Here, Dr. Judd related how Judah's last King Zedekiah was captured near Jericho.  He had fled the Babylonians that destroyed Jerusalem & 1st Temple.  Before being blinded, his entire family was slain before his eyes (Jeremiah 52).  Only Mulek escaped to America (Helaman 8:21).  The King paid a terrible price for rejecting the prophet's advice & doing things his own way.

 

Zacchaeus' Tree.  En route to Jerusalem for the last time, Jesus "passed thru Jericho." A rich publican "climbed up into a sycamore tree" (like this one) to see Jesus, who "was to pass that way."  He "looked up" & called Zacchaeus by name, asking him to "come down." Jesus would "abide at thy house" (Luke 19)

Herod's Winter Palace.  To enjoy Jericho's warmth, Herod the Great built an amazing palace there.  It straddled the stream at Wadi Qelt -- a long valley running from Jerusalem to Jericho.  We stood at the "mound" shown on the sketch (bottom right).  The lower complex included a pool where the younger brother of Herod's wife, Aristobulus -- his last male rival as claimant of the Hasmonean throne -- was drowned at Herod's infamous "family swimming party."

A sketch of the upper complex (bottom right) where Herod suffered a hideous death in 4 B.C. -- soon after Jesus was born & nearly murdered by Herod (Matt. 2).  He was buried in the "Herodian." Perhaps the wise men also came here, if they arrived in the winter. Herod the Great built many fabulous things--but is best known for his paranoid killings.  What will be our legacy?

After descending, we saw the road that Jesus would have taken from Jericho to Jerusalem, up Wadi Qelt (meaning "Valley of Shadow," per Psalms 23).

St. George's Monastery - the Road to Jericho.  Perched on the cliffs above Wadi Qelt is this rebuilt Greek Orthodox monastery.  Was this where Elijah lived in a cave & was fed by ravens while fleeing to Sinai from King Ahab?

We followed a narrow, winding trail to overlook seating above Wadi Qelt, with Jerusalem left & a bridge to the monastery below.  There also, by tradition, an angel told Joaquim (the father-in-law of Joseph) that his barren wife Anne would bear the virgin Mary after an "Immaculate Conception."

Retracing our steps in the opposite direction towards Jericho, we saw an ancient aquaduct snaking its way along the cliffs below.

Good Samaritan Road to Jericho.  Our last stop of the day was at another point overlooking a winding dirt road from Jerusalem to Jericho.  We could see the city towers of Jerusalem near our JC on the far horizon to our left -- and Jericho in the verdant Jordan Valley on our right. 

It was on this road that the Lord answered the lawyer's question, "And who is my neighbor?" with the parable of the Good Samaritan.  The priest who passed by the robbed & wounded Jew may have been late for his temple duties.  (The Levite, forbidden from touching a corpse, may have thought the man was dead.)  We should avoid false assumptions and attend to real human needs over normal duties. The good Samaritan was a true Christ figure.

Friendly Students.  During the day we interacted with happy, gregarious students who enjoyed meeting and connecting with us & other students.

Green valleys with trees. In contrast to the sterile wilderness between Jerusalem and Jericho were the new landscaped Jewish settlements with millions of planted trees that we saw en route back to the JC.

Every field trip brought us new understanding & greater appreciation for this amazing Holy Land where we lived for 18 months.