Internet time costs something where we are staying tonight, so I’ll save pictures and video for tomorrow when we (should) have free wireless access again.
Our list of sites is long, so we’ll do a simple list:
Megiddo: We walked throughout this historic biblical site and were fortunate to see this year’s excavations. The excavation team was working in 5 or 6 different areas and we chatted with a few of them to learn what they were finding. Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University is leading the excavations. His best-selling books have made him a leading voice of the “Minimalist” movement, though he does believe (more than some scholars) that the Bible contains many elements of historical memory. He is very well-known in the archaeological community and has been frequently featured on TV documentaries. We ran into him on the tell and I enjoyed chatting with him for a couple of minutes. I’ll back up this claim with a photo when Internet time permits.
Caesarea: Important city in the New Testament. Think Herod the Great (builder), Cornelius (1st Gentile Christian), Peter (taught Cornelius), Paul (sailing in/out of the harbor), Paul again (sitting for years in prison), and Herod Agrippa (died here in Acts 12). We had a nice lunch by the Mediterranean sea.
Mout Carmel: Hazy day, but the view was still great. The account of Elijah and the prophets of baal was brought to life, among other biblical stories involving the valley of Jezreel.
Spring of Harod: Gideon’s 300 men were selected here by the way they drank water. The entire battlefield is in view from above the spring.
Jezreel: Royal center during the time of the Israelite kings Omri, Ahab, and Jehoram. Naboth’s vineyard was more or less adjacent to the city. Jehu killed two kings and the queen Jezebel here. Elisha the prophet spent a lot of time. This month’s BAR issue has a featured article on Jezreel that revealed a lot of significant detail on locations of towers and the city gate, which in turn illuminate the biblical account of Jehu’s revolution.
We took lots of good pictures and made a couple of short videos that will hopefully be on soon. We are staying by the Sea of Galilee tonight and have a big day planned for tomorrow. Please keep checking back as the posts should be updated frequently.
Bible, Archaeology, and Travel with Luke Chandler 