Gloria Hotel to Israel Museum, Shrine of the Book, Bethlehem, Herodian Palace, and Church of the Nativity and back to Gloria Hotel

January 12, 2019

Gloria Hotel to Israel Museum, Shrine of the Book, Bethlehem, Herodian Palace, and Church of the Nativity and back to Gloria Hotel

We left the hotel at 9:00 am to walk to our bus, which took us to the Israel Museum complex in Jerusalem.  First, we visited the model of 1^st century CE Jerusalem, which was built on a 1:50 scale (2 cm = 1 m).  The model was a great help in orienting us to that era of Jerusalem.  It also gives the viewer an impression of the enormity of the Herod’s Temple and the Temple Mount. 

We then walked to the Shrine of the Book, which is in a structure whose top resembles the lid of the clay jars in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947.  The roof is stark white to symbolically represent “light”.  Just opposite is a very large standing black slab to represent “darkness”. 

The exhibit contains artifacts from Qumran – ink wells, sandals, clay dishes, parchment, etc.  It also tells the story of the scrolls and what they revealed in terms of biblical record, rules of the Essenes, life in the Qumran community, extra biblical texts, and exegeses on biblical texts. In the center of the Shrine is the discovered Isiah scroll unrolled. 

Our next stop was the archeology section of the Israel Museum where we saw many artifacts from several of the historical sites we had seen earlier in our trip. 

The Museum does a superb job of walking the visitor through the emergence of humans in Israel and the development of the human race in the middle east and its culture, religion, and conflicts as shown through artifacts found in Israel.  We saw the frescos from the Assyrian palace depicting the conquering of the Israelites at Lachish (See January 4^th log). 

There were also the huge stone lions from the palace and the stone slab from the temple at Hazor (see January 8^th log). 

A part of a stone monument is displayed that mentions the killing of Ahazia who was of the “House of David”. 

This is the only known reference to the Davidic dynasty outside biblical texts
In addition to the exhibit of ossuaries from the Chalcolithic age (6,500 years ago),

the ossuary of Caiaphas (high priest from 18-36 CE) was displayed. 

We also saw the sarcophagus of Herod the Great found in 2007 in the burial chamber of the Herodium complex outside Bethlehem, which we visited later in the day.  

The museum also contained numerous mosaics from excavated religious and city sites.

After leaving the Israel Museum, we drove to Bethlehem and had lunch

before proceeding to the Herodium, which is south east of the city. 

Herod built this artificial mountain on the site of his battle with the Hasmonean ruler Mattahias Antigonus in 40 BCE.  After the battle, he went to Rome where the senate crowned him king of Judea.  Three years later he subdued Antigonus and became the sole ruler of the land.  In the 30s BCE, Herod began to build the Herodium as a government and administrative center in Judea.  The upper Herodium with its palace complex was built on an artificial mountain to serve as a mountain palace-fortress. 

The lower Herodium was 37.5 acres of palace, pool complex, bathhouse, ritual bath, grand hall, and structures for guests. 

Herod also built his tomb/mausoleum on the northwest slope of the mountain facing Jerusalem.  The mausoleum was built on a foundation (10m x 10 m) and rose to a height of 25 m with three stories of rooms and a conical roof.  We walked to the upper Herodium to view the remains and excavations of the circular mountain palace-fortress. 

We then descended the staircase and subsequent tunnel to the large cistern.  From there we could exit to the north side

very close to the tomb of Herod and a small replica of the mausoleum.  We walked to the tomb. 

Work is underway to reconstruct the monumental staircase that once passed close to the mausoleum. 

We then drove back to Bethlehem to visit the Church of the Nativity,

which tradition says is the site of the birth of Jesus.  Our tour guide is a member of the Church of the Nativity and provided us a private tour.  We descended to the cave that is the supposed site of the birth

and then toured the church with its Greek Orthodox, Armenian, and Catholic sections. 

Greek Orthodox

Armenian

The nave of the church has some 4^th century mosaics below the main floor,

 painted columns from the Crusader period,

and remains of elaborate mosaics on the upper sections of the walls. 

The Catholic Chapel was more austere and modern than the Armenian and Greek Orthodox sections of the church.

Catholic Chapel

We left as the Catholic Chapel was being closed and walked out to a very pretty site as the sun was setting.

Christmas decorations are still up, because January 14th is the date of the Armenian Christmas.  The Church of the Nativity celebrates three Christmases -- December 25 (Catholic), January 6 (Orthodox), and January 14 (Armenian).

Our drive back to the Gloria hotel took about an hour, because Bethlehem is under Palestinian control and we had to pass through a border checkpoint to get back into the Israel controlled land. 

Tomorrow will be a busy day seeing more of the area of Jerusalem.