Peter Walker started yesterday off in the City of David which is one section, just outside the gates of the Old City. Hezekiah's tunnel is there and some of our pilgrims will choose to take the trek through the tunnel in knee deep cool water. It's especially fun on a hot day!
No pictures from the men in the last couple of days. They are too busy exploring Jerusalem. They had lunch on their own yesterday, did some shopping :) and enjoyed their night at the Golden Walls Hotel.
Today, they are heading to Bethphage.
The following might be WAY MORE than you wanted to know about Bethphage!
The Significance of Bethphage on the Mount of Olives
Once it is realized that the Messiah was in fact crucified on the Mount of Olives, all these historical and symbolic matters found in the early Judahite records and the New Testament begin to make sense to those who understand the basic facts of the Holy Scriptures.
|
by Ernest L. Martin
The village of Bethphage on the Mount of Olives was a most important religious center for the Judahite authorities in the period of the Messiah and the apostles. It was a walled village which was the only area outside the walls and camp of Jerusalem that was considered by the Sanhedrin (the Supreme Court of the nation) to be an official part of the city of Jerusalem. In this village was one of the two seats of the great Sanhedrin of seventy-one members. The prime seat of the Sanhedrin was in the Temple at the Chamber of Hewn Stones located just to the south and east of the Altar of Burnt Offering. The other was at this walled village of Bethphage located just east of the western summit of the Mount of Olives (a little to the east of the Miphkad Altar where the Red Heifer was burnt to ashes and the Day of Atonement sacrifices were burnt). There were specific decisions of the Sanhedrin that were reserved for determination only at this official seat of the court in Bethphage. Those were decisions affecting what were the limits of the camp of Israel around the city of Jerusalem (and this included where the Red Heifer could be burnt). This also embraced what districts surrounding Jerusalem were to be reckoned as inside the city: This also included what were to be the dimensions of the Temple (whether enlarged or restricted). And this is also where death sentences for rebellious leaders of the nation as shown in Deuteronomy 17:8-13 were validated (Sanhedrin 14a, b; Sotah 44b; 45a).
The reason that these types of decisions were to be made at this special village on the east side of Jerusalem proper is because it was necessary that these decisions be made "at the entrance" to Jerusalem (or if local decisions were made by lesser Sanhedrins associated with the various towns throughout Judaea, they were held in the gates or entrances to the towns). There were biblical reasons for this. Note Proverbs 31:23 which says "Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders." Also: "Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates" (Zechariah 8:16). In the case of Jerusalem, which was the capital city of the nation, the principal gate to the city was on the eastern side just beyond the camp (that is, "outside the camp"). Thus, the Sanhedrin had the village of Bethphage built just to the east of the city limits of Jerusalem proper. This village of priests was located just to the east of the summit of the Mount of Olives.
Now note this important point. The word "Bethphage" means the "House of Unripe Figs." There were two symbolic reasons for naming this village of priests by this name. As I explained in my book Secrets of Golgotha, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil from which Adam and Eve ate that brought sin into the world was the fig (not the apple). Adam and Eve took leaves from that very tree from which they ate to hide their nakedness from YEHOVAH God. But, with the Sanhedrin, they were supposed to act as YEHOVAH's judges and thereby were to be rendered free of sin in their judgments. This is why they named the village the "House of Unripe Figs" because at this place there were supposed to be "no ripe figs" available to tempt the judges to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
But there was a second reason for naming the village Bethphage. Figs are always unripe at the start of the growing season. This place of Bethphage was the site where the Sanhedrin determined legal measurements for the nation. It was where they set the limits on sacred and secular things (the size of the city, the Temple, the day to start the sacred calendar, when to observe the festival days, starting the census, etc.) This part of the court was located east of Jerusalem and away from the city lights so that the heavens could be observed in starting the new season for the months and years, etc. It was also from Bethphage where fire signals were sent to the Jewish communities outside Jerusalem so that they could determine when to start the festival seasons with those at Jerusalem. In a word, it was from Bethphage where the measurements for the nation were enacted and legalized. It was also the place where the most rebellious of the elders in Israel were sentenced to die. Indeed, after the Messiah was tried by the Sanhedrin at the Chamber of Hewn Stones in the Temple itself, and afterward was taken to Pilate to obtain Roman permission for his death, he was then taken to the Mount of Olives to await the final sentence of the Sanhedrin when they gave their decision for his death at Bethphage on the Mount of Olives. The New Testament says that all the chief priests, scribes and elders of the Judahites witnessed the crucifixion of the Messiah (Matthew 27:41), and in the Talmud it states that all the elders of the Sanhedrin including the High Priest had to make the decision for such things at Bethphage (Sanhedrin 14b).
There is even further New Testament significance to these matters. It was no accident that the Messiah told his disciples to go into Bethphage and obtain a donkey for him to ride into Jerusalem to fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah about the Judahites adoring their king riding on a donkey. By getting this donkey at Bethphage was like saying that the Messiah went to the central Supreme Court area of the land in order to get his royal position for legal sovereignty approved (note that the owners of the donkey at Bethphage did in fact allow the donkey to be taken and Bethphage was the village of the priests and the measuring center for all things that the Sanhedrin had to determine).
But there is even more. Note that when the Messiah departed on the donkey from Bethphage that the people praised him as the King of Israel (Matthew 21:1-17). The Messiah then returned to Bethany on the east side of the Mount of Olives and the next morning started once again into Jerusalem. He then saw a fig tree (note carefully that this was a fig tree) that had no eatable fruit on it. Indeed, the texts say that it was not yet the time for ripe figs because it was so early in the season. But the Messiah, finding no ripe figs on it, cursed it then and there! This event occurred on the Mount of Olives and right next to the village of Bethphage (the House of Unripe Figs). And soon, that fig tree withered away and died, and this all happened suddenly, within a matter of hours.
Judahites living at the time in Jerusalem (without the slightest doubt in their minds) would have known the significance that the Messiah was placing on that miraculous event. That fig tree was a Tree of Unripe Figs next to the village of Bethphage (the House of Unripe Figs) which was the site where the Sanhedrin determined the limits of things that were holy and things not holy. In effect the Messiah, through the miraculous withering of that fig tree of unripe figs, was showing the demise and final authority of the Sanhedrin to make decisions at Bethphage (the House of Unripe Figs). This symbolic act was taking away the authority of the Sanhedrin and the Messiah said it would be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. Recall, the Messiah then went on to the Temple and stated dogmatically: "Therefore say I unto you. The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" (Matthew 21:43).
Yet there is even more symbolism to this withering of the fig tree and its unripe figs. Since it was recognized that the fig tree was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (again, not the apple), the Messiah cursed the tree that introduced sin into the world with our first parents. The symbol the Messiah was creating showed that the type of tree that introduced sin into the world will not be available for humans as a temptation to sin in the future. This, of course, became the case when he was crucified two days later for the sins of the world not but a few yards from that symbolically accursed tree.
Once it is realized that the Messiah was in fact crucified on the Mount of Olives, all these historical and symbolic matters found in the early Judahite records and the New Testament begin to make sense to those who understand the basic facts of the Holy Scriptures.
Next on the day's itinerary is PATER NOSTER.
Church of Pater Noster
Jerusalem
Church of Pater Noster (Seetheholyland.net)
At the Church of Pater Noster on the Mount of Olives, Christians recall Christ’s teaching of the Lord’s Prayer to his disciples.
On walls around the church and its vaulted cloister, translations of the Lord’s Prayer in 140 languages are inscribed on colourful ceramic plaques.
A giftshop sells postcards of each plaque and the associated Convent of Pater Noster website offers translations in more than 1440 languages and dialects.
A long tradition holds that Jesus taught the Lord’s Prayer or Our Father in the cave that forms the grotto under the church. When the Crusaders built a church here in the 12th century, they called it Pater Noster (Latin for Our Father).
Pilgrims of the time reported seeing the words of the prayer inscribed in Hebrew and Greek on marble plaques. Excavations have uncovered a Latin version.
Cave is associated with several teachings
Cloister with plaques of the Lord’s Prayer at Church of Pater Noster (Seetheholyland.net)
The Gospels suggest that Jesus taught the Lord’s Prayer at least twice. Matthew 6:5-15 has this teaching as part of the Sermon on the Mount in Galilee; Luke 11:1-4 has it while Jesus is on his way from Galilee to Jerusalem.
The cave under the Pater Noster Church certainly existed in Jesus’ time. Near the summit of the mount, it would have been a secluded and sheltered place for a small group to gather.
The earliest reference to Jesus teaching in the cave is in the apocryphal Acts of John, dating from the 2nd century, but it does not specifically mention the Lord’s Prayer.
Later the Christian bishop and historian Eusebius (260-339) wrote that “in that cave the Saviour of the Universe initiated the members of his guild in ineffable mysteries”.
When the Emperor Constantine built a three-level church on the site in 330, it commemorated the Ascension of Christ. This historic church was known simply as the Eleona (from the Greek word meaning “of olives”).
The cave is also believed to be associated with Jesus’ teaching about the destruction of Jerusalem and his Second Coming (Matthew 24,25).
A princess built the church
The present church and its cloister were completed in 1874 by an Italian woman who was the widow of a French prince.
Tomb of the Princess de la Tour d’Auvergne in Church of Pater Noster (James Emery)
Aurélie de Bossi, the Princess de la Tour d’Auvergne, had a particular devotion to the Lord’s Prayer. She erected translations of the prayer in 39 different languages.
Later she added a convent for Carmelite Sisters. While the buildings were being constructed, she lived nearby in a wooden cabin brought from France.
The princess was also keenly interested in the cave — which she never discovered, although she suggested where it might be.
Excavations by archaeologists in 1911 found the cave exactly where she had predicted it to be. It was partly collapsed when it was discovered.
The princess died in Florence in 1889, but her last wish was for her remains to rest in the Pater Noster Church, in a tomb which she had prepared. Her wish was fulfilled in 1957. On top of her sarcophagus is a life-size effigy.
New church was abandoned
Pater Noster Church is a part-reconstruction of Constantine’s Eleona church. Built to the same dimensions, it gives a good idea of what that original Byzantine basilica looked like. The garden outside the three doors outlines the atrium area.
In 1920 construction began on a new Church of the Sacred Heart over the grotto. Work was abandoned in 1927 when funds ran out, leaving the base and walls open to the sky.
Steps below the altar platform lead down to the crypt of the 4th-century basilica, partially built in the cave. But only a little of the stonework remains of that original church.
A 1st-century tomb, which Constantine’s engineers had blocked up with masonry, can now be seen. -seetheholyland.net
The men finished up this part of the tour at Gethsemane - the Church of All Nations.
Church of All Nations
Jerusalem
Facade of Church of All Nations (Seetheholyland.net)
The Church of All Nations, standing near the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, is built over the rock on which Jesus is believed to have prayed in agony the night before he was crucified.
The church and the adjacent Garden of Gethsemane, with its eight ancient olive trees, provide an evocative place for meditation, especially when visited at night.
The church is also known as the Basilica of the Agony. Completed in 1924, it is the third church on the site.
Its design blends the façade of a typically Roman basilica with a roof of 12 small domes that suggest an Eastern character. The richly-coloured triangular mosaic at the top of the façade makes it a Jerusalem landmark.
Jesus prayed in anguish
Rock of Agony in the Church of All Nations (Seetheholyland.net)
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke tell that Jesus and his disciples went to the Mount of Olives after the Last Supper.
He left eight of the disciples together in one place and withdrew further with Peter, James and John. He asked them — the three who had witnessed his Transfiguration — to stay awake with him while he prayed.
Jesus “threw himself on the ground” (Matthew 26:39) and in his anguish “his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground” (Luke 22:44). But the three disciples, all of them fishermen who were used to working through the night, could not stay awake “because of grief” (Luke 22:45).
Then a group from the chief priests and elders arrived to arrest Jesus. They were led by Judas, who betrayed his Master with a kiss.
Sombre atmosphere in church
Main altar in Church of All Nations (Seetheholyland.net)
An atmosphere of sorrowful reverence pervades the Church of All Nations. The architect, Antonio Barluzzi, evoked the night-time of the Agony by leaving the interior in semi-darkness, relieved only by subdued natural light filtered through violet-blue alabaster windows.
The sombre blue of a star-studded night sky is recreated in the ceiling domes, the stars being surrounded by olive branches reminiscent of the Gethsemane garden.
In front of the high altar is a flat outcrop of rock, which a long Christian tradition identifies as the Rock of Agony where Jesus prayed.
There is a large mosaic in each of the three apses. From left to right, they represent The Kiss of Judas, Christ in Agony being Consoled by an Angel, and The Arrest of Jesus.
Many nations contributed
The basilica is called the Church of All Nations because many countries contributed to the cost of construction.
National symbols of 12 donors — Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, England, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain and the United States of America — are inside the ceiling domes.
The mosaics in the apses were donated by Hungary, Ireland and Poland. The wrought-iron wreath around the Rock of Agony was given by Australia.
The wreath is in the form of a crown of thorns with olive branches. A pair of thorn birds in front of a Communion chalice symbolise souls who wish to share the cup of Christ’s Passion. Two silver doves are depicted as sacrificial victims caught in agony in the thorns.
Original mosaic floor discovered
During construction, parts of the mosaic floor of the original Byzantine church were discovered. These were preserved under glass and may be seen in the floor of the south aisle.
The architect then decided to copy this 4th-century mosaic design in the floor of the modern church, to suggest a spiritual continuity throughout the ages of faith.
Triangular mosaic on facade of Church of All Nations (Seetheholyland.net)
On the façade of the Church of All Nations, the triangular area over the great portal displays a much-photographed mosaic.
Christ is depicted as the mediator between God and mankind, on whose behalf he gives his very heart which an angel is shown receiving into his hands.
On Christ’s left, a throng of lowly people, in tears, look to him with confidence. On his right, a group of the powerful and wise acknowledge the shortcomings of their might and learning.
On the summit of the façade stand two stags on either side of a cross. Below the mosaic, statues of the four Evangelists are separated by three arches.
My favorite part of this church are the fig trees in the courtyard that are hundreds (thousands??) of years old!
We know from the gospels that Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane on the night of his arrest. This garden was an olive grove and it still exists today. Gethsemane means "oil press" in Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus.
In 2012 a group of Italian scientists studied and tested the eight oldest trees in the garden and found that they were about 900 years old. This would mean that today's trees are not the same trees that Jesus saw.
Furthermore, we know that in 70AD the Roman general Titus conquered Jerusalem and destroyed all the ancient groves in the area. Interestingly, the scientists mentioned that olive trees can grow back from roots after being cut down.
Is it possible that these old olive tress may have grown from the root systems of olive trees standing two thousand years ago?
Some of the oldest olive trees in the garden of Gethsemane, Jerusalem
Our group got to spend some free time this afternoon and the powerful footwashing ceremony is tonight.
No comments:
Post a Comment