Travel Biography - Week 6.

Life in the Spihu household in Silwan, East Jerusalem, in the middle of 1976 wasn't much different to any western home. Daily life continued as usual. Ghanem attended high school, and Abed went out into the streets with a tray selling pottery (a task shared by his younger brother when not at school) whilst their uncle busied himself with some local maintenance, and his wife dealt with the housework, including cooking. One major difference between a Christian and secular home was during the Islamic call to prayer, Abed's uncle arrived home, crouched in the middle of the lounge floor and recited his Muslim prayers completely oblivious of my presence. 

Turkish Bath Visit.

It was on one evening that my host, Abed, along with a couple of his friends, decided to visit a Turkish bath located in the Old City, and I was invited to accompany them. After making our way along the Kidron Valley towards St Steven's Gate facing the Mount of Olives (where tradition holds as being near the site of the first Christian martyr, recorded in Acts 7) the four of us arrived at an insignificant-looking entrance along the souk and entered.

We sat in this beautiful ornate waiting room. The interior was furnished with a traditional eastern decor depicting Turkish culture. However, although impressed with my surroundings, I wasn't feeling 100%. I recognised the symptoms. I was aware that I had caught a bug, and I'm about to go down with a fever.

But this didn't deter me from wanting to try out this new experience. Back at home, I was already a sauna addict, and by trying out a traditional Turkish bath, I was able to compare one with the other.

Eventually, after a wait of around 30-45 minutes, we were allowed through into an antechamber where we all stripped naked. Then we went into a larger room with a steam fountain at one side, filling the chamber with steam but with little significant heat, thus, I rated the Turkish bath unfavourably with the Finnish sauna. Although I was longing to feel some heat, nevertheless, I could see how those three Arab young men were so familiar with the facility, just as I'm so familiar with the sauna back home, that what I felt was a lack of heat was normal for them. This was the real significance of Travel, to become acquainted, and possibly blend with their cultural habits I was, up till then, unaware of.

The Turkish Bath in Jerusalem looked a little like this.

After returning to the family home, I began to feel unwell. The next morning, I asked the lady of the house if she had a thermometer, and with it, she took my temperature and advised me to stay in bed for the rest of the day. Too bad there was no "quick fix" medicine such as Paracetamol, especially under the trade name of Neurofon or Beecham's Three-in-One. With such medication, by the end of the day, I would have been well on the road to recovery. Instead, I had to lay in bed for three days - such precious time in Israel forever lost. At least I was fed and nursed into full recovery by the morning of the fourth day after the Turkish bath experience.

Bethlehem.

Once recovered, I made my way alone to the Arab bus station to board a bus to Bethlehem. This bus station, on Nablus Road outside the Old City but close to the Damascus Gate, was noisy and chaotic when compared to the Egged Bus Station of Jewish management, about a mile away along Jaffa Road. At the Arab Bus station, salesmen were shouting as they presented their cheap merchandise on trays, adding to the noise and bustle. Even the bus drivers shouted as each called to each other as the bus pulled out.

Some distance outside Jerusalem, the bus halted at a checkpoint and we all had to show the inspector boarding the bus our passports. This was because we were leaving Israel proper and entering the West Bank of Palestine, where Bethlehem was located approx five miles south of Jerusalem Old City.

Having arrived at the small Arab town of Bethlehem, it didn't take long to find its main attraction, the Church of the Nativity. It was a huge structure with a very small entrance doorway. This was to force everyone to slow down and bow when entering.

I strolled through the ancient Eastern Orthodox chapel, fascinated by the coloured baubles hanging at the altar and elsewhere within the basilica. However, near the altar, a stairway led to the crypt. It's within this underground natural cave that I saw the 14-pronged star marking the exact site of the birth of Christ. This was the icon that Mr Chapman, our school deputy head, was telling us about (Week 4) nine years previously. As I knelt next to it, I thought about this ex-military officer taking a break from his Mandate duties and paying homage to this very icon. If only he foreknew back then that I had taken heed of his testimony. Indeed, he would have been impressed!

The 14 prongs radiating from the star were no accident or mere coincidence. Tradition says that they represent each of the 3x14 generations separating Jesus Christ from Abraham as recorded in Matthew's Gospel. They were the 14 from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the exile to Babylon, and 14 from Babylon to the birth of Christ. The 14 prongs also symbolise the 14 Stations of the Cross of the Catholic Catechism. Close by, a ledge marks the site of the Manger where the newborn was placed after birth.

The Cross of Christ.

In 1976, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Christian Quarter of the Old City was not accessible to the lone tourist without a guide. Therefore, whenever the church was open during the day, a group of young Muslim men stood in the forecourt just outside its doors. Whenever a tourist or even a couple approached to enter the edifice, the visitor was obliged to accompany the waiting guide and of course, pay his fee. The guide then escorted the tourist around the interior of the church.

This was very unlike my second visit in 1993 when large crowds piling in had eliminated such Muslim guides, but the near-overcrowding, including a long queue to the sepulchre, made the whole experience far more "touristy" than a pilgrimage. I find it amazing, perhaps rather shocking, that the rise of tourism over just seventeen years could dramatically change the atmosphere within, transforming a site for prayer and meditation into little more than a museum.

But going back to 1976, Ghanem offered to accompany me to the church. As we approached the doors, there rose an argument between Ghanem and one of the guides standing outside. No doubt, to the latter, there was a visitor who will not hand over the much-needed payment that would have placed food on his table. No wonder the door guide was irate! But my own personal escort won the argument and the two of us then entered the church that was empty of people except for an occasional clergyman.

The 14-pronged Star of Bethlehem. Stock photo.

After a tour around, the climax came as I stood with trembling excitement at the very spot where the Cross of Christ stood, which was marked by a lifesize crucifix with the image of Jesus hanging upon it. To get to it, a short flight of steps at each end of a raised platform seem to confirm the truth in the hymn we all sang at school under Mr Chapman's directorship, that there is a green hill far away outside the city walls. There, our Lord was crucified, he died to save us all. Only that there were no green hills of English landscape model around the Jerusalem area. Rather, the whole desert landscape on which the city was built was more of a golden brown, so well attested by the neighbouring Mount of Olives.

The Sepulchre itself, just a few metres away from the site of the Crucifixion, was represented by a small white building within the main church apse. Back then in 1976, it was inaccessible to the public, but when my wife Alex and I visited in the year 2000, all we saw inside was a solid marble ledge at one side within a tiny marble room.

The Sherut to Hebron.

Abed, with the agreement of his uncle, showed me the sherut, a communal taxi that takes up from six to eight passengers, each paying his share of the fee. Unlike the conventional taxi which takes the sole passenger to his chosen destination, each sherut is destined for each particular destination, very much like a bus or train service. The one Abed was leading me to, parked in a specially assigned sherut bay in East Jerusalem, was destined for Hebron. Except that instead of paying his own share of the taxi fare, I had to pay for him as well as for myself. But it wasn't too expensive. Indeed, this trip will prove to be an enlightening experience.

Abed and I arrived at Hebron, and we found ourselves standing outside what looks to be a Roman fortress. As we approached, I saw several Orthodox Jews milling around. On their foreheads, they had a black wooden or leather cube tied around their heads. I have seen these whilst walking through the souks of the Old City. When such Jews passed by, I thought, Wow! Pharisees! Did they really look like this?

The little black box is known as Phylactery, and Jesus mentions these in the Gospels. These little boxes contain portions of the Scriptures, and devoted Jews wear them during times of prayer and as a reminder of God's requirement to keep his laws. It was from an instruction taken from Exodus 13:16, but by Jesus' day, the motive for wearing them was to show others of their devotion to God.

As we approached the building, we realised that headwear was mandatory when entering the building. Since this site does not offer free Yamaka or Kippah as the Western Wall does, we had no choice but to buy a hat. This time, Abed bought his own headwear and I bought mine.

We entered the fortress. This, so I was told, was the burial site of three Hebrew patriarchs and their wives. They were Abraham and his wife Sarah, Isaac and his wife Rebekah, and Jacob and his wife Leah. All were buried in the Cave of Machpelah. Around me were what I thought were coffins, and I mistakenly believed that I was standing in the cave. In fact, I was standing inside the building itself, and what I was looking at were not the coffins, but the cenotaphs of the patriarchs. The cave itself, as I found out years later, was under the floor of the fortress, sealed and of no access for the public or clergyman alike.

If I were to say that the survival of the whole of mankind rests with the existence of this cave, would I be exaggerating? Would I be talking any sense? According to the Prophet Jeremiah in the Old Testament of the Bible, he wrote that if we humans can reach the foundation (the core) of the earth, count all the stars in the sky or stop the night following the day, then God will break his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for all the sins committed by Israel.

The sheer impossibility for us humans to override God's universal creation speaks for itself. As long as God's covenant with the Jews stands, the whole of mankind will never be obliterated! The fortress itself stands as a testimony to this and other promises. It was completed by Herod the Great a few years before the birth of Christ, and having survived the Roman onslaught of AD 70 which razed Jerusalem and its Second Temple to the ground, the fortress of Machpelah survives intact to this day and it's used as a centre of both Jewish and Islamic worship.

Aerial view of the Fortress at Hebron.

The fortress also acts as a sentinel standing as a witness that the land on which it's built belongs to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the latter who was renamed Israel, a name meaning, Striving with God, and itself an anagram of- 

Isaac,  

Sarah, 

Rebekah, 

Abraham, 

Elohim, 

Leah.

The name also means that God (Elohim) is in the midst of his people and also has a special compassion for Leah, who felt unloved by her own husband Jacob. Thus, the six bodies buried in the cave under the floor of the fortress spell Israel.

But all this I learned since then and not back then. Rather, as Abed stood around, I took in the interior of the fortress, with a mistaken belief that I was standing within the Cave of Machpelah and the cenotaphs around me were actual coffins. In those days I was so naive, such a spiritually young fresher of this fascinating faith and the historical truth of the Bible, and probably aware that I have a long, long way to go.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NEXT WEEK: Solo backpacking continues to the Sea of Galilee.

A Wedding Reception Fiasco...

I was taken aback by the messaging board which trailed one particular online article in The Daily Mail national newspaper. Before you think to yourself, oh no, not another of this Remoaner's anti-Brexit fodder, I quickly wish to say that this time it's not political - rather it's to do with Jesus Christ changing water into wine at a wedding in Cana, often referred to as his first miracle.

Indeed, it could well turn political. After all, who among wine merchants in his right mind would wish for such a source for the best wine on the market, and make a huge profit so quickly? So much so, that the taxman will soon be sniffing around, perhaps rather like the tax collector Matthew did soon after Jesus instructed Peter and his mates to relaunch their boats as recorded in Luke 5:4-7. What a bountiful catch! Without a shadow of a doubt, the most hated Matthew would have been very interested indeed.

And hated by the Jewish community in which he serves - a servant to the Romans that is, whose empire having a dominant rule over all of Israel, both the Galilean region in the North and Judea in the South. Therefore it would have come as no surprise that Matthew the tax collector was perceived as a traitor to Israel, a wretched nuisance, like a bluebottle constantly buzzing around with its irritating presence. Sounds familiar?

Throughout his ministry, Jesus seemed to be interested in providing free food to the surrounding populace. The water-into-wine was the first case, then all four Gospel writers record the feeding of the five thousand from just five loaves and two fishes, followed by the feeding of four thousand from seven loaves and a few fish. However, the second near-identical miracle was recorded only by Matthew and Mark. Finally, John records an incident when, after his Resurrection, he instructs Peter and his fellow crew members to throw the net from the other side of the boat, resulting in another abundant catch after a whole night of empty nets.

Perhaps the political significance in all of this most likely have been, that the Conservatives would encourage business growth, pushing for greater profits by further capitalisation by performing miracles on a daily routine, and to build a cluster of shareholders. On the other hand, a Labour administration would have encouraged higher taxation in order to fund the Police, the NHS, Social Care, and other public bodies. Not at all popular this higher taxation idea might be, but if they so much want public services to be at their prime, somehow they all have to be paid for.

However, it's the water-into-wine miracle of more concern here. Only John records this sign. Here was a wedding feast, something very different to the rather stiff and formal British wedding reception which last up to only a couple of hours, and that's it. Here was a party, where everyone invited was having a whale of a time, talking, laughing, guffawing and dancing to music. The festivities lasted up to a week, and normally there would be enough wine to last the entire duration. But not at this particular instant.

It might have been the last day of the festival, or it might have been halfway through. Maybe those who did the accounting had gotten their sums wrong, and underestimated the supply. Whichever case it might have been, there sat Jesus along with his mother. Now here is an interesting scenario. How I would have loved to transport some of our church members at Ascot back two millennia and usher them into the festivity! What a shock they would get. All this "worldliness" and there is Jesus their Messiah looking on, even enjoying a chat with one or several of the guests. In horror, my church friends would most likely respond by asking Jesus:

Lord! Lord! Can't you see how worldly, irreligious and carnal this lot are? Surely you can't admit them into Heaven. Come on! Look at the way they are behaving! Back in our church we would never dream of such inebriated, shocking behaviour!

To which his reply would be entirely predictable:

The tax collectors and prostitutes will enter the Kingdom of God before you (Matthew 21:31).

And what's with the online newspaper article which appeared only a couple of days ago? It was about the location of the wedding. Yes, it was at Cana, a town in the Galilee region, not far from Nazareth. At the traditional area, the name of the site is Kafr Kanna, where a church was built to commemorate the event. But archaeologists have discovered a site some five miles north, in a cave tunnel among the ruins of a village, known as Khirbet Qana. The reason for their optimism that this may be the original location is because of several ancient artifacts in direct connection with Jesus has been found there. A dating of the ruins, along with historic manuscripts, confirmed that the settlement was a community at its peak at the time of the wedding, a flourishing town.

Therefore the actual site of the wedding is in dispute, exactly like the site of the Crucifixion and Burial of Jesus of Nazareth. There are two sites of the Crucifixion and Burial, at different parts of Jerusalem Old City. I was fortunate enough to visit both of them. The traditional site is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, situated within the Christian Quarter. Within the same building, both the site of the Cross and the tomb where he was buried are located. At least four churches have a claim to the site: The Roman Catholic, the Eastern Orthodox, the Coptic Church and the Armenian Church. Indeed it is a beautiful, historic edifice, but any sense of the real site has been lost due to its presence, its religious and commercial significance of the basilica.

Protestants don't have any part in the Holy Sepulchre, as these claims were already made long before the Reformation. Instead, they claim that a different site, just outside the Damascus Gate, and close to the Arab Bus Station, there is a hill which on its south side are two openings, or caves, resembling eyeless sockets, hence the name Golgotha. Nearby there is a ancient tomb, and if you were to go on a prayer trip or any church-organised Holy Land tour, it's here you will be taken to:- the Garden Tomb, also known as Gordon's Calvary, after a British military commander Charles Gordon who declared the site as authentic. But although the site remains under his name, there were also several Anglican scholars, mostly British, who endorsed the site as being the actual tomb of Christ some years before Gordon endorsed it. 

The Garden Tomb, also known as Gordon's Calvary.

Yet there is another reason why these scholars dismiss the Holy Sepulchre as being without authenticity. And that is because the church is located within the present city walls, whilst the Bible places the Cross and Tomb outside the city walls. However, archaeology has questioned the course of the ancient walls at the time of Christ, believing that the site of the Holy Sepulchre was outside the wall back then. There is apparently an archaeological site revealing the ancient course of the wall on the west side of the city, but doors of the building housing the dig remained closed throughout my whole stay in Jerusalem, something I have found to be very frustrating. 

By visiting both, I can make a first-hand comparison between the disputed sites. For example, I recall sitting in the bus bound for Hebron in 1993, actually facing the hill of Golgotha. As I waited for the bus to depart, I could see those two caves so clearly, just a few metres away from where I was sitting. No wonder Gordon and his ilk were impressed. Golgotha does have a resemblance of a skull. But there is one very small snag concerning the tomb itself. Because of the type of interior design when the tomb was hewn out, archaeologists have identified its age as between 7th to 8th Century BC. This flatly contradicts the "newly hewn tomb where no man had ever been laid" of Joseph of Arimathea, recorded by Matthew (27:57-61) and John 19:38-42.

Anyone who has familiarised with the history of the Reformation would realise the hostility which developed between the two parties. With no claim to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, I'm not at all surprised that the Protestants chose a different site to authenticate the empty tomb of Christ, mainly to discredit any authenticity the Catholics (along with associated churches) would have on the site of the Crucifixion and Burial. The Protestants (including the Anglican Church) would have had heaps of evidence to prove their point, except on the age of the tomb itself, enough to burst the balloon.

I have stood at the Garden tomb in 1994, and looked in. Like the apostle John, I did not see the body either, but I had already believed long before I arrived there. The snag was, I was not too convinced that this was the true site. It was a tomb alright, a genuine ancient tomb hewn out of solid rock, but it failed to convince me that this was the tomb of Christ.

But with the Holy Sepulchre, there was that authentic air about it. In all four visits to Israel (alone in 1976, 1993, 1994, and with Alex in 2000) I just stood there, transfixed at what I was looking at. Despite my multiple visits, I never cease to be amazed over the fact that I could be standing literally at the very foot of the Cross of Christ as he hung there, atoning for my sins.

Authentic site of the Crucifixion, Holy Sepulchre.

The Holy Sepulchre itself. Inside, Alex knelt and prayed.

And so going back to the wedding festival. Like with the Holy Sepulchre, the traditional site of the nuptials is at Kafr Kanna, and it where pilgrims has been visiting for centuries. But now a new site is claiming authenticity, at a ruin of Khirbet Qana, some five miles north of the traditional site. The Holy Sepulchre versus the Garden Tomb all over again, with the exception that I have never visited Kafr Kanna, mainly due to transportation restrictions, unable to hire and drive a car.

And the comment forum under the article. The greater majority of comments posted ridicules the Bible and any belief in a god. As one commentator wrote - about an invisible friend in the sky who has written ten things we ought not to do, and then sends everyone who had broken these rules to a smoke-filled fire where one will be tortured for all eternity. But never mind, he loves you, he loves you so much. Then someone further down, no doubt a typical Christian, quotes Psalm 14 - The fool who say in his heart, "There is no God..." and finishes with the words, "This applies to you."

I suppose that is what I would expect from a typical Western Christian - a punitive attitude, the sort of attitude that would damn the soul of a skeptic rather than lead him to salvation. And with more and more comments of unbelief filling the messaging board, it makes me gain a perspective of a country which calls itself Christian but tending to lean on agnostic and atheistic ideas. The irony is, all these skeptical comments which questions the authority of the Bible and the existence of God, they trail an article about a wedding in Cana, a wedding which Jesus attended, and a new site has been discovered which may be more authentic. Yet its readers instead lash out angrily against the existence of God. 

Much to do with sin and a guilty conscience, a conscience which can be allayed by belief in evolution. Rather, I'm coming to think it's not so much as religion versus science as science is used as a panacea against a troubled conscience, the awareness of sin and the thought of a possible Judgement. After all, if Adam and Eve had never existed, then Jesus of Nazareth never existed either (if he did, then only as another moral teacher, nothing more.) If Jesus never existed, then there is that possibility of no Judgement, no Heaven and no Hell. Death to the body will be the end of everything, a concept accepted and believed by many. And a concept which goes hand-in-hand with Darwin evolution, believed by the vast majority of Brits at present.

With much of the UK falling into apostasy, one thing I'm grateful for. Yes, very grateful for, and that God is very, very patient, as he waits, not willing that anyone should perish, but all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).