Before coming to the Holy Land I always associated The City of David with Bethlehem. I learned in the first few days that there are actually two Cities of David. Bethlehem is called the City of David because that is where David is from. The other City of David is actually the predecessor to Jerusalem. King David wanted a capitol that was not associated with one of the tribes and centrally located so he conquered a Jebusite city that was located where Melchizedek's city Salem was. The City of David grew until it became Jerusalem (obviously it was destroyed and rebuilt many times until the current day). Okay well I'm sure that was a little more history than you were expecting. I decided to explain that because our field trip this last week was to the City of David.
The site that City of David is most known for is the Hezekiah Tunnel. In preparation for the invasion of the Assyrians, King Hezekiah built a water tunnel from the Gihon spring (a natural continuous spring) to the pool of Siloam. The tunnel is 1750 feet through stone. It is usually tall enough to stand up in, but there are a few spots where you have to duck a little. Water still flows through the tunnel. Usually the water is at most up to the calf, but at one point it goes all the way up to the thigh. It was way nice to have a head lamp - thanks Dad!
The Siloam Pool is where the water from Hezekiah's Tunnel collected. The actual location of Siloam's Pool was discovered just a few years ago (in 2004 I think) so Dad and Mom didn't get to see it when they were here because it was under a pile of dirt. This is the place where Christ sent the blind man to wash the mud off his eyes and thereby receive his sight (John 9). There are many places that we go where we are close to where certain events occurred, but this is one of the few times where we know that we were exactly where the blind man from birth received his sight. Pretty amazing. Near the Siloam Pool they have also uncovered a road from the first century so Christ and his apostles most likely did walk along that road.
School work is pretty crazy right now. This last week we had a midterm in Hebrew and Israel. This week we have a midterm in Palestine, Ancient Near East, and Old Testament. Hopefully I do well.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Unicorns, Dragons, and Classes! Oh My!
I am still getting use to having church on Saturday and then a free day on Sunday. Even though today was Sunday it felt like it was Saturday. To even further complicate my mind we went to a Lutheran Church this morning in addition to going to our services yesterday. One of the BYU students here is a Lutheran so I went with her and a group of students to attend a service in their Old City church. Their church is really close to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (where many believe that Christ was crucified and buried). The Lutheran church was really old so it was cool to have church there. I liked the service because there was a lot of singing and the songs were a little more upbeat then ours but still reverent.
After the church service, we went to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo. I was hoping that since unicorns and dragons and mentioned in the Bible that this zoo would have them. We did find some lizards that could be classified as small dragons. Despite the clarification in the Bible footnotes, I decided for myself that when it says unicorn in the bible is referring to a rhinoceros because they have one large horn. So if that is the definition I use then I also saw a unicorn (rhinoceros). It was actually a way good zoo. I have such a high standard because of the awesome Omaha zoo, but this zoo did really well. One thing I liked was the lack of barriers for some of the displays. The kangaroos were separated from us by only a rope, and the lemurs ran across the path and climbed in the trees right around us. We also went into an aviary and were able to feed the birds nectar. We spent most of the day there today.
So I figure that I should tell you guys a little bit about my classes that I am taking. My favorite class so far is Old Testament. Usually Old Testament is separated into two semesters, but we are doing the entire Old Testament in just two months so we can spend the last month and a half studying the New Testament. That makes for a lot of reading and a really fast pace. I am enjoying learning more about the Bible, and the best part is that on our field trips we visit places where these stories happened. Now when I read or talk about many Bible stories I have a visual memory in my mind of the time that we visited that place. My professor is Dr Eric Huntsman, and he does a great job of teaching what the text really says.
One class that connects well with Old Testament is Ancient Near East. A BYU professor named Dr Jared Ludlow teaches this class. It is basically a history class for this area of the world which covers from when records begin to now. That is a lot of material so sometimes we cover an entire millennium in a class period. To put that in perspective think about how old the United States is. The United States has been a country for less than 250 years. In our study of this area we throw 250 years around like it's no big deal.
My other three classes are taught by people that live here in Jerusalem. My Hebrew class is taught by Judy Goldman. She grew up in California in a Jewish family, married an Israeli, and then moved to Jerusalem. In Hebrew we are learning the basics of the basics since it is only a 1 credit pass/fail course. It is cool that we can already recognize letters and start to sound out words that we see on signs. We also are learning a lot of phrase for common conversations.
Our Judaism/Israel class is taught by Ophir Yarden, and the Islam/Palestine class is taught by Bashir Bashir (isn't that kind of cool that his first and last name are the same). Both are professors in the area. It is really enlightening to learn about these two different religions and nationalities from locals that are experts in their fields of study.
What I love about these classes is how cohesive they are. The topics are very interconnected. Sometimes I feel that we learn the same thing two or three times just because it applies to multiply subjects so directly. It really helps to cement the basics. It is a difficult class load. The 15 credits are legitimate credits. This isn't a vacation. What is difficult for me is the change of pace. This semester is entirely different that last semester. Technical classes like math, science and engineering are not very similar at all to religion, history and political classes. One major change is the amount of reading. I hardly read a book last semester. I solved a lot of problems, but books were more used as references if I needed additional help. This semester I am reading hundreds of pages a week. I am definitely improving my reading speed so far. It is good for me. It makes me stretch.
If you guys have any questions or want to know anything specific about my experience here, just leave a comment and I'll answer it in my next blog so everything can see my response.
Take Care
After the church service, we went to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo. I was hoping that since unicorns and dragons and mentioned in the Bible that this zoo would have them. We did find some lizards that could be classified as small dragons. Despite the clarification in the Bible footnotes, I decided for myself that when it says unicorn in the bible is referring to a rhinoceros because they have one large horn. So if that is the definition I use then I also saw a unicorn (rhinoceros). It was actually a way good zoo. I have such a high standard because of the awesome Omaha zoo, but this zoo did really well. One thing I liked was the lack of barriers for some of the displays. The kangaroos were separated from us by only a rope, and the lemurs ran across the path and climbed in the trees right around us. We also went into an aviary and were able to feed the birds nectar. We spent most of the day there today.
So I figure that I should tell you guys a little bit about my classes that I am taking. My favorite class so far is Old Testament. Usually Old Testament is separated into two semesters, but we are doing the entire Old Testament in just two months so we can spend the last month and a half studying the New Testament. That makes for a lot of reading and a really fast pace. I am enjoying learning more about the Bible, and the best part is that on our field trips we visit places where these stories happened. Now when I read or talk about many Bible stories I have a visual memory in my mind of the time that we visited that place. My professor is Dr Eric Huntsman, and he does a great job of teaching what the text really says.
One class that connects well with Old Testament is Ancient Near East. A BYU professor named Dr Jared Ludlow teaches this class. It is basically a history class for this area of the world which covers from when records begin to now. That is a lot of material so sometimes we cover an entire millennium in a class period. To put that in perspective think about how old the United States is. The United States has been a country for less than 250 years. In our study of this area we throw 250 years around like it's no big deal.
My other three classes are taught by people that live here in Jerusalem. My Hebrew class is taught by Judy Goldman. She grew up in California in a Jewish family, married an Israeli, and then moved to Jerusalem. In Hebrew we are learning the basics of the basics since it is only a 1 credit pass/fail course. It is cool that we can already recognize letters and start to sound out words that we see on signs. We also are learning a lot of phrase for common conversations.
Our Judaism/Israel class is taught by Ophir Yarden, and the Islam/Palestine class is taught by Bashir Bashir (isn't that kind of cool that his first and last name are the same). Both are professors in the area. It is really enlightening to learn about these two different religions and nationalities from locals that are experts in their fields of study.
What I love about these classes is how cohesive they are. The topics are very interconnected. Sometimes I feel that we learn the same thing two or three times just because it applies to multiply subjects so directly. It really helps to cement the basics. It is a difficult class load. The 15 credits are legitimate credits. This isn't a vacation. What is difficult for me is the change of pace. This semester is entirely different that last semester. Technical classes like math, science and engineering are not very similar at all to religion, history and political classes. One major change is the amount of reading. I hardly read a book last semester. I solved a lot of problems, but books were more used as references if I needed additional help. This semester I am reading hundreds of pages a week. I am definitely improving my reading speed so far. It is good for me. It makes me stretch.
If you guys have any questions or want to know anything specific about my experience here, just leave a comment and I'll answer it in my next blog so everything can see my response.
Take Care
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