My City

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.