The Old City

On Tuesday, August 28, we had the wonderful opportunity to spend the entire day in Old City Jerusalem! Benj, our Land and Bible professor, took the entire group, and we walked all over the city, seeing the major sites, learning a lot of the history, and taking as many pictures as our time would allow. It was an absolutely incredible experience, unmatched by anything I’ve ever done before. While being a much smaller city than I anticipated, it is jam-packed with historical, cultural and religious significance for many different people. Even getting a small taste of that was enough to bring me to tears. In this blog, I'm hoping to give you an overview of the sites we saw, as well as fill you in on some of the things I learned while I was there. I'm going to try really hard to be concise, but it's going to be difficult! Everything was so new and exciting, and naturally, I want to tell you all about it! 

The View of the city from the top of Petra Youth Hostile:
The hill in the background is the Mount of Olives,
and the golden dome is the Dome of the Rock
atop the Temple Mount.

We started the day be entering the Old City through the Jaffa Gate, which is on the western side of the city, and then going on the roof of a youth hostile in order to overlook the city and get a feel for where we’d be going. From the roof we could easily see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Temple Mount, Dome of the Rock, and the Mount of Olives. We learned about the general layout of the Old City. It is surrounded by walls built in 1537 by the Turks, and is divided into 4 quarters with a designated section for the Christians, Armenians, Muslims and Jews.  There are 7 gates leading into the Old City; 1 on the western side, 3 on the northern side, 1 on the eastern side, and 2 on the southern side. By the end of the day, we had passed by all of them. At this point, I was already on the brink of tears. To be in this place is such a blessing. To look out and see for myself this magnificent place that the Lord chose to make His name great and to establish His people really touched my heart that day, and still continues to.

After our outlook over the city, we walked over to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This is the spot where tradition holds that Christ was both crucified and buried. It was built during the Byzantine period in 325 AD, during which time the Byzantines built many churches atop other historic religious sites. There are two sites in Jerusalem that claim to be the true place where Jesus died and was buried, but the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the most probable for many reasons. First of all, it has the oldest tradition of being the true site, and since Christians have been in Jerusalem ever since Christ’s life, there is no reason to believe that the tradition could have been lost. Also, there are legitimate 1^st century tombs located on that site. Inside the Church, there is a tomb that tradition holds is the very tomb in which Christ laid. There is also a large room constructed around the spot in the ground where people believe the cross Christ died on was placed. There is a long line of people waiting to go into that room to look into that hole that held His cross, and there is a huge crowd of people kneeling down to pray beside or on top of His tomb (pictured right). Although I was incredibly amazed to be on the site where Christ most likely died and was buried, I didn't go to see where the cross supposedly stood nor did I touch His tomb. I am so thankful for and humbled by Christ's sacrifice for me, and simply meditating on His love and grace at the place of Calvary was extremely powerful. That being said, my affection for and thankfulness to the Lord for what He's done for me is by no means tied to these attractions, because I know the love and power of my Savior is omnipresent, and I can be just as touched and amazed by Him while I'm sitting on my couch at home as I can in Jerusalem, especially when I'm in His Word. 

After visiting the Church, we exited the Old City through the New Gate, and ate lunch just outside the walls. We all had schwarma, and it was just as delicious as everyone told me it would be! Basically, it's pita bread stuffed with meat, vegetables, french fries (crazy right??) and a delicious sauce. It was SO good. Once we were done eating, we went to the Damascus Gate, and actually got to walk on top of the wall almost all the way around the exterior sides of the Muslim quarter. Benj pointed out a lot of interesting sites, such as the other supposed place for where Christ was crucified and buried, and the Rockefellar museum, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were first taken when discovered. My favorite part of this walk along the wall was when we stopped at one point on the Eastern side of the city in front of the Mount of Olives, and we read Zechariah 14. In this passage, it declares that when Christ returns, He will come on the Mount of Olives. Verse 4 says, “In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east...” The geography of this text is enough evidence to prove it’s legitimacy, and being able to actually see that geography right before my eyes was incredible! It was just exciting to think about the Lord reigning over all the earth when He returns (verse 9), while looking at the very place where He will return! Oh Lord, come quickly. After getting off the wall, we took a quick detour to get a closer look at the Mount of Olives, and more specifically, the Kidron Valley which is right in front of it. Fun fact: Even though the walls and boundaries of Jerusalem have changed many times over history, the eastern border has never changed because the steep Kidron Valley on that side of the city! Isn't that interesting? 

Remains at pools of Bethseda

After looking at the Kidron Valley, we made a few more stops in the Muslim quarter. We went to the pools of Bethesda (see John 5, and the miracle Jesus performed there) and were able to see the remains of the Byzantine church that was built there, as well as the remains of the Crusader’s church that was built on top of the Byzantines’ church. Everything that you see in the picture to the right is just remains of what's been built there, while the actual pools and structures are located beneath them. The original site had two main pools, and a divider between them. We were standing directly over the southern pool. We also went to the Strouthion Pool, which has a stone pavement above it that tradition claims is the site where Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified. However, this cannot be so because the stone actually dates back to Hadrian, who came roughly 100 years after Jesus lived, even though the pools date back to the time of Christ.  (Like I said... lots of history... I hope you're not too bored!) 

The last place of significance that we briefly visited was the Western Wall, commonly referred to as the Wailing Wall. This wall is the most western wall of the temple mount, and was constructed by Herod the Great. In fact, many of the wall's lower stones are the very stones that Herod used to build the wall originally, and the wall we see today has just been built on top of them. Those Herodian stones were so strong and heavy that they were too hard to destroy in order to move and build again, so they were just used as a foundation. This wall is an incredible architectural feat. 
Although I’ve heard a lot about this wall, I had never known that modern day Jews don’t go any further on the temple mount than the western wall because they don’t want to accidentally stumble upon the Holy of Holies. Their extra care to remain holy and not to “offend” God absolutely astounded me. As I watched the women praying, when they were finished they would back away from the wall, rather than turning around and walking away from it with their backs turned. They wanted to revere and honor God, rather than rudely turn their backs on Him. It really made me consider if I have the same awe and reverence for the Lord as these Jews do. I don't have any rituals to perform in order to communicate my reverence, but the same attitude should still be present in my heart, and in how I live my life moment to moment. 

All in all, this trip was an incredible and unbelievable experience for me! I was so encouraged and humbled to see the evidence and the history of God’s goodness to His people in this very city and His faithfulness to fulfill His promises by sending His Son to die for us, as well as His promise to return and establish His kingdom forever! What a wonderful God who has done such great things for His people. 

Congratulations! You made it through an exceptionally long blog with a lot of history you probably weren't too excited about. There is so much more I could have said, and would have loved to say, because everything I learned was so interesting and exciting to me! I'll be putting pictures on Facebook soon, and will hopefully include a few more of the sites and random historical facts to go along with them. Thank you for reading! I hope you're all doing well! 

Zechariah 14:9 And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one.