What I Saw In The Holy Land, 4
This is the simplest map I could find for you, and it may well be too small to do any good. But my next few posts will document our journey east out of Jerusalem and up the old Jericho Road towards Galilee.
Geographically, Israel divides North-South into three distinct terrains. The entire country is unbelievably mountainous and rocky, which makes the variations all the more amazing. Judea, which includes Jerusalem, is southernmost, dry and hilly. You'll see some green fields for grazing, and gardens wherever there are springs, but mostly the countryside is a network of white rocky hills and caves, dotted with olive, acacia and pine trees.
The center of the country is Samaria, which as you know, pious Jews avoided during Christ's time so as not to have dealings with the Samaritan heretics, who were always trying to seduce Jews to worship at their temple (interestingly, Samaritans still have animal sacrifice, since their temple was not destroyed by the Romans; I didn't attend any, though). To follow in Christ's footsteps, therefore, you travel North on the West Bank of the Jordan River to get to Galilee, the Northern and lushest region.
I had no idea when I set out on this trip that anything more than Christ's birthplace, the Via Dolorosa and Calvary & his tomb were preserved. In fact, pretty much every moment of his public life has a site associated with it. In certain instances there are competing claims, and the guidebooks will admit that some sites are based more on educated guesses based on a combination of the Gospel description and archaeological finds. But for the majority of sites, the traditions surrounding them are quite ancient. And since Christians have been in those sites since the time of Christ, and their culture was handed down by oral tradition, it really makes sense to believe them. It would be weird to think that people for whom oral tradition was everything would forget where things they witnessed with their own eyes took place. And of course Catholics additionally believe that Mary was around for quite a while after Christ's death ministering to the apostles, and certainly telling them about the life of the Holy Family. So. . .off we go. Stay tuned.
