Galilee: Wednseday 4/1

Our first stop was at Chorazim, which was one of the places where Jesus spent a lot of time teaching. Even though Jesus spent a lot of time here there is not one event recorded from here. In the synagogue there is a chair called the Seat of Moses which was where the teacher would have taught from. Since Jesus taught here Jesus could have taught from the seat here. In Matthew 11 Jesus condemns Chorazim along with Bethsaida and Capernaum. Today, that condemnation can be seen because there is no city there that stands today.

We then went to Hazor, which is the largest tel in Israel—two hundred acres. From here we could see the steep drop down into the Sea of Galilee from the Hazor Valley. We could also see Mount Hermon which can have snow from October to May. Hazor was conquered by Joshua, which can be found in Joshua 11:1-16.The attack was a sudden and he burnt the city, but Deborah and Barak are accredited with the final destruction of the Canaanite city. Archeologists have found temples, standing stone pillars, and houses. They also say that there could have been one hundred people per acre, which means that there could have be around twenty thousand people in the city.

We then went to tel Dan which had things mainly built by Jereboam I, Ahab and Jereboam II. There is a remnant of a high place here, which was sacked by the Arameans. I Kings 12 talks about Jereboam I setting up a high place to worship YHWH. Even though it wasn’t to worship Baal it was still a perverted form of worship. The Assyrians finally destroyed the city as they conquered the northern tribes. In the front of the city the gate area is well preserved that was built by Jereboam II. In the book of Amos, we have Amos prophesying against the northern kingdom and he could have likely been in the gate area preaching. The most important find here was a stele (called the Tel Dan Stele), which is one out of two that exist, that mentions the “house of David”. It was written by an Aramean king boasting about the death of the king of Israel and Judah. Even though the names of the kings’ names are not clear we know that it was Jehoram and Ahaziah, who were killed by Jehu, because he killed them both in one day.

From tel Dan we went to Caesarea Philippi which was built by Herod the Great, and it has remnants of temples to Caesar, the god Pan, and Zeus. It was in this area that Peter makes his confession to Christ that He is the Messiah, which is found in Matthew 16. Herod thought that Jesus was John the Baptist and others thought he was Jeremiah because Jesus and Jeremiah predicted the destruction of the temple and a lot of people did not like them.

From there we went to Mount Hermon which is a series of peaks, and on one of these peaks Jesus was transfigured, which is found in Matthew 17. Elijah and Moses appeared to them, which was a testimony to the disciples to who Jesus was.

Our last stop on the Golan Heights was looking over into Syria in the direction of Damascus which is the capital. This city was where Paul was going to, to persecute Christians, but on the way Jesus appeared to him and Paul’s life was forever changed.