Jerusalem approaches field study

sites included: mount of olives, dominus flevit chapel (where jesus wept over the city), garden of gethsemane, "absalom's" tomb, herodium, threshing floor (think ruth), bethlehem, church of the nativity (where tradition holds that jesus was born), U.N. hill

After a day of traveling around the city in a bus on our very first excursion from campus, I made a list of my first impressions of Jerusalem:
1.) very hilly. It seems like we’re always walking up and down, up and down…. Even the steps to our dorm rooms are steep and 4 floors high.
2.) very small scale. When marking my maps of Israel, I failed to take into consideration the scale. Now, however, I realize that everything is much closer than it appears. Bethlehem is only 15 minutes away!
3.) dirty. I observed lots of garbage in the streets. This surprises me. I’m not sure if it’s from tourists or from the locals, but either way, I guess I just expected people to take better care of Jerusalem—the crux of so many holy sites.
4.) large tourist base. I also saw lots of vendors catering to large tourist buses (but I guess this is to be expected in every large city). Maybe I was slightly disappointed.
5.) so so so much history. And everything is built on top of the last piece of history, which makes things difficult sometimes.

My very first geographical lesson here involved learning about the two types of land—the Cenomanian and the Senonian sections. I was entirely surprised to see the vast difference between the two and the qualities of each. I guess I had never really imagined that such a significant variance of landscape could exist in the space of only a few miles. But, I suppose I should begin to expect that here, where the landscape changes so rapidly.

I am also enjoying how Dr. Wright explains that there is “deeper geographical meaning” behind many biblical passages. For instance, this morning we discussed Psalm 23, and how David (the author) was a farm boy from Bethlehem (within sight of Jerusalem). When David wrote about green pastures and still waters (v. 2 and 3), he hadn’t actually experienced either of these comforts. Instead, David lived close to the Senonian ridge—the wilderness, where nothing grows and the land is very dry. I think these readings of the biblical texts might challenge me a little. Is it significant that David has no familiarity with green pastures or still waters? Do many evangelical Christians quote this psalm ignorantly, without understanding the background? I don’t know.

I think I’m still trying to figure out what all this means spiritually—in how I read the Scriptures and apply these principles today. (And especially in the ministry field, how I teach about the Scriptures to others.) At the religious sites, I just feel like a silly tourist, taking my pictures as if I were at any old museum. But these sites are important to my faith, and cognitively, I know this. But in my heart, I feel like it’s a different story; none of the significance of the biblical sites has hit me yet. I think I need more time to reflect and process what I’m learning, even though Dr. Wright tells us that it will take only 3 weeks to pack in all this information, but a lifetime to unpack it.