Mt. of Transfiguration and Nazareth

Geoff's family has family friends who ran the BYU Jerusalem Center long ago. They told us of a good book every BYU student would have during their semester in the Holy Land way back when. It provides locations, explanations, and scripture references for all Bible sites throughout Israel and is from an LDS perspective. While it is outdated in the sense of designating current Palestinian areas and routes, it was amazingly helpful and added so much information we would not have known otherwise. The book is called Discovering the World of the Bible, by Lamar C. Berrett. It was a valuable resource in planning our time in Israel, and it was a great guide during our trip. 

We wanted to go directly north from Jerusalem to the Sea of Galilee. There were so many significant biblical places to see, such as Jacob's well, but our navigating devise would reroute us around this area, and even gave us an alarming notification that it was dangerous. (We would be driving through Palestinian territory.) This uncertainty about the safety in a Palestinian territory was always present. We received warnings about all Palestinian territories from some, and others would say tourist areas were safe. Would this route be safe? We didn't know, and since rental cars have Israeli plates, and insurance doesn't cover a rental in Palestinian areas, we went around.

As we drove north we entered beautiful, green valleys. The Mount of Transfiguration was the tallest "mount" (really a hill) around. The only other taller mount is Mt. Herman far north of the Sea of Galilee. This area is where Jesus spent most of his time, so this is likely the spot. 

Here is the mount from a distance.

And here is a view from the top.

There were wild lilies growing everywhere.

We explored an old fort on top.

Tennie found the perfect reading spot.

Geoff and Ceci built their own three tabernacles.

The church was closed, so there were no buses or cars. Just us. It was delightfully peaceful.

We made it to Nazareth just in time to get the last tour of the day at Nazareth Village. I'm so glad we made time for this! We learned so much about life in Nazareth at the time of Jesus. It is a little slice of history in the middle of, what is now, a biggish city.

Nazareth Village is approximately .3 miles from where the ancient city of Nazareth stood and belonged to a nearby hospital. As digging began for hospital expansion, terraces and walls were discovered. After years of excavations a full olive grove/shared garden from the 1st century was uncovered. Given the small size of Nazareth at the time, this would have been the town plot, and Jesus would have been very familiar with it. It is now a functioning farm with period-dressed volunteers keeping it going, as well as a small village with structures that would have existed at the time of Christ. It was very authentic and enlightening.

I'm relying on my memory here, so hopefully I get these facts right. Nazareth means a shoot (as in the growth of a new branch), like in the olive tree below. "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots." (2 Nephi 21:1; Isaiah 11:1)

Our guide explained that the terrain in Israel is very rocky, so big rocks were collected for homes and small rocks for walls and terraces. It might take a few generations to clear and prepare a quarter acre. Because the landscape is hilly, a town would work together to create terraces, and a family, or group of families, would share one level. They created a path between the terraces for easy access. Everyone used the paths to get to their own area of the shared grove/garden, and the paths were solid from years of foot and cart traffic. Christ used everyday life examples in his teaching, things that anyone would be familiar with. In the parable of the sower, the sower may throw seed into his plowed plot, and some may accidentally fall on one of the beaten paths (or the wayside). In this case, these seeds were quickly picked up by a fowl, without any opportunity to take root.      

Some seed fell on stony ground. This is not a ground full of stones, as the farmer would have removed those, but instead, it means bedrock that exists in the landscape. On the bedrock there may be a little soil, and in the winter, when the sower sows, the seed might sprout into a little seedling, but when the spring comes and the sun gets hot the little plant is quickly scorched because it has no root. And some seed may land in thorns, and is quickly choked as the thorns grow up around it. (See stony ground and thorns below.)

But the seed that lands in good soil springs up and brings forth fruit, sometimes a hundred fold. This parable had so much more meaning after seeing this!

Our guide showed us how a real olive press works. First a donkey pulls a large stone over the olives and crushes them.

The crushed olives are gathered in a round, flat basket and placed over a hole where the olive oil will drain. (You can see the round basket and hole below.)

Somehow the pressure of the following heavy weights was increased THREE times, until every last bit of oil was pressed out of the olives.

Christ's suffering in Gethsemane was likened to an olive press as he bled from every pore. The three, intense presses help us understand why he prayed three times to the Father until he was done. Very cool.

We moved along, taking a quick picture with some of the actors.

We stopped in a carpenter's shop and learned that the translation for carpenter into Greek meant something to do with wood, so "carpenter" stuck, but the real Hebrew word is "builder". Joseph and Jesus, his son, were builders. There isn't a lot of wood to work with in the Holy Land, so most homes are made from stone. Builders shaped the stone and necessary wood (for roofing, ladders or shelving) to create homes, then the builders would go and build the structures. A fitting occupation!

A typical kitchen...

We walked through the home of a weaver who would spin wool and weave clothing.

Last stop, the synagogue, in the likeness of the one where Jesus announced to the people of his hometown that he was the Messiah and they rejected them.

We originally planned to be based in Nazareth as we explored the Galilee region, but I am grateful we changed our plans (that morning) to stay on the lake. Nazareth Village is all we saw in Nazareth, and that was ok by us.