Sunday Nov 25

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Lance Evanson

NT Journal 2

25 November, 2007

Journal 2

A short nap between a late night and early morning is always a good way to start out a long day! We were to be gone by 6:30 a.m. and thus had to be to breakfast at 5:30, it must have been the excitement of the day and approaching time in the Galilee that kept us all awake. From Jerusalem to Hazor, Dan, Caesarea Philippi, Nimrod’s Castle, and then on to Ein Gev we went.

From the beginning of the semester Galilee seemed so far away, now it is here and soon it will be past. I feel the energy of the students as each of us prepares to enjoy the many anticipated events of the week. Today is Sunday and we have until next Monday to take pleasure in this marvelous place. We had a small taste of what it was going to be like a few weeks ago when we visited and stayed for a night, but now we can appreciate more fully life in the Galilee. To discuss each of the sites that we visited, as exciting as it is to reminisce, would be far to drawn out and cumbersome for a short journal entry; but it seems regretful to not recall at least one of them, Caesarea Philippi.

At the foot of Mount Hermon north of the Sea of Galilee an ancient city lay. From the times of Joshua the city has had mention, first as a Canaanite cultic site for the worship of Baal, then as a Seleucid Greek Hellenized area with dedicated carved niches in the cliff-face to their god Pan, and subsequently followed by mention of Herod the Great who built the Emperor Augustus Caesar a marble temple. After Herod’s son Philip gained control of the area he changed the name to Caesarea Philippi in an effort to honor himself and the Emperor.

The city itself is little more than stones on stones showing vague outlines of what once was a great and marvelous city. The history although known seems to have been overlooked by so many, the memories of the culture and lifestyle have faded from this place, but all in all there yet reverberates a vivid picture in the minds of many of a time when Simon Peter proclaimed Jesus to be the Christ. What a stark contrast that at a place of so much idolatry and corrupt religion should be set such a statement of true divinity.

And Jesus said unto them, “whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 16:15-17). So also unto us, by the power of the Holy Ghost, can God make known unto us the divinity of Jesus the babe of Bethlehem that we might know that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God.

I believe in Christ and know him to be God’s only begotten Son, Savior of the world and of all mankind.