10/15/18 Old City
10/15/18 – We finally enter the Old City of Jerusalem though Herod’s Gate instead of the busier Damascus Gate. When St. Stephen was stoned in chapter 7 of Acts, the traditional place was either here or at the Damascus Gate, but Doron assures us it actually took place at the other gate. I believe tradition has it at the Damascus Gate, but it happened here, but I may have it backwards. I’m not clear on how they determined either one of those things, so there you go.
10/15/18 – stepping inside to the narrow streets of Muslim Quarter of the Old City is like stepping back in time, although Doron assures us that the streets in Jesus’ day were 10-15 feet beneath these and not necessarily in the same place.
10/15/18 – This place goes by the name of Lithostratos. It’s way down in the basement of a modern building up at street level. In fact, it is the original floor of the old Antonia fortress located and attached to to northwest corner of the Herod’s Temple Mount. It is believed that here Jesus appeared before Pilate for his trial and was scourged by the Roman soldiers. The first picture is a little hard to see, but it is the remains of a game board scratched into the surface of the rock by Roman soldiers. The game was called the game of kings and the Romans would use it to decide what manner of humiliation they would impose upon condemned prisoners before their crucifixion.
10/15/18 – The Arab market in Jerusalem. Long before there were shopping malls in America, the Arabs had already perfected the system.
The dome over the main nave of the church.
10/15/18 – This is the line of people going up to the place of Golgotha under the grey dome we saw from outside the building. They come down from the other side.
10/15/18 – This is a mural above “the slab” depicting Joseph of Amirmathea and others putting Jesus into Joseph’s tomb.
10/15/18 – This is the shrine over the burial crypt of Jesus and part of the hours long line waiting for a chance to go in a few at a time for 5 seconds. A priest waits outside to control “visiting hours” – actually seconds inside. Behind the shrine in a side narthex are more tombs of a similar nature. Doron tried to get us in there, but the crowds were so big we could not even get in there. We’ll talk about this a bit more when we get to the Garden tomb in a few days.
10/15/18 – More stores. Doron brought us to another store run by some of his many friends where we know we’ll get a fair deal. Jackie was able to find an elaborate piece of gold and ruby jewelry that Doron was able to make affordable for her.
10/15/18 – We enter the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. Although still part of the “Old City” the Jewish Quarter is almost entirely new construction put up since 1967. The previous Jewish community was evicted after the 1948 War of Independence and the buildings largely demolished by the Arabs. When Israel took control of the Old City in 1967 they resettled Jews in the Jewish Quarter and invested heavily in new construction.
10/15/18 – Turning around and looking west from the Wailing Wall, the new construction of the Jewish Quarter is evident.
10/15/18 – The stones were quarried not far from the northern end of the wall. When Herod died in 4 BC, the workers walked away from the quarries leaving some stones half way quarried or laying about.
10/15/18 – We leave the Old City through the Lions Gate. What this has to do, if anything, with the film company, I don’t know. How the gate got its name is obvious, but the back story is thus: Suleyman the Magnificent, 16th Century Ottoman Sultan had a dream where he was commanded to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. The dream warned that if he did not do so, he and his family would be eaten by lions. The lions on the gate are in honor of the beasts who did not eat him.
