Today was our last full day in Israel. Tomorrow evening we head back home. I will have one more posting in a few days, to let you know that we got home safely and to give you some final reflections. I will also be sharing some reflections from the Holy Land this Sunday (March 21) at church.
We began our day a little later than normal, leaving the hotel at 8:00. This extra hour made a huge difference. Typically in the mornings we have been Skyping our kids and posting blogs. We have coordinated our schedules with my parents back home, so that we can Skype them at 6:00 AM Israel time, which is 8:00 or 9:00 PM back home the night before, depending on whether we are before or after the time change with daylight savings. It has been fun to see the kids on the computer and talk with them. The last time we Skyped, however, our home internet wasn’t working. We had to settle for a phone call using our calling card (25 cents a minute - not too bad). Even though we had a little extra time in the morning, we still were rushed.
Our first stop was the Israel Museum. At the Israel Museum there is a model of ancient Jerusalem. It was very helpful to see what the ancient city was like after having seen so many ruins.
We then continued on to the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum area. This is where the Dead Sea Scrolls are kept. The roof of the building portrays a lid of the pottery that held the scrolls. As I shared yesterday, these scrolls were found at the site of the Jewish Qumran community near the Dead Sea and date to at least 68 AD. Our seminary professor, Dr. Dan Wallace, gave an example of the importance of this find. Ancient manuscript discussions can be confusing, at least it was for me in seminary, but I’ll do my best here.
There are two ancient copies of the Old Testament that are used for the Bible translations we have today. One is written in Hebrew and is called the Masoretic text and the other is a Greek text called the Septuagint. The Masoretic text is from 800 or 900 AD. The Greek translation comes from 100 to 150 BC. These two ancient Old Testament copies are virtually identical, except for a few slight variations. When there is a variation, there is a footnote at the bottom of the page in the Bible. Psalm 22 is one of the places where these two texts differ. Psalm 22 is a Messianic Psalm where David shares the suffering that he experienced. This also anticipates and describes the suffering that Jesus endured on the cross. The opening verse says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Later on in verse 16 is says, “They have pierced my hands and my feet.” The Masoretic text does not include this phrase in verse 16. Instead, it says, “Like a lion.” Only the Greek text says this. Jewish and Christian scholars have debated the correct reading. Some Jewish scholars have said that Christians have somehow tampered with the ancient Greek text. The discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls have given insight into this debate. Manuscripts from Psalm 22 in the Dead Sea Scrolls agree with the Greek text that says, “They have pierced my hands and my feet.” We now have Hebrew texts that are very early that say the same thing as the Greek translation. The Dead Sea Scrolls vindicate the Christian reading of this Messianic Psalm.
Next we continued on to the Holocaust Museum (Yad Vashem). This was a very sad and sobering experience. It is a place to remember the terrible atrocities that the Jewish people faced under Nazi Germany. During this terrible time nearly one third of
the Jewish population in Europe was murdered. In Poland alone there were 3.1 million Jews before World War 2, and 3 million Jews were murdered during the time of the war. We began by walking through the Children’s Memorial. As we walked through this darkened room, names of children, ages, and countries of origin were heard. Our guide is a wonderful Jewish woman named Frances whose parents emigrated from England to New Zealand at the outset of the war. She asked each of us to listen as we went through and remember the name of one child. The Jewish tradition is to place rocks on memorials instead of flowers. Outside the memorial was a memorial statue where each of us said the name of one child, Mose – 16 – from Latvia, as we placed a rock on the statue.
We then continued into the main museum that chronicles this terrible time. This museum reminds us that each of these people had a story. Despite the historical background, it is hard to understand how this could have happened. The Holocaust has shaped the people and the nation of Israel. While I came to Israel to learn biblical history of this place, it is important that we came to this museum to remember modern history.
The remainder of our day was free time. We went back to the old city of Jerusalem before returning to the hotel. On Thursday we will have a Communion service, see a few more sites, and then fly out in the evening. I am looking forward to getting back home to our kids, but we have so much appreciated our experience here.
