Moore Perspective

Wednesday, 22 February 2023

A Biblical Journey Through the Bible Lands: Palestinian West Bank

The Dead Sea

Bordering Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian West Bank, the Dead Sea is the lowest land-based elevation on earth. Its main tributary is the Jordan River flowing from the north. Because of its heavy concentration of salt, neither plant nor animal life can survive. Nor can a person floating in its waters sink.

Located approximately 16 miles (26 km) east of Jerusalem, biblically it is called the Salt Sea,¹ the Sea of the Arabah (in the valley of Arabah, meaning “desolate place”),² and the Eastern Sea (as a boundary marker).³ This is believed to be the general area where Sodom and Gomorrah once stood, and where Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt (Gen. 19:15-29).

Qumran

About a mile (1.6 km) from the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, Qumran was once inhabited by what is generally believed to be the Jewish sect of the Essenes, or perhaps a reclusive Sadducean sect. Destroyed by the Romans during the first Jewish-Roman war (AD 66-73), its caves have preserved hundreds of Jewish documents (thousands of fragments) dating from the third century BC to the first century AD. Collectively known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, they include the oldest extant manuscripts of the Bible, representing every book of the Old Testament except Esther.

The best preserved is a complete copy of the scroll of Isaiah (note Luke 4:17), which is around 1,000 years older than any previously discovered biblical manuscript, confirming that the text of the Hebrew Bible has been faithfully transmitted and preserved through the ages.

Jericho

On the western side of the Jordan Valley, the city of Jericho is across the River from where the post-exodus Israelites camped prior to Moses’ death.⁴ It was the home of a Canaanite woman named Rahab (Josh. 2:1-3), adopted with her family into the people of Israel and included in the ancestry of our Lord Jesus (Matt. 1:5). When the Israelites crossed the Jordan from the east, Jericho was the first city in the Promised Land to be conquered (Josh. 3:16–6:27; Heb. 11:30), then possessed by the tribe of Benjamin (Josh. 18:21). The prophet Elijah, accompanied by Elisha, came to Jericho before he was carried away by a chariot of fire on the other side of the River. When Elisha returned, he purified the waters of Jericho (2 Kings 2:4-22).

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus referenced Jericho, a city familiar to his Judean listeners (Luke 10:30). It was the home of two blind men healed by the Lord (Matt. 20:29-34), including Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46; Luke 18:35). It was also the home of Zacchaeus, the vertically-challenged tax collector who hosted Jesus and welcomed the gift of salvation (Luke 19:1-10). It was also here, before heading to Jerusalem, that the Lord told the parable of the minas, anticipating his approaching death and resurrection and the establishment of God’s kingdom (Luke 19:11-27).

Bethlehem

About 6 miles (10 km) south of Jerusalem, the “Little Town of Bethlehem” is now a bustling city of around 25,000 residents. At one time inhabited by Canaanites, this is where Jacob’s wife Rachel was buried (Gen. 35:19; 48:7). Later it was the home of David’s father Jesse and his family, where David was anointed as king (1 Sam. 16:1-13), thus one of the two places known as “the city of David” (Luke 2:4).

Bethlehem is probably best known as the birthplace of Jesus (Mic. 5:2; Matt. 2:1). At the traditional site of his birth, recognized since at least the early fourth century, stands the Church of the Nativity, dating back to the sixth century that now includes Roman Catholic, Armenian Apostolic, and Greek Orthodox monasteries.

Reflections

While present-day Bethlehem evinces centuries of human attempts to honor and memorialize what many regard as a sacred place, the plethoric shrines, basilicas, and money-making tourist enterprises have actually spoiled the simplicity and splendor of its past. On the other hand, just a few miles away, the parched and desolate surroundings of Qumran, with the priceless literary treasures preserved for centuries in its caves, remind us of how God has chosen to reveal himself and his will to humankind and has providentially ensured ready access to his word. “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the LORD endures forever” (1 Peter 1:24-25, NKJV).

--Kevin L. Moore

Endnotes:

¹ Gen. 14:3; Num. 34:3, 12; Deut. 3:17; Josh. 3:16; 12:3; 15:2, 5; 18:19.

² Deut. 3:17; 4:49; Josh. 3:16; 12:3; 2 Kings 14:25; Ezek. 47:8.

³ Ezek. 47:18; Joel 2:20; Zech. 14:8.

⁴ Num. 22:1; 26:3, 63; 31:12; 33:48, 50; 35:1; 35:1; 36:13; Deut. 32:48; 34:1.

Related Posts: Jordan Part 1, Jordan Part 2, Israel Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10

Related Articles or Videos: Rick Brumback, Salt Sea

Image credits:

Dead Sea, <https://pixabay.com/photos/dead-sea-sea-israel-sand-nature-4927978/>

Qumran, photo by Katie Wadlington

Jericho, <https://brewminate.com/a-history-of-early-jericho/>

Bethlehem, <https://planetofhotels.com/guide/en/palestinian-territory/bethlehem>

Wednesday, 15 February 2023

A Biblical Journey Through the Bible Lands: Jordan (Part 2 of 2)

Jerash South Theater

The City of Jerash

About 30 miles (48 km) north of Jordan’s capital Amman, Jerash was once known by its Greek name Gérasa, annexed by the Romans to the province of Syria and counted among the ten cities of the Decapolis. By AD 106 it was incorporated into the Roman province of Arabia. Jerash has one of the largest and best preserved sites of an ancient Greco-Roman city, established after the fourth-century BC conquests of Alexander the Great and successively controlled by the Greek Ptolemies, the Greek Seleucids, and the Romans.

In the Gospel accounts of Jesus casting a Legion of demons into a herd of swine, the general region of the Decapolis is noted (Mark 5:20), while Mark and Luke particularly allude to the country of the Gerasenes (Mark 5:1; Luke 8:26, 37), i.e., the region where the city of Gerasa was located. However, Gerasa (Jerash) is about 37 miles (60 km) from the Sea of Galilee. Variant readings among extant manuscripts include the Gerasenes, Gadarenes, and Gergesenes in reference to the municipalities of Gerasa (modern-day city of Jerash), Gadara (modern-day town of Umm Qais), and Gergesa (modern-day lakeside village of El Kursi). While both Gadara and Gerasa were among the ten cities of the Decapolis, none of the Synoptic Gospels names a particular city. They each speak of the χώρα (“country” or “region”) of a much broader territory incorporating and surrounding these townships. Although Gerasa (Jerash) was the farthest from the Sea, it was the largest and better known.Mark and Luke use a geographical marker more familiar to their respective non-Jewish audiences less acquainted with the area.¹

Mount Nebo

Mount Nebo is located in what used to be the land of Moab, across the Jordan River southeast from Jericho. From here Moses was allowed to see the Promised Land beyond the Jordan Valley before his death and secret burial (Deut. 32:49-50; 34:1-8).

View of "the Promised Land" from Mt. Nebo

The area became part of the inheritance of the Israelite tribe of Reuben, later known as Perea in the jurisdiction of Herod the Great (Matt. 2:1; Luke 1:5), transferred to his son Antipas (Luke 23:6-7), then to his grandson Agrippa I (Acts 12:19-20). The Hebrew noun nabi’ [נביא] means “prophet,” while the verbal nabah [נבה] means to “be high or prominent.”

The City of Madaba

Madaba in Central Jordan was once a Moabite border city (Num. 21:30; Josh. 13:9) in the land of Reuben, and later Nabataea. It is now the city known for its Byzantine era mosaics, the most famous of which is the sixth-century-AD Madaba Map, the oldest surviving map of the Bible Lands, from which a number of significant biblical sites have been located.

Madaba Mosaic Map, Church of St. George

Madaba Map Reproduction

The City of Petra

At one time this region was inhabited by the Edomites (descendants of Jacob’s brother Esau), who assisted the Babylonians in conquering Judah in the sixth century BC. The prophet Obadiah was commissioned to pronounce divine judgment against them: “Thus says the Lord GOD …. ‘The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high …. From there I will bring you down,’ says the LORD” (Ob. 3-4).² The Edomites were driven out of their land by the Nabateans in the fourth century BC and had vanished from history by the end of the first century AD.

View of the "Treasury" through a cleft of the rock

A major center of trade and commerce, Petra was the capital of Nabataea from the second century BC, then the capital of the Roman province of Arabia in second century AD. The massive mausoleum (mistakenly called the Treasury) carved into the sandstone cliff, with only the top two floors of the three-level structure now visible, is believed to be the burial site of Nabataean King Aretas IV, whose Damascus ethnarch sought to arrest the apostle Paul (2 Cor. 11:32-33).

The "Treasury" or Mausoleum of Aretas at Petra

Dwellings at Petra

Aaron's tomb, Mt. Haroun

On its southern route is the traditional burial place of Moses’ brother Aaron, identified as Mount Hor in Deuteronomy 32:50. At one time this was the land of the Edomites (Num. 20:23; 33:37). Today known in Arabic as Jabal Haroun or Jebel Harun (“Mountain of the Prophet Aaron”), on the site where a Christian church building of the Byzantine era once stood is a Muslim shrine marking the place believed to be the tomb of Aaron.

Reflections

We stood atop Mount Nebo, looking across the Jordan Valley from the vantagepoint Moses had over three millennia ago. What would he have thought and felt, knowing his life was ending without entering the Promised Land? I’m not so sure disappointment was felt as strongly as relief, satisfaction, and anticipation. After 120 years of hardship, sacrifice, and displacement, he was on the brink of going home, “… for he looked to the reward” (Heb. 11:26).

--Kevin L. Moore

Endnotes:

¹ See K. L. Moore, “Geographical Confusion: the Land of Demon-Possessed Pigs,” Moore Perspective (6 July 2022), <Link>.

² Scripture quotations are from the NKJV.

Image credits:

Jerash South Theater, photo by Katie Wadlington

Views from Mt Nebo, photos by Lydia Todd

Madaba Mosaic Map, photo by Katie Wadlington

Madaba Map Reproduction, Wikipedia

Petra photos by Lydia Todd

Traditional Site of Aaron’s Tomb, Mt. Haroun <https://sacredsites.com/middle_east/jordan/jebel_haroun.html>

Wednesday, 8 February 2023

A Biblical Journey Through the Bible Lands: Jordan (Part 1 of 2)

This is the beginning of a series of articles inspired by a recent trip to “the Bible Lands,” highlighting the biblical significance of the places we visited.

The Kingdom of Jordan

Our journey begins in the Kingdom of Jordan, which shares its name with the River and Valley along its western border.¹ Biblically this is the southern part of the “Transjordan,” often alluded to in scripture as “beyond the Jordan” from the vantagepoint of the nine-and-a-half western Israelite tribes.² At one time this was the land of the Ammonites and Moabites—descendants of Ben-Ammi and Moab, sons of Lot (Abraham’s nephew) and his two daughters (Gen. 19:30-38)—and the Amorites, descendants of Noah’s son Ham and grandson Canaan (Gen. 10:15-16).

Moses led the post-exodus Israelites here, where their covenant was renewed and Moses was allowed to view the Promised Land across the Jordan Valley (Deut. 29:1–32:52) <see Part 2>. It was in this area, east of the Jordan, that Moses died and was buried (Deut. 34:1-8) and where the Israelite tribes of Gad, Reuben, and half-Manasseh settled (Num. 21:21-35; 32:1-22; Josh. 13:8-32). Elijah was taken up into heaven from here, after he and Elisha had crossed the Jordan River eastwardly on dry ground (2 Kings 2:6-12).

In New Testament times the expansive territory included the southern Decapolis, Perea, and the land of the Nabateans, just south of the Sea of Galilee down to the northern tip of the Red Sea. John the baptizer ministered here (John 1:28; 3:26; 10:40) and most likely died here. During Jesus’ earthly ministry, having ventured “beyond the Jordan” on multiple occasions, he had many followers in the general region (Matt. 4:25).

Much of the country of Jordan was once known as the Nabatean Kingdom, which the Romans called Arabia (cf. Gal. 4:25). From the first century BC this was a client state of the Roman Empire that lost its independence in AD 106. The Nabatean Kingdom was ruled approximately forty-eight years (9 BC–AD 40) by King Aretas IV (mentioned in 2 Cor. 11:32-33), whose daughter Phasaelis was married to and divorced by Herod Antipas before his unlawful marriage to Herodias (cf. Mark 6:14-29).

Jews and proselytes from Arabia (Nabatea) were in Jerusalem on Pentecost (Acts 2:11), with the opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel of Christ. Later Saul of Tarsus was converted and spent the first three years of his Christian life in Damascus and Arabia (Acts 9:3-19; Gal. 1:15-18), during which he aroused the disfavor of the Nabatean king (2 Cor. 11:32). It is plausible that Paul worked alongside Arabian-Nabatean-Jordanian-Jewish Christians during this time (Acts 2:11, 41; 8:1-4; 11:19).

Northwest Jordan is where Pella was located, a city of the Decapolis incorporated into Roman Judea. When Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans and later fell in AD 70, according to Christ’s warnings (Luke 21:20-24) Christians fled eastward to Pella (Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. 3.5.3) and were reported there and in other Decapolis territories centuries later (Epiphanius, Panarion 29.7.8). The remains of Christian church buildings from the third century onward have been found all around the area.

The King’s Highway

Mentioned in Numbers 20:17; 21:22; and Deuteronomy 2:27, the King's Highway is now a 174-mile (280 km) paved roadway, believed to be one of the world’s oldest continuously used roads. It was a major trade route in antiquity, connecting Syria in the north with Arabia and Egypt in the south. The king of Edom refused to allow Moses to lead the Israelites through his territory along this highway. Much earlier it was likely the route taken by the four northern kings defeated by Abraham as he rescued his nephew Lot (Gen. 14:8-16).

Amman: Capital of Jordan

Formerly the capital of the Ammonite kingdom (12th–11th centuries BC), the city was renamed Philadelphia in the third century BC and became the southernmost city of the Decapolis. The Ammonites were descendants of Lot (Abraham’s nephew) and his youngest daughter’s son Ben-Ammi (Gen. 19:30-38), whose territory bordered the Israelite lands of Reuben, Gad, and half-Manasseh (cf. Deut. 2:19; 3:16; Josh. 13:10). The Ammonites were polytheists (1 Kings 11:7, 33) and enemies of God’s people (Deut. 23:3-6). The Lord used them to punish Israel, but also helped Israel defeat them (Judg. 3:13; 10:7-9; 11:4; 1 Sam. 11:11; 14:47).

Amman: Capital of Jordan

Jephthah’s foolish vow involved the people of Ammon (Judg. 11:30-33). Israel was at war with them when David sinned with Bathsheba and the Ammonites killed her husband Uriah (2 Sam. 11:1–12:9). Solomon married an Ammonite woman (1 Kings 14:21). In the fifth century BC, Ammonite women were among the mixed marriages of Ezra 9:1-2, and the Ammonites joined Sanballat to oppose the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s wall (Neh. 4:7-8). The Ammonite people were eventually absorbed into the Nabatean Arab population.

Reflections

How humbling it is to have been in the same geographical region where Moses, Elijah, John the baptizer, Jesus, and Paul had been, even though, like me, their stay was relatively brief. This was not their permanent home. For at least the first three centuries AD a strong community of Christians resided here. Yet this was not their permanent home either. “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced [them] and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Heb. 11:13, NKJV).

--Kevin L. Moore

Endnotes:

1 The etymology of the name is uncertain. The Hebrew Yardēn and Arabic Urdunn signify “going down” or “descending,” seemingly descriptive of the River’s southward flow. Our Jordanian guide suggested that the name is a combination of the Aramaic gor (“deep valley”) + Dan (the territory where the Jordan River begins), but I have not been able to confirm this.

2 From the speaker’s point of reference: Deut. 3:8; Josh. 1:15; 2:10; 7:7; 9:10; 18:7; 22:4; 24:8; Judg. 5:17; 33:32; 35:14; from the writer’s point of reference: Gen. 50:10-11; Num. 22:1; 34:15; Josh. 12:1; 13:8; 14:3; 17:5; Judg. 7:25; 10:8; 1 Sam. 31:7; 1 Chron. 12:37. See K. L. Moore, “Beyond the Jordan: an Ethnogeographical Study,” Moore Perspective (9 June 2021), <Link>.