ABC of Places in the Holy Land

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Permalink Reply by Peter Delaney on July 15, 2009 at 12:10pm

What a good idea.

Dead Sea with its large salt lake and the Quamran Settlement on its shore.

How about Emmaus and the supper.

Now over to others for F?

Peter Delney

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Permalink Reply by Lynda Keen on August 1, 2009 at 9:54am

Really difficult one as there aren't many places in the Holy Land that begin with F.
Best I can offer is Fountain of the Virgin. This is the spring that is the source of the Pool of Siloam in Jerusalem.
Its name comes from a legend that Mary washed Jesus' swaddling clothes in the spring.
G is a lot easier so offers, anybody?

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Permalink Reply by Lynda Keen on September 12, 2009 at 9:14pm

Galilee, Gennesaret (another name for Lake Galilee), Golgotha, Garden of Gethsemane,
H?

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Permalink Reply by Reginald Jay Townes on September 22, 2009 at 12:15pm

Hebron, where Abraham purchased a cave and a field around it and where he and his wife Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob are buried. Now here is an easy one....J?

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Permalink Reply by Lynda Keen on September 23, 2009 at 10:12pm

Israel
Jerusalem, Judea, Jericho, (River) Jordan
K? Your turn.

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Permalink Reply by Reginald Jay Townes on September 24, 2009 at 1:50am

Kadesh, when the Hebrew people finally started to enter the promised land 40 years after they left Egypt, they camped out in this town while they sent scouts out to explore Canaan (Israel)

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Permalink Reply by Reginald Jay Townes on September 24, 2009 at 1:59am

Laodicea, an town in Syria which held a community of Christians mentioned in the book of Revelation as the Church of Laodicea.

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Permalink Reply by Lynda Keen on September 24, 2009 at 11:58am

And a very lovely little town Laodicea is, too. Laodicea is the Greek name. In case anyone wants to look it up on a map, its original name was Latakia and in modern Arabic it's Ladhiye so we can add more Ls here. Latakia means tobacco, which is grown here.
Paul, take note for your Syria visit as the ancient Phoenician port of Ras Shamra/Ugarit's wonderful archaeological site is just outside this town.
In addition, it's the hometown of the Assad family, Presidents of Syria, so home to the Alawite religion, which encompasses a mixture of ancient Phoenician traditional and modern Shi'a Muslim ritual. Saddam Hussein was also an Alawi and there are Alawi in southern Lebanon and southern Turkey, too.
For M, I have to put Magdala, home village of Mary Magdalene. It's a Middle Eastern convention to give a surname showing where a person comes from - I could be Lynda Barrowini, which I think sounds much more distinguised that the too-common Keen!
Magdala means "a tower" so perhaps there was a watchtower there at some time in the past, as it's up in the hills of Galilee north-west of Tiberias, towards the direction of Nazareth.
Now I would like to discuss the ruined reputation of Mary Magdalene because it's about time her name was rehabilitated.
In the 6th century, Pope Gregory "the Great" decided that Mary Magdalene was the same Mary as Lazarus' and Martha's sister. A difficult fallacy to put across because Lazarus' family came from Bethany, which is a little way east of Jerusalem, a long way from Magdala.
Mary, in the form of the Hebrew Miriam and Arabic Mariam, is still a very common name all over the Middle East so it isn't too difficult to understand that there was more than one Mary amongst Jesus' followers.
Yet people believed Gregory, papal infallibility being what it is.
He went on to compound the confusion is compounded by claiming that it was Mary Magdalene who anointed Jesus' head and feet with expensive nard just before His crucifixion.
In fact, the Bible clearly says that this was Mary Lazarus' sister, which makes much more sense as Jesus' was eating in Bethany. Both Matthew and Mark say this happened in Bethany but do not name the woman. John specifically states not only that it happened in Bethany but also that this was Mary sister of Lazarus (John 12:3). He paints a very graphic picture: Mary did the perfuming while Martha served the meal and Lazarus sat at table with Jesus.
The only time Mary Magdalene and perfume are actually mentioned together in the Bible is after the death of Jesus, when she went with other women to anoint his dead body with spices.
Yet people believed Gregory.
He then came up with his coup de grace. He claimed that Mary Magdalene was the unnamed prostitute who washed Jesus' feet with her tears and cream perfume.
This woman came to Him in Nain, which is near Capernaum down on the shore of Lake Galilee, not up at Magdala in the hills.
The Bible tells us that Jesus cured Mary of seven devils. In the Middle East, having a devil still means having mental illness, a neurological problem such as epilepsy, or mental disability.
It does not mean being a prostitute.
What's more, Mary Magdalene was one of the women who supported Jesus' company financially so, being wealthy, she'd hardly need to have resorted to prostitution to earn her living. Any argument that she made her money from prostitution doesn't hold water: Jesus would not have accepted her donations if her income came from an immoral source.
Yet people believed Gregory/
The only common thread between these three women is that at some point two of them anointed Jesus with cream perfume and the third intended to do so after His death.
Is that enough to make them into one woman?
If washing and anointing were rare, perhaps. But in a hot, dusty, sandy land, washing one's feet on arrival is necessary. Perfuming oneself and one's clothes is a continuing traditon all over the Middle East. In Turkey, when you're on a bus journey or when you leave someone's house, your hands will be sprinkled with perfume. I loved this tradition and used to perfume my students' hands when they left my classroom in Tarsus, St Paul's hometown. Though I was afraid of being set on fire when my Emirati students perfumed me in Dubai because they hold a flaming incense burner under your dress!
Jesus' head, hands and feet would have been anointed on numerous occasions. The only reasons such common occurences are mentioned at all in the gospels is because they illustrate some other important point.
Jesus uses the prostitute's actions as a rebuke to His host, who neglected to welcome him with water or perfume to refresh Himself. Mary of Bethany's nard is mentioned because a disciple objected to what he saw as a waste of money and Jesus explained that Mary of Bethany had again recognised the one thing needful. Mary Magdalene's going to the tomb with spices is mentioned to explain why she and the other women were there when the resurrected Jesus appeared.
Yet people believed Gregory.
And 1500 years later, there are still people who believe Gregory.
Including church leaders, who by now, since most are literate, should know their Bibles better.
I challenge anyone to show me the Bible verses that tell us that Mary Magdalene was the same woman as Mary of Bethany, Lazarus' sister.
I challenge anyone to show me the Bible verses that say Mary Magdalene was the woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears so was a prostitute.
Recently, insult has been added to injury for Mary Magdalene since there is a current fase notion that she had a sexual or romantic relationship with Jesus rather than a spiritual one or that she married Him.
This sexual/romantic idea seems to have originated in interpretations of her character in Jesus Christ Superstar and the marriage one from Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ.
Hardly reliable Biblical sources. Yet people believe the idea.
What's the implication? Pretty much the same as Gregory's.
If Mary Magdalene was Jesus' romantic or sexual partner, that reduces her involvement to something physical or emotional. It removes her from the higher, spiritual, plane, which is reserved for men.
If Mary Magdalene married Jesus, at least she's been promoted from disreputable tart to respectable wife. But she still has no spiritual role to play in church life.
I've even heard the idea that the wedding at Cana was Jesus' own wedding and that's when He married Mary Magdalene. Yet the Bible clearly states that He and his disciples were "invited" to that wedding. Does a bridegroom get invited to his own wedding?
Furthermore, in the Middle East, a man gets married in his own hometown so if Jesus had married, the scene of His wedding would have been Nazareth, not Cana. There was a synagogue in Nazareth because the Bible says Jesus read the Torah there - that's where He announced that Isaiah's prophecy about Him had come true. So why would He have gone to Cana to marry?
It's all too ridiculous for words. Yet some people believe it.
This says something about the relationship between ignorance and gullibility, perhaps.
The denigration of Mary Magdalene was first promulgated by Pope Gregory in the 6th century. Why?
Often mentioned alongside Jesus' mother and mothers of some disciples, Mary Magdalene was one of the most important women amongst Jesus' followers.
She was there during His preaching and healing. She was there at His crucifixion. She was there when He was laid in the tomb. She was there at the very earliest opportunity after the Passover to pay honour to His corpse.
Unlike His male followers, she is not reported as jostling for a high position when He came into His kingdom. She did not betray Him. She did not run away. She did not deny knowing Him. She was the first person to see and hear Him after the Resurrection. She did not doubt that He was then alive again.
She was a very powerful model believer.
And she was a woman, not a man.
Destroying her credibility by turning her into a whore and decreasing the number of women in Jesus' fellowship by conflating two Marys plus an unnamed woman into one was an easy way to disavow and diminish not only her position but also the important part that women are shown in Acts of the Apostles to have played in leadership of the early church.
By dismissing Mary Magdalene, Gregory established that all church roles were jobs only for the boys.
A male-dominated agenda from way back in the 6th century, which is only now being rectified as women reassume roles in some church hierarchies.
Sadly, some Bible "scholarship" is like that, when the scholars didn't bother to check their facts actually on the ground or, worse, when they know the facts but deliberately ignore them because they have their own agenda, like Gregory.
The most recent example I've seen is the current Israeli claim that the Canaanites were Hebrews, not Phoenicians. Canaan and Phoenicia both mean "red", referring to the scarlet dye that was called Phoenician Purple, manufactured in Tyre and Sidon so it's easy to see just from the place name that Canaan and Phoenicia were just the Phoenician and Greek names respectively for the land, even without the vast archaeological evidence that shows a totally different culture from the Hebrew one.
This falsified "scholarship" gives the idea that the Hebrews were in the land first, that the Phoenicians weren't there at all and, most importantly, that the Hebrews were there long before the Philistines (Palestinians - Filistini is the Semitic word for Palestinian and still used). This "scholarship" validates modern Israeli claims to the land.
In fact, the Phoenicians were there first. The Bible tells us that Abraham had to buy land for his family tomb from the Phoenician ruler of Hebron.
In fact, the Bible tells us that King David didn't conquer all of Jerusalem and had to share his new capital city with the Phoenician king who already ruled it. He even had to buy land from that king many years later when he wanted somewhere high to build his temple. When you actually see Jerusalem, and see where what's called locally David's City is, it's a tiny part of one hill.
When the Hebrews under Joshua made their lclaim to the land, the Philistines, too, were already established. They had five major port cities and many inland ones. They had a monopoly on the metal manufacturing industry They were the "Sea Peoples", who came from Crete and the date of their migration is well established by archaeological evidence.
It's rather sad when so-called scholars distort truth to suit their own ends and even sadder when at the same time those scholars, whether Christian churchmen or Jewish historians, claim to believe in God. As Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote, "One word of truth outweighs the world."
Well, one letter of the alphabet applied to a place name gave me a mountain of food for thought there.
Now on to more cheerful thoughts.
N is too easy - Nazareth.
In Arabic this is Nasra and Christians are still called Nasreeni, as I discovered to my delight in a shared taxi from Nazareth to Jerusalem one day, by overhearing the Muslim driver describing me to another passenger as a Nasreena, the feminine form of Nasreeni.
As my Auntie Josie would have said, "I was tickled pink" to know that someone thinks of me as a Nazarene because that was a name given too to the earliest Christians so I really felt linked in.
Nazareth is a picturesque village, in a natural bowl shape rather like Bath though Nazareth's hillsides are steeper and closer. It's easy to see how the locals at one stage tried to throw Jesus from the top down into the village.
How about O?

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Permalink Reply by Reginald Jay Townes on September 25, 2009 at 3:20pm

I thoroughly enjoyed the previous reply!

I agree that Mary Magdalene got a bad rap from the male dominated church hierarchy. I too, don't believe she was a prostitute and her faithfulness to Christ probably surpassed that of most of the disciples. As you said, she stayed with him at the crucifixion and was the first to see him resurrected. When the male followers of Jesus ran away in fear, the women stayed to the end and had the unique privilege to see the New Beginning! Its such a shame that the Church has, for so many centuries, made women appear to be inferior to men, when in fact they are the part of the Church that is the most faithful and the most privileged. Its funny; in almost every denomination of Christianity, if the women stopped going to Church there would be no more Church. Women hold the church together. You, Lynda, are a prime example of that just right here on the London Internet Church.

Just a quick note on the woman who washed Jesus' feet with tears--In all probability I think she was a prostitute. "If this man were a prophet, he would have known who is touching him and what kind of woman she is. She is a sinner."(Luke 7:39). I know it really doesn't come out and say that she was, but chances are that's what he is trying to convey.

I like this ABC of Places in the Holy Land. It makes me search out and study places in the Holy Land. Some places I know about and others I have to look up; but its fun and very interesting. This next one i have to search for. O. I'm going to take a break and search for a town or site that starts with the letter O.

Permalink Reply by Lynda Keen on September 29, 2009 at 9:17pm

Under J, I forgot Jaffa, where I worked, where Simon the Tanner and Tabitha lived.

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Permalink Reply by Lynda Keen on September 25, 2009 at 7:14pm

RJ, I agree the woman who washed Jesus' feet was probably a prostitute. But she wasn't Mary Magdalen.
Haven't thought about O yet so will leave you to your research.
Thank you for the compliments and the support for women.
God bless. Lynda

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Permalink Reply by Reginald Jay Townes on September 29, 2009 at 9:08pm

Olivet (Mount of Olives)--A mountain east of Jerusalem closely associated with the last days in the earthly life of Jesus. (Sam. 15:30; Zech 14:4; Acts 1:2)

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