Have you ever heard anyone say, "The Bible isn't relevant for my life today; it was written thousands of years ago in a different time?" Or perhaps you've thought or said it yourself. Hebrews 4:12 says "For the Word of the Lord is living and active." This means the words God spoke, the Bible, have been active in history and continue to live today.
The Bible really came alive for me when I had the opportunity to visit the Holy Land of Israel and Palestine. A group from my church in college, lead by our chaplain, spent two weeks touring the Holy Land over winter break of 1996-1997. Seeing the sites and areas where the stories in the Bible occurred has helped me to visualize and relate to those stories. Now, when I read the Bible, the vents are much more real to me.
I would like to share a part of this experience with you during this virtual tour. Using pictures from my trip, we will visit many sites starting in the northern Galilee region, and ending in Jerusalem. I will try to give both historical and scriptural information to enrich your experience, and at each site, we will pause to walk hand in hand with our God, for each place has many lessons of faith to teach us.
Before we begin, let's first define a few terms I'll be using. Historians and archaeologists break up the history of the Holy Land into several periods:
All the sites we will visit have been occupied through many of these periods. When an ancient city was destroyed or fell into ruin, many times the people just built on top of the rubble. After hundreds or even thousands of years of this process, a mound is created, made up of layers (known as strata) of settlements come and gone. These mounds, known as tells (Arabic for hill), make up much of the Holy Land's topography.
One other definition I'd like to give you is the distinction between actual and traditional sites. Often, the Bible isn't clear exactly where an event happened (normally because it isn't important for the story), or the names used commonly in the days the books were written are no longer used. As a result, there are many places known as traditional sites where early pilgrims to the Holy Land commemorated biblical events. We have no historical or archaeological evidence to support the location, but to most of us "pilgrims," that doesn't necessarily matter. What matters is that the events are remembered, and the lessons remain alive. There are some sites where enough historical and archaeological evidence exists to say with some certainty that this is where an event occurred. These are called actual sites.
My information and inspiration for this tour have come from various sources listed in the Bibliography . All scripture is quoted from the New International Version unless otherwise noted. I hope to continue to add information to this site as my studies continue. If you have any comments, suggestions, additional information, or questions, please email me or sign the guestbook. I welcome any input, and will try to get back to you when I can.
If you have to stop in the middle of the tour, or are looking for something specific, try using the index page.
Oh, and I appologize for the ad box that appears on each page. Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do about it.
And now, without further ado, let's experience the life of the Holy Land!
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