Thursday (5/28) - Up on the Mount

Thursday was a relatively quiet day for most of us, with a free morning and then classes during the afternoon that served as an overview of geographical considerations of the land of Palestine, ranging from drainage basins to soil types to underlying bedrock types (go Eocene!) and how they all visibly affect the land and its vegetation and its habitation patterns. That was a lot to cover! We will all soon be topography experts, have no doubt.

What we all did with the free morning then is what I'll discuss here. A large group of us decided it was the time to head up to the Temple Mount itself to visit the Muslim holy precinct, with the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. To say these are important places is complete understatement. If you don't know about these, please check the above links out. Muslims associate the "Rock" with Abraham and Isaac (so do Jews and Christians) but also the ascension of Mohammed to heaven.



Furthermore, it seems very clear to me that the Dome of the Rock is most likely built precisely on the site of the Jewish Temple itself -- the continuity of holy space is evidence enough. It is interesting to note that after the Romans crushed the last Jewish revolt in Jerusalem in AD 135 and kicked all the Jews out (for centuries), they built up on the Temple Mount a great Temple to Jupiter. Thus, the Dome of the Rock replaced whatever the Romans or Byzantines last had up there rather than the Jewish Temple.

After passing through security, we climbed a big wooden ramp that led up to a narrow gate in the western side of the platform wall. This entrance is right next to the Western Wall (the specific place famous to Judaism, not in general the whole western side of the Temple Mount), so it's quite a surreal juxtaposition to pass overhead the hundreds (or more) of Orthodox Jews reciting the Torah outloud and milling about and then to enter the gateway onto the Temple Mount and suddenly be met by silence and what could only be described as, to me, an alien world. The architecture is completely different. The clothing is completely different. There is no background drone of recitation (not out in public areas at least). It's just bizarre. I approached the Dome of the Rock and tried to think about how I was standing right next to what was once the Holy of Holies. (it is for this reason that observant Jews are religiously forbidden from going onto the Temple Mount) But... I couldn't really envision it. The top up there is all Muslim space now. You can feel it just walking around. For the first time on this trip I felt like I really didn't belong somewhere, that I was an intruder. It's not that I was unwelcome, that's not true. I was welcome to come there as a tourist. But I didn't feel like I belonged up there. I just couldn't relate to it. Maybe others could, I don't know. Maybe that's how Middle-Eastern background Muslims feel when they visit thoroughly Christian places, I don't know. All in all, a memorable experience.
Not least because I got into a charming conversation with four 12-yr old Muslim girls (in full garb) who wanted to practice their English and show off their two pet mini turtles .... and then I promptly got in trouble by mosque security for talking to children. Well, specifically for taking their picture, which I asked their permission for first. But I suppose 12 yr-olds don't get the final say in such matters. The guard demanded my camera and identification and deleted the photos and then handed it back. Lesson learned!

I'll close with a few pictures of interest. In a future post I hope to show some more pictures of this fun, quirky place we're staying in to give everyone a visual look at what we now call home for the next few weeks, but for now I give you this pic I snapped of a couple Wheaties enjoying the verdant grounds while doing some journaling of their experiences. We certainly are experiencing a lot and have a lot to process.



And finally I want to show an example of something that I personally get terribly excited about: Greek and Latin! As the Classical Languages prof at Wheaton, of course I have been practically dying to see what kind of fun inscriptions or other epigraphy we'll stumble across (and which I can then point out excitedly to my former Greek or Latin students on the trip)! I give you one here -- can you see why they're so much fun? :-)



This is a fresco in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and depicts Judas's betrayal of Jesus. Here is the Greek text of the above photograph again in all its stylized orthographic glory!



Can you make any of it out? It's actually an abbreviated form of Matthew 26:47 -49. This reads: "Behold, Judas came and a great crowd with him with swords and wooden clubs; and coming up to Jesus he said, 'Hello, Rabbi.' And he kissed him." Gotta love it! I'm getting better at identifying ligatures and abbreviated forms in the orthography. :-)

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And what about the group that had the chance to stay overnight at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre? They did it! And the Armenian priest had so much fun he was happy to host another group Thursday night and I got to go! Can you believe it?! I got to spend 4+ hours locked up in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre after hours along with 9 other Wheaton students at the invitation of the Armenian superior who helps oversee the famous holy site of Jesus' death and resurrection -- what an honor! And what an amazing, unbelievable treasured experience! BUT as you can probably guess that deserves its own blog post.
Until then...