Only thing was, before I left, I slipped down some stairs at the hostel and banged my knee on the hard granite floor. Although painful I went off walking. After 10kms of walking I decided to go back, it also getting dark. Only the next day it started to hurt.
I had this Rav Card. Its like the London Oyster card for the tube. Buses are now cashless and I didn’t know. I got the card, but hadn’t put any credit on. A bus arrived and wouldn’t take my shekels in cash. A kind local Arab guy sat near the front got up and tapped his card allowing me to ride home for free.
The next day I didn’t go out, as my knee was really sore, so spent time hanging out on the roof top and reading, and praying my knee would heal.
This time I didn’t get to go back to see Jesus places like Capernaum as I needed a day to recover, then go to see Mount Tabor to see the place of the transfiguration.
I like youth hostels, being a single traveller, I’ve used them not just to be cheap, but I actually like to use them to get to know other people.
I’ve met quite a few Israelis in other places, in China, UK, Germany and Hungary.
Israel welcomes Christians, and preaching the gospel isn’t illegal, unless you do with a bribe. It is frowned upon though.
The proposed laws on banning gospel messages in Israel was brought up by only a tiny handful (two) members of the Knesset (Israel’s government) It got Israel’s Messianic movement and evangelical Christians worried for a day, but has been quickly quashed by PM Benyamin Netanyahu.
But I found I can be a bit creative and probe people with some other questions. In this youth hostel they have these rules pinned up.
This hostel has this poster up as they want discourage visitors of being obnoxious and annoying. I totally it get why.
In September 2022 we had the recent death of the Queen. Some German Christians came up to me in the kitchen of the hostel and told me the Queen “can’t of been a proper Christian”, she was only using the title just to meet formalities. I said no, she often talked about her faith in Christ, and explained how she would always make this part of her Christmas speech, something which might not happen in successive rulers. With this, you can get a feel of a not so pleasant vibe which would make others who don’t know Christ would put them of us.
This is the perfect place to chill after seeing places of Jesus around the shore of the Galilee. This is probably the best hostel I have stayed in, in about 20 years of youth hostelling.
Pita, chili layered homous, dates and coffee seems like a good lunch before heading out again.
Later on in the evening, I got chatting to different people hanging out on this roof. Two of them were other young tourists, anoher German guy who had to leave and a Frenchman.
The French lad was a Jew called Hugo he is about 22 I think. I asked him, as you going to move here? he said he was religious but wasn’t really sure if he wanted to be an Israeli. I smiled at him, and told him you should there is a ton of pretty Israeli girls your age here. He laughed.
I got to tell Hugo about the big poster at the side of the road, I asked him “you know this can’t be the Moshiach as he never visited Israel. The Moshiach is Israeli.”
Hugo: “How do you know?”
Me: “Its in Isaiah, in chapter 53 tells you a lot about him. You can read it in the bible, but read if for yourself and not through some religious leader’s interpretation.”
I could see Hugo’s fascination here. I sense one concern though. He would still go and look at a Rabbi’s opinion. Me very quickly prays in a few seconds he would think for himself.
Hugo: “I am going to look this up later”
He got his phone out, which has a Jewish Tankh (whole Old Testament in English and Hebrew), and said he wanted to see what a Rabbi would say.
He brought up the verse and read it quickly, his phone’s screen had a space for a commentary of someone’s interpretation, which was…. empty!! Then he said something quite shocking:
Hugo: “I think this lake has something to do with the Messiah…”
(me quietly utterly beside myself with joy and worshiping the Lord silently)
Hugo decided to head to bed, I said I enjoyed talking with him. I went back out into the street and walked around the seafront giving thanks and praise and glory that this young man seemed curious about the most explicit foretelling of the gospel and also at the place where Jesus did most of his ministry, 100 metres from the edge of the lake.
I stuck to the rules, well I gave him some things that he really got excited about…..
First of all, I was excited to return back to Israel to see many different old friends and visit and explore a few favourite places I have not seen yet.
I’m up in Tiberias, the lovely city that overlooks the Sea of Galilee. I got to visit a few friends here, and stay in youth hostel and chat to local Israelis and other tourists.
This above picture shows a poster with the word משיח (Messiah) and shows a picture of a bearded hat wearing Ultra Orthodox Jewish man. These posters are put up by the Chabad Lubavitch who consider this man (Rabbi Menachem Mendel Shneerson) to be the Messiah. There are a lot of these posters but this one different as its a paid for advertisement, rather than a fly poster.
Chabad has a religious information building on the shore of the lake and a TV outside that plays some looped video
This gent is not the Messiah. As he lived in New York and didn’t visit Israel once, nor did he fulfill any of the prophecies talked about in the Tanakh (what Christians commonly call the Old Testament) Micah 5:2 tells us where the Messiah would be from – Bethlehem. New York doesn’t have a Messiah, but has good pizzas.
This restaurant is around the corner from the Chabad building.
These pigeons made a nest on this fan!
I would like to see the birds somewhere safe to build their home. Also I really sincerely hope the Haredim (Ultra Orthodox Jews) would know their Messiah as outlined in the books of the prophets.
But, so near, so close, to where he was….
This area is where the Messiah spent time in, I’ll have more to show in the next few days…..
I am on the edge of the Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) in the city of Tiberias, on the coast of the lake its easy to see how fishing his been part of the economy for years.
Sadly this fish processing plant looks kind of derelict, although when I walked back to the hostel when it was darker, the lights were on.
A lot of the fish I see in Jerusalem supermarkets comes from Norway. There is however plenty of small restaurants serving fish caught in the lake to Christians who want an authentic biblical meal.
This boat looks like a lot of the vessels for taking Christian pilgrims around the lake, but its up on blocks for service. I remember my grandad telling me its important to paint the bottom of your boat each year (or at least for a small sailing dingy with a wooden hull)
Wonder what conversations went on during Jesus’s time during the times when boats were being repaired and maintained around here.
This is an odd looking machine, some kind of drill or milling machine I guess.
One of the unique things about the middle east with scarce rain, is most of the year your yard can easily become an outdoor lounge, workshop or kitchen, with appliances and furniture (that aren’t worth stealing) not in danger of getting wet, only by sand from the dusty atmosphere.
I did spot some people fishing after all, in a more casual non business fashion, an Arab father and son here.
Its kind of funny that these cats sit her awaiting, it seems they are used to getting the fisherman throw them the small ones not worth taking home, but there was some discarded pizza, so I think they get fed quite well!! 🙂
There been quite a few Jewish holidays happen in the last few weeks, one of them is new year.
We are now in the year 5773. At my work, the food bank was working hard with not only regular food deliveries but also to provide apples and honey which is popular during Jewish new year to some of Israel’s most disadvantaged families here. I got a jar of honey and some apples which I tend to stick on my cereal in the mornings.
Whilst I was staying the Galilee city of Tiberias which is on the coast of the Kinneret, the famous lake where Jesus did many of his ministry, I tried doing some walking around the edge of the lake. Not that close to the lake mind you, only small part of it has beaches open for public use.
But, this path on the side of the road I thought was public, but led to a dead end:
I came across this, no less than 40 hives on this hill next to the main road, I didn’t get too close there are actual bees here.
The Galilee area is quite famous for its vibrant active agricultural industry here. On the direct opposite part of the lake I see many banana plantations there. Close to here there were many orchards of oranges here too. I am not quite sure what flowers the bees get to pollinate though.
Sometimes I see people use stories from the bible out of context in the worst way possible. In the case of these two pictures its from both people groups here in Israel.
The last supper with Hollywood stars? Me and another Christian friend challenged the Jewish owner of a youth hostel on this, wondering if its really wise considering how many Christians visiting his business might feel offended about this but he just seem to think it was funny.
Yes, its the nativity scene with a seperation barrier. This commonly used by Palestinians to manipluate the west that this hated barrier uses to keep terrorism from getting into Jerusalem. The concrete pilars that make up this structure are ugly, but no sensible person wants to go back in the days during the intafada where there were bombings on buses and coffee shops every week.
Some of the hotel complexes and apartment blocks in Tiberias look concrete and utilitarian, but this one is a bit more interesting; on each floor are circular logos of different species of crops that is popular in Jewish culture.
This painting on the wall is pretty nice too:
It combines a faux set of railings and balconies to match the rest of the block but also images of what the city overlooking the water in ancient times.
Founded in 20AD and named after a Roman emperor of almost exactly the same name, today Tiberias is just a Jewish city but has Arab Israelis living in the outskirts of town and many neighbouring Arab towns close by.
This iron structure doesn’t look like a normal religious shrine, but its a significant place for Orthodox Jews as the grave site of famous Jewish philosopher Maimonides.
Like the Kotel in Jerusalem and Rachel’s Tomb close to Bethlehem, praying is done in separate for men and women.
Lots of Judiaca items in neighbouring gift shop, not just souvenirs for Christians!
This is part of an ancient wall around the city which was destroyed, not by conflict but by an earthquake in the 11th century.
There has been no less than 16 earthquakes affecting the greater Galilee area, including a big one killing 600 in 1837, and also a big flood in 1934.
This mosque is empty and abandoned. Many Islamic countries where Jews once live, including Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Morocco etc have destroyed old synagogues as after people started to move to Israel in large numbers, here buildings of all types of faiths that are not used are always kept as part of history, as it seems there is a great deal of respect put on history of all (Roman, Byzantine, Persian, Islamic, Crusader Ottoman and Jewish) eras of people dwelling here.
As it started to get dark, the coastline started to look interesting with the cloud formations..
Restaurants have usual fare of middle eastern food but also specialise in fish aimed at Christian visitors to the Galilee.
A couple of years ago, a strange looking beacon was installed along the side of the Galilee, its unlikely ships would get lost, instead this is a project that display colour patterns onto fountains of water…
It pretty and entertaining too, and free.
There is plenty of bars and restaurants here, its a pretty lively city. With the bars that open onto the beach, they remind me a bit of Eilat, albeit with the Galilee and not the Red Sea though. 🙂
I got to go for a beer with my friend Arnold who was already good friends with the youth hostel owner, and he came out and brought along his daughter.
This bar has a tree growing out of the inside of it…
The Kinneret, or the Sea of Galilee, or even Lake Tiberias are the names of the body of water where Jesus spent probably the majority of his ministry.
Its 214 metres below sea level, not as low of course as the Dead Sea, and has a radius of 53km or 33 miles.
Either name, its a peaceful and relaxing place to spend a few days off work. When I came here last year in a rented car its actually very pleasant to drive around the bendy road that heads along the west edge of the sea.
I went into the Jesus boat museum previously whilst waiting to get a boat ride. This pleasant path with trees and iron modern art is a path that heads towards the jetty onto the Kinneret.
Like the previous times I have been here, the sea seems like a peaceful and great place to relax, by the side or in a boat.
However the bible tells us of great storms that happened here, and of course Jesus commanded a storm to stop in Matthew 8 : 23-27
It would be interesting to witness a storm here I think, thunderstorms are good fun as long as you are safe indoors 🙂
There is a lot of gadgetry on this boat. There are 3 cellphones, an iPod nano with Christian worship music playing during the trip, a Motorola CB radio and a music mixing desk and tannoy system, oh and a rudder for steering, a throttle and other typical nautical controls.
The Arab chap who was the man in charge of tour boats who came onboard has an iPad as well which contains the schedules of the boats, I thought maybe there could be some kind of nautical navigation and weather conditions apps as well, but I can’t really see anyone getting lost!
There is a party of Christian visitors from Bratislava, Slovak republic but as they booked the trip themselves and there isn’t a tour guide with them they were happy for me and my friend Arnold to share with them 🙂
Next: I investigate this mysterious beacon that shines over the Galilee…
My two days of work projects were done, and it was nice to take off a friday from work and relax and see some places. I booked into a youth hostel in Tiberias and made friends with a South Africa pastor and got to see a lot special places.
The community of Ginosar is a Kibbutz on the banks of the Kinneret, this concrete exhibition hall has this wonderful piece of history.
In my home city of Portsmouth, a historic ship from the time of Henry the Eighth was pulled out of the harbour in 1982, at the time craning an ancient ship out of the sea without it breaking up, a not so conventional bit of archeology probably not been done before, and I remember as I child watching it at school on live television as it was shown all over the world.
Just a few years later, this ancient boat found in the Galilee in unusually high tide conditions in 1986, archeologists sprayed it in foam and carefully lifted it out.
Mounted in a metal cradle you can see the boat, it has been treated in wax to stop it rotting.
Its dated from the first century AD, so its quite possible it was owned by someone who may have known Jesus maybe.
There is some nice drawings on the wall of this museum, although it is very small, as well as the video showing how it was carefully excavated and cleaned up, you can see the whole exhibition in less than 10 minutes.
Interestingly enough, the boat is fabricated from 12 different types of wood as the colour coding here shows.
Left: photos of the boat being winched out after being covered in foam, and a model shown. Right: a model of what the model looked like in its day.
Ginosar also has these nice new bungalows which look very new which look out onto the sea.
There was also a folk music event happening, there were people camped out and bands playing close to the sea. I asked the man at the car park who was checking tickets where the Jesus boat was, after he spoke to his colleague, I heard him say the word ‘Yeshu’ rather the ‘Yeshua’ this was sad, as the Yeshua is Hebrew for Jesus but Yeshu, spelt similar is a insult sometimes used by critics of Christianity and Messianic Judaism in Israel.
This chap who worked in the gift shop had an interesting tatoo from the Psalms. He told me he is a Jewish believer in Jesus, so I shook his hand 🙂
Next a ferry around the Kinneret…
Check out the official site of the Jesus boat here:
Brit In Jerusalem 