Further Adventures of the French in Israel

Sat 4th of Feb – Shabbat

Started the day with a visit to the Kibbutz where the Galilean fishing boat that was discovered in 1986 has been restored and stored in the museum. A major, meticulous job of digging out the boat from the mud, transporting it to the kibbutz and then preserving the wood, before mounting it for display.

Then went to the Mt of the Beatitudes, on the hill looking across the lake to Tiberius. On the slope of the hill where Jesus would have taught, field poppies, bright red grow. Jesus may have seen the flowers in the field and the city on the hill and referred to them in the Sermon on the Mount.

Following this we went to Tabgo which was the most probably site of Peter’s lead in returning to the fishing trade after the death of Jesus. Here Jesus waited for them to return from an unfruitful night of fishing and having sent them back to cast their nets on the other side of the boat prepares fish for breakfast and questions and commands Peter three times to feed his sheep if he really does love Jesus. Tabgo means “Seven Springs” and was a popular fishing spot. Now you are not to picnic, not allowed to wear shorts, not allowed to swim etc. etc. a place of grace as long as you keep the laws.

Mesar Christo is “Christ’s Table and is the rock which Jesus laid the five loaves and two fish on in the Feeding Miracle. Like many of these sites churches stand not so much to provide places where people can gather, but to venerate the spot. The positive side of this is the spot can be reasonably authenticated because of this annoying habit.

Capernaum was our next port of call. A fishing village, port and major industrial village. Their specialty was olive presses made from the black basalt rock common to the area. This is the site of Simon Peter’s mothers place. The Catholics have built a ‘flying saucer’ church above the site. Rather congruous.

We drove across the Jordan River to the north of the Sea of Galilee. We stopped off to look at a Byzantine church at Kosi which is supposed to be the place of the exorcism of the demoniac. Lunch at Ein Gav Kibbutz where most of us dined on St Peter’s Fish which proved the tax for the boys. Then we drove up to the Golan Heights for an amazing view of the whole of the Sea of Galilee, the greatest inland expanse of water in the Middle East. Drove back down the other side around the lake stopping off at the southern end of the Jordan where it leaves Lake Galilee.