Holy Land Notes

1. Herod the Great or Herod I is the Herod in the Bible. There were other Herods, his sons. 

2. Herod was not Jewish. He was from Edom, and his mother was a Nabatean, that is an Arab of the famous Petra area in Jordan.

3. Herod had a huge security detail that included Celtic and Germanic soldiers. It was a small world. Long before the Crusaders! Modern globalization is nothing.

4. Herod the great lived at the same time as Cleopatra and Mark Antony. They met.

5. St George is not English! He was a Roman soldier of Greek ancestry.

6. There were mummies in Israel too, because of the Egyptian influence. Egypt ruled over the land at one point.

7. Many of the people I met call cedars, pine, and they call cypress, oak. I heard this both in Israel and Jordan.

8. Limestone is called Jerusalem rock. All those mountains! And walls and buildings made of limestone!

9. Mountains and valleys, and valleys and mountains. Up and down and around them. Amazing landscape. The olive groves, pomegranate tree groves, vineyards. The blue skies and lush gardens.

Now they have banana and mango plantations. Thriving too.

10. Bedouins, the nomads, in Jordan have houses and cars, and of course, tents.

11. The interesting customs and traditions of the orthodox Jews and Muslims and Christians that are so alike, in spite of our preconceived notions about just the differences.

12. The keys to the place where Jesus is buried is held by a Muslim family. They open it every morning, and close it every night, apparently. This is because of the power struggles among the different Churches. Obviously everyone wants the key!

13. The place where Jesus ascended to the Heavens is a mosque owned by a Muslim who lets everyone in to visit.

14. The promised land is Jericho that Moses saw from the top of Mt Nebo. And Jericho is in Palestine.

15. The Dead sea scrolls in the Qumran caves were stored in clay urn. 

16. The innumerable excavations, the well preserved layers of history - ancient, Byzantine, Roman.
The cities and markets unearthed. The highly ascetic, disciplined (and misogynistic) lives of the scribes at the Qumran site.

17. Noah’s ark and the flood happened in Turkey. Had forgotten that point.

18. St Peter’s fish is Tilapia.

19. The significance of the undying olive trees- the tree of life. 

20. The beauty of the Sea of Galilee, which is really a lake cradled among mountains.

21. Pomegranate is the royal fruit because of the crown on it. I saw ancient pomegranates unearthed from the long time ago in Egypt or Cyprus in the 13th/ 14th century BC in the Israeli Museum.

22. Jerusalem Cross, with its 4 little extra crosses

23. The myna birds, originally from India, are considered to be invasive in Israel

24. The utter isolation and barrenness of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, near Jericho. Still, the Bedouins breath life into it.Hump backed mountains all around me. And the caves.

25. If you wondered how Queen Helena (later St Helena) knew where these significant spots were, where Jesus walked, did his miracles, preached, and died and rose again, the answer is simple. When Jesus died, and his followers started to multiply, the Romans went and built their temples in all those spots. Made it easy for Helena, I was told.

And last, but not the least, The incredible feeling of sadness and resignation. 
I had thought I would feel sad/emotional ( because even though I am not religious, I am suggestible, even gullible) when I saw the places where Jesus the man who preached indiscriminate love, walked. I did feel a little sad, at the Dominus Flevit, where Jesus wept looking at Jerusalem.

And at the fourth station in the Via Dolorosa, when Mary saw her son,beaten, bloodied and hurt and carrying this huge cross, her heart broke.Even though it was all overshadowed by the bustling market streets of the bazaar. All the life around me. it kept coming back to me in quiet moments.

Just like the amazing rock formations in southern Jordan. Some like temple gopurams carved into rocks. Others resembling elephants and camels and fish and such, and the colors on them!

Wadi Musa - Moses’ Valley- where Petra is. The mountains that built walls to block the skies.

The incredible feeling of sadness and resignation came from the extraordinary number of European churches in the most significant spots for Christians. Including the Holy Sepulcher church, (built by Queen Helena)where the tomb of Jesus is. The divisions. Among Christians, and between religions. I did feel like a new convert, Judaism being the old religion. A convert in India, where Hinduism is the old religion. A convert in Israel, where Judaism is the old religion. Yes, I am repeating myself. The paradox. And Christianity is over 2000 years old. Can’t really call it new! And my ancestors are supposed to have been Christians since that time. So it doesn’t make sense, really. But I felt the rift, the alienation, the futility- but then that’s me! 

Well, it may have been because I got a glimpse of what many Jews thought or not thought at all about Jesus and Christians. I had never given it much thought before. It was a jolt. How do they see something that doesn’t exist for them? 

However, I loved the landscapes, and the histories enveloping them, underneath them. I felt I was an organic part of it, in spite of the superficial alienation of which I spoke of earlier.

And Petra! The stories those rocks and the siqs could tell! Thousands of years worth. The camel caravans laid with goods from all corners of the then known world! The traders, the travellers, the monks. The ideas that were exchanged. The eyes that were opened to new wonders and thoughts. The crimes that must have been committed. Solved. Hidden.For ages.
The wailings. The laughter. 
The hopes.
The life. 
The death.

Fun fact: Our Lord’s prayer is displayed in many languages in the church where Jesus was supposed to have taught it to his disciples. Malayalam is there. And Sanskrit. But Sanskrit is not Sanskrit. It is Manglish! Hehe

I was a little miffed at the power of the different churches displayed in the holy spots. The Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, represented by the Italian, French and Spanish contingents, the Coptic, the Ethiopian. Yes we are Roman Catholics.But we are not there! And we are one of the oldest. Why did we run after the Europeans? Isn’t it time we had our own Church?