Was Jesus here?

Last week, we started a series about Tabgha, an area on the north shore of the Galilee believed to be where Jesus called the disciples, preached the Sermon on the Mount, and where tradition observes Him multiplying the bread and fish for 5,000+ men, women, and children.

But there's one more thing believed to have happened in this area, and 1 more church dedicated to it: Jesus cooking the fish on the rock for Peter, charging Him to feed His sheep in John 21.

This was a new place for me to visit. If you aren't on a tour bus, you need to leave your vehicle near the Church of the Multiplication and walk back to the street, walk about 1 block and then you enter the beautiful gardens:

The church itself is built on a large rock that tradition says is where Jesus stood and called to the disciples in John 21. 

Nearby is the harbor:

The inside is simple, with the altar being the rest of the rock:

Can we talk about the windows, though? WOW!

That's it for the tour. It's a simple place, and it can't be proven Jesus stood on that rock exactly. Like I said last week, we know He was in that area of the Galilee, so it could be it. Or it could not. What matters is that this story is real, and we're seeing a possible location for it. 

One more thing... I spotted this sign on the way out and thought it was a beautiful poem:

See you next week!

Where did Jesus feed the 5,000+?

Last week, we talked about the Jesus' miracle of feeding the 5000+ and where it is observed in the Galilee, the Church of the Multiplication. But where did this miracle actually happen?

On a sunny spring Friday in the Galilee, I think I saw the place from above:

The feeding of the 5000+ is in all 4 of the Gospels, one of the only miracles that is in all of them. Both Matthew and Mark say that Jesus and the disciples withdrew to a solitary place. John's account mentions a hill or mountainside, which I'll respond to later. But I want to shine a light on Luke's account:

"Then He took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God and healed those who needed healing. 

Late in the afternoon, the 12 came to him and said, 'Send the crowd away so that they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.'"

Luke 9:10-13

So, according to Luke, this remote place was near Beit Zaida, the hometown of Peter, James, Andrew, and Philip. Luke also uses the word remote in the description. 

The area needed to be big enough for all 5000+ people to sit down, and both Matthew and Mark say there was plenty of room to do so. 

In this photo, taken from Tel Mutilla, you can see the shores of the Galilee. On the shore is a small clump of trees. RIGHT THERE is El Araj, where excavations are currently going on. Last summer, it was concluded that this was Beit Zaida, not the place 2 km (and up a mountain) away.

And stretching beyond that is a plain. Can you see it in the picture? It goes on...

and on (by the way, do you see Gamla in the seam of the mountains in the distance?)

And on!

We saw this place from beside the war memorial at Tel Mutilla, which is up on a hill... not to mention all the hills across the plain (any of those could fit John's description). And while the spectacular view did not fit into 1 camera angle, I tried:

Does this photo (or the 3 above it combined) look like a big enough place with enough grass for around 20,000 people to sit? Does it look desolate/remote? We already know it is beside Beit Zaida. It's also a lot closer to the Golan (literally, it is the Golan now, which is nearer to the Decapolis)

WOW.

We couldn't go to El Araj that day because the rains had made the road impassable. But this view gave a perspective like nothing else could have. I was speechless and overwhelmed. Because, it doesn't take too much imagination to see it all happen right there. 

And then, if you turn to right, you'll see the Galilee spread out before you... which, if you follow the story, the water right in front is likely where Jesus walked on water. 

SERIOUSLY!

And on a beautiful spring Friday, there was beauty all around.

Celebrating the miracle of the Feeding of the 5,000+

Not far from Capernaum is beautiful area of the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. The land here is descends from the hills around the lake and is very rocky, unsuitable for farming. Because of 7 springs that flow into the lake there, trees grow close to the shore and schools of fish are attracted to that area. 

It's believed that this is where Jesus called the disciples, farther up the hill is where He gave the Sermon on the Mount, and fed the 5,000+, somewhere nearby is also where He cooked the fish in John 21. 

Back in 2017, I shared about my trip to the Church of the Multiplication, and my question about how Jesus was heard, both when He fed the multitude, but also during the Sermon on the Mount. by 15,000+ people. In 2018, I found the answer! In 2022, I toured 2 other possible sites for the Sermon on the Mount: Ein Nur (possible) and Horns of Hattin (HIGHLY unlikely).

But I haven't been back to Tabgha since 2017. So I finally got to visit again this past spring. It was a beautiful day to visit 2 sites that while not exact, are close in locations to where these Biblical accounts happened!

Tabgha's name is hard for us to pronounce as English speakers. It's a corruption of the Greek word Eptapegon (7 springs). The Hebrew name for this means the same: Ein Sheva.

Bible Places says Josephus refers to this area as the "well of Capernaum" and says there is evidence of it being an ancient harbor that is only visible when the water level is low.

It is here where there are 2 churches to commemorate 2 specific events: The Church of the Multiplication and the Church of the Primacy of Peter.

This week we'll talk about the Church of the Multiplication!

This church is most well-known for the stone and mosaic that are under the altar, but the building itself is beautiful too:

As I spoke about here, the church itself has been rebuilt on its original foundation after the original (built in several centuries after Jesus ascended into Heaven) was burned down. 

Inside is very simple, in the Byzantine style. But there are some unique features, like beautiful mosaic floors:

(on the wall you can see the original walls and the later ones on top)

and windows that actually aren't glass but stone (alabaster):

And finally, the famous mosaic of the loaves and fishes and the altar, below which is the stone it's said Jesus sat on while He taught the people at the Feeding of the 5000+:

The mosaic is so famous, it's used all over the world as a symbol for this story. It's also on so many different kinds of souvenirs—magnets, paintings, tile, etc.

The funny thing is that it's actually inaccurate. According to Bible Places, the fish in the mosaic have 2 dorsal fins—something none of the fish in the Galilee have! Also, Bible Places points out that the Biblical text says Jesus was near Bet Tsaida, which is on the other side of Capernaum. So this is likely not the place for this miracle. Maybe He was on that rock, maybe not. Either way, it's on the north side of the Galilee, and we know this is where Jesus spent 80% of those 3 ministry years. 

And honestly... when I went back to look for my original blog post on this church, I couldn't find it. Why? I didn't do one because what I cared most about was being in nature and seeing the place Jesus did this, not a rock with a church all around it built almost 400 years after it happened. That's because I connect with God most in nature. That being said, I appreciated being there back then (I think I was cranky from jet lag at that point), and this time I did as well. It was nice to visit again before going to the other church on the property—which I had never been to.

In 2 weeks we'll visit the Church of the Primacy of Peter, but next week is a special surprise!

An alternate site for the Sermon on the Mount?

Back in March, I went with a friend to the Galilee. It was almost time for Shabbat to start as we parked near the lake and scrambled up the hill to this overlook that is marked only by a simple stone with a cross carved into it. 

On the map, this observation point on the north end of the Sea of Galilee is just a dot with a name: Ein Nur. I'd never heard of it until last February, when I discovered the Israeli youtubers Sergio and Rhoda and watched their video on this place. You can watch it here:

Their stuff is pretty good, and I've enjoyed watching their videos. They seem to have solid information. I originally went to the site claiming to be the Mount Beatitudes while on my Bible tour in 2017. It was a beautiful day; I still remember all the butterflies and birds fluttering around the grounds. I had some questions though, but thought it was just my incorrect path of deduction as to where it happened. Like, at the top of the mountain? Why not closer to the water? Where were the people sitting? As Sergio and Rhoda point out in the video, the traditional site is a church that was built in the early 20th century, which was built in the place of a 4th century Byzantine church that had been destroyed.

So, I don't know about all that. Whether or not either site is legit is beyond my capabilities to discern at this moment (maybe one day I can be a tour guide or someone who knows this kind of stuff! How amazing would that be?). Somewhere around there the message happened. Jesus walked those hills around the Galilee so thoroughly that it's likely He stood in both places (assuming Ein Nur wasn't under water, since the lake was higher). 

What I do know is that Jesus was real, the messages He gave were real, and on that Friday evening in March of 2022, while sitting there with the early spring breeze lifting my hair, hearing the birds break the silence of the day already winding down—and the Sabbath to come—there was definitely Shabbat Shalom.

Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: An Answer to My Question

Ahhh! This is too good not to share!

In reading on in Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus, the authors start describing the place where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount.

Remember how I wondered in the post "When Jesus does Math" how the 15,000+ people were able to hear Him speaking, since they were outside—and before sound systems?

Spangler and Tverberg answered this for me! "How is it possible that Jesus could have been heard by thousands of people without a megaphone to amplify His voice? A number of years ago, biblical scholar B. Cobbey Crisler discovered the answer in the land itself. He found that the hillside near this rounded shoreline forms a natural amphitheater. Because of the acoustical properties of the surrounding land, a person could stand at the bottom of the hill or sit in a boat just offshore and be heard by someone far up on the side of the hill. So good were the acoustics that the speaker could talk in a normal voice and be heard" (page 174).

Sounds silly, but I'm so proud of myself for catching this, something I'd never thought of before seeing the place where Jesus taught that famous sermon. And finding this answer today felt like a "Great job being a student of Me, My Daughter" moment.

Thank you, Jesus!

The birds and butterflies of the air...

After sailing on the Sea of Galilee and seeing the ancient boat, we went to the site where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7.

There's a beautiful Catholic church built on the location, but what really struck me were the gardens all around. There were flowers everywhere, with butterflies fluttering about. Birdsong filled the air, and I was struck in wonder at the beauty all around me.

It gave new meaning to me to the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:27-34:

"26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."