Central Benjamin Plateau: which in Includes Jericho

   On this trip we drove in a bus around the Central Benjamin Plateau. The tribe of Benjamin is sandwiched in between Ephraim to the north and Judea to the South. Jerusalem and Jericho are both in this region. We live just outside the border of it. It is a big region of land and very important to Israel. My favorite part of the day was being at Jericho! It was amazing! There has been a significant amount of archeology done there and it all points to the Bible. Surprising? Didn't think so:) It was really amazing seeing the actual place. Jericho actually reminded me of Palm Springs. The whole Rift Valley surrounding the Jordan River actually reminds me of it because it is really dry heat. A truly great day being in the Land of Israel. We drove this area.  I was really impressed by how small the land is. You could probably drive from the Med. to the Jordan river in a hour or 2. It is not big at all, but we have learned that it really is a major and important little chunk of land; most notably it being the land bridge between Europe/Asia with Africa and Egypt. 

  This field trip was a tour of the Benjamin Plateau. The tribe of Benjamin is located in between Judah to the south and Ephraim to the north. This land holds both Jerusalem and Jericho, two major cities of Israel. We started by going west and then looped back to the east as we made our way over to Jericho.

            We started the day with our first stop at Emmaus Nicopolis. This is the traditional site of the walk to Emmaus story found in Like 24. Before we talked about that we looked out into the fog-covered Aijalon Valley. This is one of the main valleys in the Shephelah because it extends further into the hill country than most other valleys. It is a good access route for anyone entering into the hill country because you can get onto the Kiriat Yearim ridge route through the valley. As far as Emmaus goes, this is probably not the site mentioned in Luke 24. This is a Byzantine tradition, but the problem is that the text says it was 7 miles from Jerusalem. The person who said that must have forgotten bible at home the day they found this site because it is not close to 7 miles from Jerusalem. There are a few other possible places for the site of Emmaus. One of them is Abu Gosh, a city just a mile or so from Yad Hashmona. This fits the 7 mile distance and also it would allow them the time to make it back to Jerusalem the same day it happened, which is also what the text says. Then we got back in the bus and drove through the town of Modiim. This is the hometown of Matthias, the father of Judas Maccabaeus. Matthias started the Maccabean revolt against the Greeks when he killed a Greek Solider and Jewish man. He was killed shortly after but his son Judas Maccabeus continued the revolt until they gain independence in 164 B.C., thus the start of the Hasmonian period.

            The ridge we were traveling on is the Beth-Horon ridge Route. This was a major ridge route in antiquity and still to this day. It is a continuous ridge into the hill country that allows travelers to bypass the steep valley and mountain tops.  Along this route the King’s would fortify the cities so that it would keep Jerusalem safe. This route would take the travelers just north of Jerusalem to the road of the Patriarchs, which goes into Jerusalem.  Also the Philistines used this route on seven separate occasions. My favorite is when they tried to attack King David (and God because God was helping David) and King David pushed them all the way from the Rephaim Valley (South west of Jerusalem) to the Beth Horon Ridge route which brought them back to the Coastal Plain. This was after the Philistines were just defeated By King David days before in the Rephaim Valley.

            Our next stop was Nebi Samuel. This is where some people claim the prophet Samuel was buried, but we know that isn’t true because 1 Samuel 25 tells us he was buried at Ramah. We were their not to see the false tombs of Samuel, but to get a good look at the city Gibeon. This is a major city in that the Beth Horon and the Kiriat Yearim ridges route combine here. Also, 2 Chronicles 1 says that Solomon went up the high place at Gibeon and it was there that he received his wisdom from God. The high place of Gibeon looks like it would be the place that we were standing. As you look out around Gibeon you see no other high places around expect the one we were standing on. So, there was a good chance that we were standing were Solomon received all his wisdom. Then we went to Gibeah of Saul. This was the mountain that Saul built his palace on. The positioning was perfect in that it look out on the country in all directions. It would be the perfect place for a leader’s palace. The name of the tel is Tel el Ful. As we were up there we experienced some crazy wind. I know that Tehachapi is known for their wind, but I am not sure I have ever been in wind that strong.

            Our next stop was The Pass. This is a break in the Suwenit Canyon. This canyon is a deep cutting canyon, but at this point it shallows out a bit. This is called the Pass. It is located in between Geba and Michmash. Here we climbed up on a hill their and got a panorama view of the whole setting. We also read the account in 1 Samuel 13 and 14 about Jonathon going from Geba to Michmash and climbing through a deep valley (Suwenit Canyon). He then came up to Michmash and killed 20 men by himself. That was a very cool experience to see where he probably came up through.  Then we took the Taybe Route down into Jericho. That was an experience in itself. This road is practically a single lane road used by 2-way traffic. The other factor is that we are on a cliff the whole way. It was fun doing that in a bus. We saw shepherds on the mountain sides. This is where the mountains of Israel are. Jericho sits around -1400 in elevation, whereas Jerusalem is around 1600. This is a big drop in elevation so the mountains were huge and beautiful. Jericho is the lowest/oldest city on Earth and we got to see evidence to both of that.

            When we got to the ancient site of Jericho we went first to the spot where the wall collapsed on itself. The retaining walls still stood but the city wall had fallen down from the retaining wall and the bricks were underneath the retaining wall, just like the text says. There has been debate on the dating of the wall but the truth is that the wall dates back to the same time it was destroyed by Joshua as the Biblical account tells us. This was in the Late Bronze Age, more specifically 1406 B.C. Then we went to another part of the ancient city that they discovered. It was a big tower that dates back even further than that wall. If I am not mistaken it is the older known structure. It dates back to the Neolithic time period. After reading the Jericho account in Joshua 6 we went to see the place in which they found pots of grain. This is a huge discovery because we know that it was right after harvest. Grain is a valuable thing to the people of antiquity so chances are they would not just leave a ton of grain behind when they left. That would be like leaving money behind when you moved out of you house. But, if they were rushed out of the town or if there town suddenly collapsed then it seems logical that they would leave all there grain behind. Also the grain was burned and there was a burn layer in the same layer the pots are in. This is more evidence to the biblical account because God told Joshua to devote the city to destruction. The burn layer in and around the pots of grain are key support for the biblical account. The interesting thing about Jericho is that it is only 10 acres big. The modern city is much larger but the ancient city is only 10 acres. Why would 600,000 Israelites be afraid of a city that is 10 acres big? That is an interesting question. My unformulated thoughts are because they are just coming out of 40 years in the desert and are not fighting people. They haven’t been fighting and have heard stories of great big people in the land. They were probably afraid because they didn’t trust the Lord enough and they were not used to fighting. That is my thoughts, which may be easily proven wrong. We quickly stopped by the spring that Elisha struck and made clean in 2 Kings 2:1.

            After that we went to King Herod’s Palace. This is not mentioned in the Bible but it is a Palace of Herod the great. It was quite the place. The whole thing stretches over the Wadi Quilt. In fact I would say that it is larger than the Ancient city of Jericho and was only a few miles from the ancient city.  After that we went back to the Moshav via the Ascent of Adummim, which is the southernmost route from Jericho to Jerusalem.

            

This is Gibeon. We are standing on the High place of Gibeon

This is how they make the huge stones. They chisle the sides and then put lumber in the gap. then they wet the lumber so that it expands and pushes the rock out

Just a police car

The fortress at Gibeah of Saul

the bus ride down into the rift Valley but the Jordan River. this is the descent out of the Hill Country.

Its is video

Out in front of Jericho

That my friends is where the walls came tumbling down. The brick wall tumbled over that retaining wall there. The wall is the part with the rock in it. 

That is the structure dating back to the neolithic age. It would have been much taller. A lookout for the city

Lydia, Andie, Jen, and Christina at Jericho

Me, Christian, and Joel in the same spot

This is where they found the pottery and the burn layer

That is the pottery with the grain in it. Very helpful and critical discovery

Some of our group marching around Jericho

Thanks for looking! Thanks for the prayers!!!

Ben and Christina