new testament jerusalem field trips

Life is busy here as usual. We’ve had a couple short field trips and I’ve spent every other spare moment in the city.

Sunday we had a field trip to the Burnt house, the Wohl Museum and Davidson Archaeological Park. The Burnt house and the Wohl Museum showed houses that were around during the time of Jesus West of the Temple Mount. They were very nice houses that belonged to priests. Seeing how nice they were and learning more about the lives of the priestly families helped me understand more why Jesus was always condemning the priests. They even had their own ramp that would take them to the Temple Mount so that they wouldn’t come in contact with anyone that could make them ritually impure. It was very interesting.

Davidson Archaeological Park consists of much of the areas South and Southwest of the Temple Mount. This is where the main public access to the Temple Mount complex was. This makes it a likely candidate for the setting of Jesus’ entrances and exits from the Temple. It was really really cool to walk on the steps where Jesus likely also walked. (These steps are in Photo 10 in the newest LDS Bibles)

Yesterday I enjoyed my free day in the Old City. We went to the Dome of the Rock, shopping in the city, lunch at the Austrian Hospice, and strolling through the Jewish Quarter. Oh how I’m going to miss this city…

Today we had a field trip through the Kotel Tunnel. This field trip took us almost the entire length of the Western Wall through tunnels that have recently been excavated. It was really cool and our guide was fabulous. She consolidated so much of what we’ve learned about the Temple into a short one-hour tour. We told Brother Ludlow he’d better watch his back or she’d take over his job J