IN THE MORNING there were four empty wine bottles in our trash, but for some reason we didn’t feel sick!

Although we had originally planned to stay another day in Jerusalem, on the spur of the moment we decided instead to rent a car and drive up to the Sea of Galilee. You may wonder why we didn’t retrace all of Jesus’s steps, but this city of Jerusalem seemed to have been built centuries after Jesus’s time, even the Via Dolorosa where he carried his cross, so we contented ourselves with merely soaking up the general atmosphere.

We checked out of our hotel and, with our baggage on our backs, headed for the line-up of rental car agencies on King David Street right outside the Jaffa Gate. After getting quote after quote, we went with Avis for $233 for a week, everything included and unlimited miles, the insurance covered by my Visa Gold card. Our plan was to drive up to the Sea of Galilee and drop off the car at a different Avis location when we were through.

With several maps in hand and Joy driving, we found our way out of Jerusalem. Our goal was to cover as many of the spots along the way mentioned in the Urantia Book as we could. For comparison we had three maps: David Kantor’s map of first century Palestine, the Avis rent-a-car map, and a map of Biblical Holy lands I’d found in a book store in Jerusalem. 

In blissful ignorance we drove “as the crow flies” according to our maps, straight through the West Bank, in and out of Arab occupied territories. We looked for places to eat but found none. At one checkpoint we even calmly asked an armed guard for directions to Jacob’s Well in Schechem. He tried to help us but when we saw that he was holding our map upside down, we politely thanked him and he waved us to go on, shrugging his shoulders. (It wasn’t until the next day, when we described our drive to someone, that we realized we’d risked our lives driving through Palestinian-occupied territories!)  

In January of this year, A.D. 21, on a rainy Sunday morning, Jesus took unceremonious leave of his family, only explaining that he was going over to Tiberias and then on a visit to other cities about the Sea of Galilee. And thus he left them, never again to be a regular member of that household. 

He spent one week at Tiberias, the new city which was soon to succeed Sepphoris as the capital of Galilee; . . . [1419

Entering Tiberias late in the afternoon I was taken aback at how it had grown since my 1978 visit. Twenty years earlier it had seemed like a small place but now it was a maze of concrete high-rises and shops, a major resort. I had envisioned us staying at the great stone Youth Hostel I remembered, but it was impossible to find, so we drove a little further until we reached Nof Ginosar, a kibbutz that offered accommodations recommended by our UB friends. This is the location, known in the UB as Gennesaret, that Jesus favored when he sought rest.

Jesus then announced that he wished to withdraw for a few days of rest with his apostles before they made ready to go up to Jerusalem for the Passover, . . . Accordingly they went by boat to the region of Gennesaret for two or three days of rest and sleep. [1704]

[They] made their way to Gennesaret on the western shores of the lake of Galilee, south of Capernaum, where they had appointed to meet with David Zebedee, and where they intended to take counsel as to the next move to be made in the work of preaching the gospel of the kingdom. [1741]

While resting at the home of a wealthy believer in the Gennesaret region, Jesus held informal conferences with the twelve every afternoon. [1705]

The hotel rooms were $120 but they happened to have a vacancy in their less swanky “inn” section—little bungalow-type places with covered outdoor patio areas and shared kitchens, set back in vast lawns. Our total for an entire week was $350 for two, an enormous breakfast included.

After dropping our bags in the room, we sought out the restaurant in the main building, not having eaten all day. It was too early but the bar area offered us soup and a salad, which we shared. While I stayed there with my guidebooks and Urantia Book, Joy went up for an enormous buffet costing 64 shekels -- about $14! Had I been hungrier I would have joined her, but at that moment it would have been wasted on me.

Joy seemed to be going to bed earlier and earlier—tonight turning in at 7:30. I stayed in the main building watching the tourists come and go, and returned to our room around nine.

GINOSAR - THE GATEWAY TO CHRISTIAN GALILEE
For Christians, the Galilee is where Christianity began. It was along the shores of the Sea of Galilee that the  profound events surrounding the life and times of Jesus unfolded. It was among the fishing villages dotting the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee that Jesus began his ministry. Ginosar (the biblical Genezareth) lies on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, which is really a freshwater inland lake. As you stand on Ginosar's stone jetty that juts out into the lake, you will see the waves lapping gently against the shore. On this very same stretch of shoreline, two thousand years ago, the fishermen disciples of Jesus mended their nets, repaired their boats, and set off each day in the hope of a good catch. And on this very shoreline, Jesus converted the first Apostles from catchers of fish to fishers of men. Ginosar has always played a central role in the life of the Galilee. In the days of old, caravans used to stop at Ginosar on their way from Egypt to Syria along the ancient Spice Route. Today, Ginosar is the ideal starting point from which to visit the entire Christian Galilee. Nazareth, Capernaum, Mt. Tabor, Tabgha, Cana and dozens of other names with which you are familiar from your Bible, are all within easy reach of Ginosar. [Taken from a now-defunct website]

previous

next