One Big Mediterranean Village

Many Christians overlook Caesarea when they visit Israel. Caesarea is very interesting, but lets face it; when you have a limited amount of time and you came all that way for a religious experience, you can't afford to waste time. The bottom line is that Caesarea is about Rome, not about Jesus.





The Roman Empire was something new and different in this neck of the woods. (That’s why it's called the 'Classic Period' and not 'Ancient History'.) It's not as if the Romans were imaginative or inventive. Romans weren't original. They conquered other people and hijacked their resources and ideas and civilizations, and by fusing those cultures they produced a new society. The sea had always served as a barrier, a natural defense between nations, but once it was a Roman sea, the Mediterranean was transformed into a conduit of goods and information connecting diverse cultures from the farthest corners of the known world. Perhaps not today's 'global village', but certainly one big 'Mediterranean village' and the only village around.

When you think about it, it's odd that Rome left such a significant mark on little far away Israel. Yet by far there are more Roman ruins and artifacts here than from any period before or after. Even the sites most identified with the holy land are actually Roman. The Wailing Wall – Roman; Al Aqsa, on a Roman built forum. So how did Rome come into ownership of the land of Israel?

To answer that, one must understand family dynamics. When my little brother Barry and I were kids we would fight over stuff. The rule was that if we took it to my mom, then no matter what it was, no matter who was right, my mom got it. That's how we learned to always settle things between ourselves and to never bother my mom.

In 67 B.C. the Hasmoneans ruled Judea. Two Hasmonean princes with funny names, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, got into a big fight over which one would get to be the king. Their mom was deceased, so the boys unwisely took the matter to the next best thing - Pompey, the Roman governor of nearby Syria. Naturally Pompey knew all about my mom's rule, so since the kids couldn't play nice, Pompey (in the name of Rome) got the kingdom.

Pompey let his good friend Antipater the Idumean administrate Judea. Antipater had been a pagan, but converted to Judaism, so the Romans figured it was a good fit. Jewish enough to relate to the Judeans, but pagan enough to serve his Roman masters.

Antipater was succeeded by his son Herod the Great, so called to tell him from his little known cousin, Herod the Loser. Herod (the Great) was determined to integrate his new kingdom with Rome's Mediterranean Village, and to do this he needed a deep sea harbor. The only problem was that the east Mediterranean coast running north from the mouth of the Nile until modern day Haifa is devoid of natural harbors. Until then, all the ports in ancient land of Israel had simply been river inlets to the sea.

Not one to be thwarted by geology, Herod chose a most unlikely site. As a rule of thumb, all cities in ancient times were founded near fertile land in order to feed the population, a source of water and on a site that can be easily defended. Herod picked a flat spot of beach real estate surrounded by sand dunes to build the city he would call Caesarea.

Most histories claim that Herod built Caesarea. This is not true. Herod was much too busy in his palace cooking up schemes to murder his family and baby Jesus. Slaves and Roman engineers built Caesarea. Using the latest in Roman technology, they built breakwaters out into the sea laying cement that sets underwater, producing Sebastos, the largest artificial harbor in the Mediterranean. The city was to be a hub of commerce, so lack of nearby farmland was not an issue – they would buy food. Diverting subterranean water reservoirs with a system of shafts and tunnels in the Carmel mountains 20 miles away, they were able to flood a dammed up coastal plain of almost 2000 acres, thus producing enough pressure to transport water by gravitation in aqueducts to the city center. As for fortifications, Caesarea's defense was a good offence – a staging point for legions to crush any potential threat.

Romans weren't all work and no play. An amphitheater large enough to hold horse races (seating an estimated 5000 spectators) was built along the beach, and a theater added to the south, facing the sea (Later to be abandoned; the view is breathtaking, but in the afternoons until sundown the audience is blinded by the setting sun. Eventually a new one had to be built facing north. Wonder what became of the architect responsible for that snafu….) Herod's palace was built on a promontory jutting out into the sea, complete with swimming pool surrounded by a portico. The palace was located so as to be within visual contact with the port, amphitheater and theater. Much like a laptop, the king and Roman procurators that succeeded him could monitor their investments in real time, or flip over to the latest diversion – all from the comfort of home.

Caesarea was a modern concept and it worked. The only major port on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean and on the crossroads of the Via Maris, it funneled goods from east to west, and legions from west to east. Within a century it replaced Jerusalem as capital of 'Provincia Palesina" after Jewish Judea had been crushed.

With trade flourishing in the Mediterranean and an efficient network of roads, there was a revolution in communications – suddenly people on opposite sides of the empire were only a message away.

CaesarChat, 33 A.D.

Tiberius wrote: Hey, PP - what's up?
(2 months later)
Pontius Pilate wrote: Not much, Tibi. Galilean noob says he's Messiah. lol
(2 months later)
Tiberius wrote: Messiah???
(2 months later)
Pontius Pilate wrote: Jewish king lol
(2 months later)
Tiberius wrote: kill him
(2 months later)
Pontius Pilate wrote: did that, but he's alive again lol
(2 months later)
Tiberius wrote: OMG
(2 months later)
Pontius Pilate wrote: U reckon?

A dedication carved in limestone was found in the theater mentioning Pontius Pilate, one of the few pieces of physical evidence supporting the story told in the New Testament. But this is only a subtle hint to the role Caesarea played in the Christian story. It was from here that the baton was passed from an underground sect of Jews to the nations.
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Saint Peter was sleeping on the roof one day (As one who lives in sunny Israel, I find that in itself a miracle.) when an angel appeared and laid out a spread of clam chowder, fried shrimp, sizzling bacon and cheese burgers - all yummy, none Glatt kosher. "Dig in," commands the angel. (I often go up on my roof hoping to see this angel, but it seems his appearances are limited to Reform Rabbis.) Obviously, there was only one thing to do after a miracle like this – go report it to Cornelius, the Roman commandant in Caesarea. It took no more than putting tref on the menu to convince Cornelius to convert to Christianity, and the rest is history.

Caesarea was the launching point of Christianity. From here the apostle Paul set out to spread the gospel, where he preached to Agrippa, and where he was imprisoned and wrote his epistles until sent to Rome.

If Jesus would have arrived at any time prior or any place other than Rome's Mediterranean village, his message would have stagnated in a local Judean backwater. But ironically, the very empire that sought to suppress the new faith facilitated it. Christianity traveled the same arteries of commerce that sustained Rome, new congregations networked on Imperial lines of communication, and words could never have been more convincing that the living object lessons of martyrs in the arenas, produced and directed by Rome.

So while Israel is the cradle of Christianity, the Mediterranean village was its playground. In Caesarea you see the port from where the word was spread to every nation, the courts where saints defended their faith and the arena where they paid the price. It's all there.

If you want to understand Christ, you have to see Israel; if you want to understand Christianity, go to Caesarea.

Transfiguration

In Israel where half the enlisted men are women, the old cliché "I ran into an old army buddy" doesn't always mean a reunion of brothers. Once upon a Yom Kippur, I was a young Israeli soldier pulling guard duty on a base near Haifa. Left behind while our comrades were fasting with their families, we unhappy few sat at the gate to pass the time. A girl (soldier) became the center of attention. And not (only) because of her feminine wiles - which would only be natural, her being the only female stuck on base with a bunch of lonely young men. No, she had something much more interesting, more mysterious, going for her. She had Jesus.

Her name was Melody. Between snacks, a few self appointed defenders of the Jewish faith were poking fun, although not successfully, as their ignorance of her faith, not to mention their own, was painfully obvious. Nonplussed by her tormentors, Melody was radiant, even cheerful. Maybe that's why I remember her 25 years later. Her warmth. Heat.

I grew up in the Church. I'd heard it all before, and it left me cold. For me, Christianity was an institution, churches, theology, rules. So her message wasn't new to me, but I was impressed by her delivery.

25 years later, Melody is a guide to Christian holy places. Naturally, I was curious. Is she still a believer? No, she laughed, but it’s a good living.

She met us at the Catholic Church on Mount Tabor. No trouble finding it. You can't miss it; it's just next door to the Greek Orthodox church. Mount Tabor is where 'The Church' claims Jesus took Peter, James and John to witness His transfiguration, which was a cosmic coming out of the closet, with Moses and Elijah making a cameo appearance. The disciples, who had always suspected that Jesus had divine tendencies, were nevertheless taken back.

Peter was psyched. "Hey Jesus, lets build three tabernacles up here for You and your friends!"
Jesus was less than excited about the idea. "I don't know…."
But Peter was on a roll. "You're right. Why think small? Tabernacles won't do. We'll build a huge church right here on top of the mountain. People will see it for miles around and come from far and wide, from all over the world! Just think of the tourist income! Think what it will do for the local economy!"
Jesus: "Peter, you're starting to sound like Judas."
Moses (to Jesus): "What's going on? Nobody said anything about this when they told me to come down here!"
Peter: "If we make the church big enough, visitors will be able to celebrate mass!"
Moses: "Mass?"
Jesus had heard enough. "We're finished here, guys. Let's go!"
Moses and Elijah headed on up to heaven while Jesus hustled His favorite disciples back to join the others – but not before reminding them to keep His little secret. Peter promptly posted it on his blog.

Melody says that Mount Hermon looks like a more likely candidate than Tabor for the mountain where Jesus was transfigured, but the Catholic Church owns real estate on Mt. Tabor, so that's where they built the Church of the Transfiguration. Inspired by St. Peter, the Italian architect Antonio Barlucci designed the church to appear like three (very fancy) tabernacles, with two small ones on either side of a big one (for Jesus, of course). The ceiling over the sanctuary is inlayed with alabaster to create an effect of heavenly light streaming down on the worshipers celebrating mass, but has been covered with a lead dome because the alabaster roof turned out to be leaky.

The village of Cana is where Jesus performed His first miracle by turning ordinary water into fine wine. Today the locals turn cheap hooch into tourist dollars. The Roman Catholic church is right across the alley from the Greek Orthodox one. The reason that you find so many holy sites with Catholic and Orthodox churches next to each other isn't because Greeks and Catholics like each other so much; it's more like McDonalds and Burger King setting up shop in the same food court at the mall. Pure and simple, its good ol' fashioned American competition.

In Nazareth, St. Gabriel's (Greek Orthodox) marks the place where Mary became the first virgin in history to test positive with a home pregnancy kit. Unlike Catholics, who clutter their churches with statues, Greek Orthodox churches have icons. Icons are simply 2 dimensional versions of Catholic images which can best described as saints who have been run over by a steamroller. These icons have nothing whatsoever to do with the icons you see on the Internet. Everyone knows that images on the net are creations of the Geek Orthodox Church.

The Catholic Church of the Annunciation is a short walk down Main Street from (you guessed it) the Greek Orthodox establishment. Its all about Mary at Annunciation. It reminds me of the joke about the proverbial fat girl in 3rd grade – she was so big that no matter where you sat in the classroom, you ended up sitting next to the fat girl. Melody pointed out the Mary mosaics on the walls,

Mary statues on the walls,

Mary in the fountain,

Mary on the door, and so on. You can't avoid Mary at Annunciation. (They also worship Jesus. He's the baby being cradled by some of the Marys.)

Melody finished the day at a rather neglected church crammed between vendors' stalls in the market which (they say) is the synagogue where Jesus prayed. It was the only place we visited where I thawed a little. Maybe because it wasn't just another grand monument to human creativity and endeavor; maybe because it was the only place that took us back to Jesus' Jewish roots.

Churches still leave me cold, but in 25 years I've warmed to Jesus. So it’s a bit ironic meeting Melody again. "Back then, I loved the story about a God who loves us so much," she recalls. "I wanted it to be true, so I believed it." Now she's not sure if Jesus ever existed. Still, when she talks about churches and their stories, its with warmth. I guess she's just a warm person.

When we started the day on Mount Tabor, Melody explained that "transfiguration" is a change in perception, how someone is percieved, not a change in being. Jesus didn't take on a different form on the mountain, rather his disciples saw Him for who He is. For 25 years Melody had existed in my mind as the glowing, red hot follower of the Messiah. But Melody isn't a memory, and in the course of that day she was transfigured back into person. A person with a life, a human being who's on a journey and has yet to arrive. But for at least for now, I see her for who she is.

A lot of things change in the space of a life time, so I guess it shouldn't be surprising that after 2000 years the Church that erupted with a simple, beautiful story about God's love has frozen solid into an icy institution carved by men. I don't think that Jesus has been transformed by the Church, but there has been a definite change in how He is presented and perceived.

Kind of like a transfiguration in reverse.

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Church Hopping

And now we finally come to the subject of Christianity. Yaki, our guide and instructor is Jewish and I suspect an atheist to boot, so his take on Jesus and the New Testament is a bit different than the one I recall. (To remind the reader, I did 19-20 years of hard time paying my debt to society in Sunday School.) Naturally, if Jesus is the subject de jour, a day in the field on the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee is mandatory. This was Jesus and his gang of disciples' stomping ground, where he spent most of his ministry and performed the majority of his miracles.

We started at an octagonal Roman Catholic church run by grumpy Italian nuns on the Mount of the Beatitudes. Yaki took us off to the side, hopefully out of the evil nuns' earshot, to explain at length about the Sermon on the Mount. Yaki thinks that even if Jesus existed, he never said or did the things 'they' say he did and in fact 'they' made it all up. He says that the Sermon on the Mount is a Christian invention meant to copy Moses giving the Torah on Mount Sinai. Yaki has a point; Jesus would have been a lot more original if he would have given the sermon in a bar. Jesus didn't really say anything new (Which is to be expected, him plagiarizing the Torah and all.); he just said that it's not enough to be good, but you have to really mean it. The nerve.

(In the meantime I'm on the lookout for angry nuns. Seeing how nasty they are to Catholic pilgrims, I can only imagine what they would do to a bunch of Jews bad mouthing Jesus.)

Despite my aversion to all things Catholic, I had to admit that the place is breathtaking. A short shower cleared the haze over the Sea of Galilee and freshened the gardens around the church. I decided to keep a safe distance from Yaki while he was Jesus-baiting and wandered in the grounds.

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It was a Sunday and groups from Brazil, Mexico, Germany and England had arrived in the meantime and finding quiet corners here and there, were celebrating mass. The Church has recently built a hostel for visitors, although this is misleading as from appearances it deserves at least four stars. As appealing as it looks, spending a night under the same roof with the cranky nuns isn't my idea of fun.

If I had the guts, I'd ask the nuns why they planted a big ol' church (with a big ol' plaque honoring the Pope that donated the funds to build it) smack on the spot where Jesus told his followers to (1) pray in private and (2) give alms in secret. As we were leaving, I wondered aloud if very many non-Catholics visit the place. I mean, the church and the bougainvilleas and the view are really swell, but they came all this way to see a hillside where Jesus spoke to the masses. You see lots of Catholicism, not much Jesus. Yaki is convinced that Evangelicals like the place, but my bet is that if they come at all, the first thing they do is cut through the garden and around the church, and head for the fence on the other side overlooking the lake.

Our next stop was at the bottom of the mount on the shore at the Church of the Primacy of Peter at Tabgha. This is where the Catholics say that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he rose from the dead. He asked Peter, who was apparently sitting on a rock at the time having lunch, to feed his sheep. The disciples, none of them being the sharpest tool in the shed and all of them being Roman Catholics, immediately set to work and built a church over the rock and made Peter the pope. In the meantime, a flock of sheep in Nazareth starved to death.

Yaki sat us down behind the church on the beach for yet more heresy, but coming in I noticed that the priest in charge of the place was being distracted by a couple of giggling (female) Filipinos that couldn't get enough of him, so I was pretty sure we were safe.

Next door to the Church of Peter's Primacy is the Church of the Multiplication. This is an odd name, as the Catholics are notoriously poor in mathematics. This is where the Church has decided that Jesus performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes, although anyone who has read the New Testament and is familiar with the local geography knows that the miracle could have taken place at any number of places around the lake except for Tabgha.

Unlike most churches which are closed all week and open only on Sundays, the Church of the Multiplication is open all week and closed on Sundays, so we didn't get to visit. Rats. Yaki says the place is worth a visit in our spare time if we get a chance. He explained that when the Church started building churches (After being legalized in 324 by Constantine the Great.), they built structures using the blueprints of pagan temples and simply translated the symbolism of idolatry to a Christian message. The Church of the Multiplication, built recently but on the guidelines of the ancient structures, is a standing example of what almost all churches looked like after Christianity came out of the closet.

Now, after Peter became the first pope they hadn't built Vatican City yet, so Peter had to live with his mother-in-law in Capernaum, which is just down the road from Tabgha. Not only was Peter the pope, but he was known for cracking great mother-in-law jokes from the pulpit. It wasn't long before they had to remodel the place to contain the ever growing congregation in Capernaum, and after Christianity was legalized they flattened the house and built an octagonal church instead. Unfortunately, in the meantime Peter had got fed up with living with his mother-in-law and had moved to Rome where he was crucified upside down.

Our visit to Capernaum was the first place in the day that smacked of authenticity and not Catholicism. A modern, round church has been built suspended over the ruins of the ancient one. Yaki fondly calls it "the flying saucer". The ruins which can be seen from under the church and from an opening inside are probably the first church built ever. They reflect the development of the Church from Jewish roots to an underground movement to an established state-recognized institution. An average home like any of the others on the site was renovated internally to allow large numbers of believers to congregate (but not externally lest it draw the attention of the authorities), and then in the fourth or fifth century was turned into a place of pilgrimage.

A fifth century synagogue a stones throw from the church, built of white limestone while the local stone is black basalt, was obviously imported. The Christian Byzantines prohibited the building of new synagogues, so it's possible that the local Jewish community purchased an existing building elsewhere, transported it here and reassembled it on its present site. Or perhaps the Church wanted a standing synagogue for pilgrims who wanted to see the synagogue where Jesus preached (John 6:59). Anyway you look at it, the white synagogue in Capernaum is a product of the Church.

While the Catholic church may have reinterpreted the pagan architecture, they didn't succeed in sterilizing the interior decorating of idolatry. It's hard to pick out Jesus among the host of images in a Catholic Church. I've been to quite a few churches over the last few months, and save for notable exceptions like the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the nun's church on the Mount of the Beatitudes, all of them are dedicated to saints, not Jesus.

The little girl with the doll caught my eye in the Greek Orthodox church at Capernaum. She was fascinated by the Madonna and child, and repeated approached the icon and imitated Mary cradling her doll like baby Jesus.

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We ended the day at the baptismal site at Yardenit. Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, but probably quite a bit downriver at Kassar el Yahud near the Dead Sea. Today the water flowing in the Jordan is for the most part treated and untreated sewage, so this spot near the Sea of Galilee where the water is still fresh is favored by Christians that want to be baptized in the waters that Jesus was. This is a site oriented to the Protestant crowd, and we came just in time to witness the baptism of a physician from California by Pastor Bob. He told his friends and family gathered around about his life since he had come to faith as a young medical student, then joined Christ symbolically under the water as Pastor Bob dunked him.

For me this underlined the difference between the Evangelical experience and Catholic pilgrimage. The Evangelical comes here seeking a closer relationship with Jesus. They want to see where he grew up, trace his footsteps and follow his ministry unobstructed by changes in the scenery, including beautiful churches, over the last 2000 years. And they want to meet his people, the Jews that live here today.
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For Catholics, it's all about the Church. They want to see the "Church Triumphant", and are perfectly willing to accept the interpretations they are spoon-fed by their clergy regardless if it contradicts historical research or even common sense. As the Pope's last visit to Israel made clear, the Catholic attitude towards Israelis is that they are trespassers, in both definitions of the word, in the holy land.

During the day Yaki mentioned the three towns Jesus cursed – Korazim, Bethesda and Capernaum (Luke 10:13-15). The first two are deserted ruins, but before Christians get too smug with this knowledge, consider this. The same earthquake that flattened the cursed towns also destroyed Christian Hippos known for the number of churches out of all proportion to the number of inhabitants. And Jesus' prophesy hasn't been totally fulfilled. There's still a small community of Franciscans living in Capernaum.

Better watch out………