Day Nine: Amman to the Sea of Galilee

The Tour Itinerary:
We will depart Amman and drive north to the Sheikh Hussein border crossing where we will cross from Jordan back into Israel. We will then proceed to the Sea of Galilee and enjoy a scenic boat ride on its waters. Afterwards we will proceed to the town of Tiberias for check‐in at our hotel located on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

We left the hotel at 7:00 on our drive to the Jordan/Israel border. Emad, our guide, provided us an overview of how the work week and year are structured in Jordan. The work week is Sunday through Thursday. He enumerated the national holidays and added that Christians are given time off on Christmas and Easter. Then he described the educational and health care systems. Both of those are structured similar to those in Western countries.

We reached the border at 10:30. The process of crossing into Israel was basically the same as when we came the other direction. Our bags were moved from one bus to another, we went through passport control on both the Jordanian and Israeli side, and the Israelis had us put all our bags through scanners. The procedure cost us two hours. We finally departed around 12:30 and Rami, our guide in Israel, rejoined us.

In a short while we were driving along the shore of the Sea of Galilee which is also called the Sea of Tiberias and Lake Gennesaret. Calling this body of water a "sea" is a misnomer since it is only about 13 miles long and 8 miles wide. As we drove, Rami pointed out a number of geographical things of note such as the Golan Heights. Galilee itself is very green with farms covering most of the land. Galilee is today and was at the time of Jesus the bread basket of Israel. Its climate is similar to California's and, like California, it can have up to three crops on a piece of land in a year. A shot of the Sea in the late afternoon is below.

The Sea of Galilee lies on the ancient Via Maris which linked Egypt with the empires in Mesopotamia and Anatolia. The Greeks, Hasmoneans, and Romans founded many towns and settlements on the land-locked lake. The first-century historian Flavius Josephus was impressed by the area and reported a thriving fishing industry at this time with 230 boats regularly working in the lake. Because of the traffic through the area, some scholars think that Jesus may have

reached out to passing travelers. There is, however, no textual support for this.

We had lunch at a little cafe then drove to a dock where we took a short boat ride on the Sea of Galilee (picture of a similar boat is below). One of the workers on the boat showed us how fishing nets were cast during Biblical times, and then he organized a little dance party in an open area on the boat. We could see fish when we looked over the side of the boat. People still fish here, but there is apparently no commercial fishing.

We moved on to the Church of the Primacy of St. Peter located in Tabgha, Israel, on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was built in 1933 and incorporates the remains of an apse that was part of a 4th century church. The church commemorates, and may mark the spot, of Jesus's naming of Peter as chief among the Apostles. The church contains a projection of limestone rock in front of the present altar which is venerated as a "Mensa Christi", Latin for table of Christ (see next page). According to tradition this is the spot where Jesus is said to have laid out a breakfast of bread and fish for the Apostles and told Peter to "feed my sheep" after a miraculous fish catch, the third

time he appeared to them after his resurrection (John 21:1-24). There is also another table of Christ enshrined at the Mensa Christi Church in Nazareth. Interestingly, both the latter church and the Primacy church are owned by the Franciscans.

We got to our hotel at 5:00. It is a pretty hotel with a very nice view of the Sea of Galilee. The bottom picture on previous page was taken from my hotel room.

Accommodations: Caesar Hotel
> 103 Promenade Street, Tiberias, Israel
> Phone: ++972-4-6727272
> Highly rated, free WiFi