Postale
Footsteps of Jesus Christ
I am fascinated by how many times the Gospels describe where Jesus was or where he was going. Writing and copying in the first century was an expensive process, and there is every expectation that the Gospel writers had many other things to do and were operating in an environment that was rather hostile ('The Acts of the Apostles" is, to use an overworked phrase, mind-blowing). There is much to say about the writing of the Gospels, but, for now, if they included some detail, it was important. I had a pivotal moment when I read two competing narratives about the Transfiguration of Jesus, when (some of) His true glory was revealed to Peter, James and John [note: they were to become the leader of the Church in Rome; the leader of the Church in Jerusalem; and the only one of the twelve at the foot of the cross]. One narrative has this on mighty Mount Hermon, where Elijah had his monumental victory (and was then exhausted) and the other has this on the more modest Mount Tabor, a smaller but prominent dome-shaped hill in Galilee, visible from Nazareth. They are far apart, and I wondered which narrative was right. Looking in the Bible, Jesus is at Capernaum a few days earlier, which is in between the two sites, so that fact doesn't rule out either one, and you need more information. You can attach 'fitting' reasons to either site, but only one is true. I then thought about drawing out the footsteps of Jesus. I tried to trace the movements of the pregnant Virgin Mary as a starting point, and found that much harder, and more interesting than I thought. I then visited a small church where I found Mathesy's map, pictured right (apologies for quality), which is a good starting point.
Mathesy's Pilgrim's Map of the Holy Land, 1942
I have since compiled a table based on Mathesy's work and am populating it when I have time. The ever-so-draft version is found at the link below. I have had great help from James Tissot's "Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ". Tissot, for example, has no trouble concluding which route Mary took from Nazareth to her cousin Elisabeth at Ain Karim, based on his own research including direct observation of the peoples inhabiting the Holy Land. Tissot's attention to detail is striking and he maps out Jerusalem and its environs in great detail. He even reconstructs the site of Jesus' crucifixion at Calvary, or Golgotha, in painstaking detail and gives us two panoramas each from a different angle (essentially a 3D model), taking account of the information in the Bible, historical data and stronger traditions (which he weighs carefully) to work back from the situation in the late 19th century after so much modification to the site. If you look at his pictures carefully, of which there are many, they are topographically and geometrically true to the land and buildings of the first century, as far as this can be established.
I have also found useful the KMZ/KML information published at https://www.openbible.info/geo/. This can be imported into Google Earth Pro (or another package; but that one is available to anyone and allows 3D landscapes to be pictured as well as maps). I have used this to try to recreate some of the scenes that Tissot pictured, such as the "View of Nazareth" in Volume 1 page 15, and I found good correspondence in terms of the topography, including how Mount Tabor can be seen from the hillside whence Jesus' townsfolk wanted to throw Him down. "Is not this the carpenter's son?"; "And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief." (Matthew 13:55 and 58).
One thing I wasn't expecting to find at openbible.info was the range of different sites claimed for a particular event. Some, such as the location of Jerusalem, or for that matter, Calvary, are very well known and attested. Others, such as the site of Jericho, are fairly well attested though there might be some challenges. Some, such as the Garden of Eden, are somewhat speculative, and while there is more to say on that particular topic (such as Genesis giving clear indications that it was an actual place), I did enjoy this episode of Expedition Bible which gives arguments for each of the four rivers in Genesis and the interpretation of 'headwaters' which point very strongly to a site for the Garden.
What surprised me was that where there are multiple claims for a site, openbible lists them all and also has a chart indicating which is thought (by a method devised by the site author, I think) most likely. The method of weighing historical sources is not clear, and might well be arguable, but it was an interesting summary of the alternatives and their merits, and (along with other sources such as Tissot's reseasrch) it helped me understand that John the Baptist might well have come of age in the wilderness of the Terebinth valley, and baptised in two places, since this is implied by John the evangelist (John 10:40) 'And went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized'. The site of 'Bethany beyond the Jordan' where Jesus was baptised is taken by most pilgrims as Al-Maghtas, though Origen could not find such a place his day (3rd century) and favoured the place 'Bethabara'. I am curious that Al-Maghtas seems to be around three days' walk from Galilee, whereas in the accounts of John the Baptist's early ministry we only hear about Galileans (including Jesus) and there is an implication of haste when Andrew fetches his brother Simon (John 1:41) and then John 1:43 says 'The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me". Al-Maghtas is only barely 'beyond' the Jordan, but 'Bethany beyond the Jordan' is surely a way of distinguishing it from Bethany of Martha, Mary and Lazarus, where Jesus spent much time, so the term could well mean 'Bethany on the other side of the Jordan'. Al-Maghtas is surely one of the sites where John the Baptist baptised and is not so far from Ain Karim, and I am no distance at all along the path of weighing all this, when great minds have already applied themselves to it. There is some interesting commentary here. Whatever the case, John the Baptist had an extraordinary influence, which continues to this day; Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist and Jesus amazed His first followers who were Galileans. At risk of severe understatement, I think the Bible is an invitation to understand God better; if I happen to be approaching it with a lack of knowledge, I have the opportunity to increase my understanding a great deal, and I am never disappointed. The more clearly I can see Jesus the more clearly I see God. As He wills.
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