Gamla

Though Gamla is a well developed archaeological tel, you really have to be motivated to visit the site. This fortified city in the Golan Heights 6 miles east of the Sea of Galilee sets in a deep valley that can only be accessed by foot. Once there, the site itself also presents a challenge. Gamla rests on the spine of a mountain that "falls away sharply on both sides and in front in impassable ravines" (War 4.1.1). The city's name, according to this same passage from Josephus, was derived from the mountain's camel-like appearance.

At Gamla, the zealot movement began and remained the headquarters until it's destruction. It is possible that this was the home of Simon the Zealot, the Lord's disciple. Known as the "Masada of the North", Gamla was one of the last cities in the Galilee to fall to the Romans in A.D.67. In the initial resistance, the zealots forced the Romans to retreat with heavy losses. However, when Vespasian resumed the fight, 4,000 died by the sword and another 5,000 Jewish men, women, and children committed suicide by throwing themselves into the ravine below the citadel (War 4.1.10). Only two women escaped with their lives. One of the interesting things the Yehudiya Nature Reserve has done is to reconstruct a full size replica of a Roman bastilla on site. This, along with well written and well placed signage, helps the visitor gain a good understanding of how the battle took place and how the citizens of the city lived.

The basalt ruins are extensive and well maintained. They include a fortified tower, houses, a olive oil production facility, and a synagogue with a mikveh close by. The synagogue is one of the oldest in Israel. Most synagogues that have been excavated in Israel date to the 3rd century A.D. or later. This one dates to the time of Christ. From the top of the fortified tower, you can see a distant view of the largest waterfall in Israel. It's height spans 50 meters. If you are physically able and don't mind a strenuous hike, don't miss this archaeological jewel when you visit Israel.

Kerioth Hezron

First mentioned in Joshua 15:25 as one of the cities allotted to Judah, Kerioth Hezron is also one of the possible sites for the home of Judas Iscariot (or Judas "man of Kerioth"). Known as Tel Qeriyot today, the southern Judean town sets on the northern edge of the Negev desert located four and a half miles northeast of Tel Arad.

Tel Qeriyot does not look like the typical flat-topped archaeological mesa for which I'm accustomed to scanning the horizon. As a matter of fact, when we pulled off on the side of the road next to a small rise, smaller than even the hills that surrounded it, I thought to myself, "This is going to be another one of those sites where we have to hunt through knee high thistles to find two stones stacked together". Was I ever surprised when I reached the top of the slope. There must have been more than two acres of ruins. We found remains of buildings, cisterns, and a Byzantine church. I found the church amusing. Like Voltaire's house becoming a place where Bibles were printed after his death, a church built where the "son of perdition" once lived was quite ironic. God really does have a sense of humor.

The place was also riddled with caves. This may sound strange, but I guess the thing that interested me the most were the stone mangers we found in several of those caves. When you go to Bethlehem today to see the stable/cave where Christ was born, it is buried under a church originally built in the third century by Helena, Constantine's mother. The cave is encrusted with catholic altars, iconography, candles, and incense burners. Even the manger they claim the baby Jesus slept in is caged off to the public. To picture what the place must have been like for Mary and Joseph, you would really have to swallow hard and use your imagination.

Here at Kerioth Hezron, at the home of the one who sought to end the life of the Son of God, I was experiencing a glimpse of what the surroundings must have been like as Christ stepped into this world to begin His earthly journey to bring peace to mankind. Unlike the warm, glowing wooden barns of Christmas greeting cards, the stable was a damp, dark, cold, uninviting hole in the ground. Neither Judas, Bethlehem, nor the world had any place for it's King. What about you?