| Upon our arrival in Capernaum we headed to the Mount of Beatitudes. The Church of the Beatitudes was built on the hilltop near where tradition says Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount to his disciples. While sitting peacefully amongst its green surroundings, our guide Sam with his knowledge of both Hebrew and Arabic gave us a deeper and more majestic understanding of the Jewish word for �blessed.� As we overlooked the Sea of Galilee, it was easy to imagine Jesus speaking to us on the side of this hill. According to our guide, spring lasts only a short time in Israel, only about two weeks, and we were quite fortunate to be here during this period. Everywhere wild flowers were in bloom. |
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| Church of the Beatitudes |
| Mount of Beatitudes |
| From the Mount of Beatitudes we drove through the fertile Golan Heights and along the Syrian border to Caesarea Philippi. It was here that Simon Peter acknowledged for the first time that Jesus was the Messiah, and it was here that Jesus mentioned that Peter would be the Rock of His Church. Originally this area was a Greek town called Panias named after Pan, the Greek god of the shepherds. Herod the Great renamed it Caesarea Philippi. Today it was known as Banias. At this site we explored some of the ruins of Caesarea Philippi and of the Greek Temple of Pan where votary niches could still be seen carved out of the hillside. |
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| Looking into Syria |
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| Greek Temple of Pan |