To the Lowest Place on Earth...

Well, now I can say that I have been to the lowest place on earth. Our final out-of-Jerusalem field trip was this past Monday and included visits to Masada, Qumran (where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered), and swimming in the Dead Sea. It was super hot and exhausting, but a great way to finish our experience here in Jerusalem. Masada, which was our first stop, is built on top of a plateau (in terrain very similar to Southern Utah). Herod the Great built a great palace on it, with a complex water storage system to supply his royal baths. During the Great Jewish Revolt against the Romans in 70 AD, the Sicarii (Hebrew for "dagger men") sought refuge there. The Sicarii were assassins and murderers. They held out for months against Roman siege. The Romans constructed a huge siege ramp up the side of the Plateau to reach it's walls (see picture: Underceej on the siege ramp:). In the past, the Israelis have used Masada for propaganda to show the resilience of the Jewish people. But recently, it has been discovered that the Jewish rebels on Masada were actually a bunch of people like the Secret Combinations of the Book of Mormon. Not exactly the role models they were looking for. Just before the Romans broke down the walls of the fortress, the Sicarii had gathered and decided to take their lives and the lives of their families. Archeologists discovered 10 pieces of broken pottery with the names of the rebels written on them: the last 10 men who had to draw lots to figure out who would kill who. We rode a cable car up and back from the top of the fortress, which reminded me of "Where Eagles Dare".
Once we were done at Masada, we traveled north along the Dead Sea to a small canyon that empties into the lake. The Israelis call it Ein Geti and it is the place in the Bible that David flees to in order to hide from Saul. The canyon is basically an oasis in the desert, a beautiful series of waterfalls and pools of clear water. It was beautiful and I was happy to escape the hot weather by swimming in the cool water. When we went from there to swim in the Dead Sea, I was even happier that I had got in the water at Ein Geti. Swimming in the Dead Sea was like jumping into a pool of gasoline. The water felt oily on my skin and made every cut, scrape, and rash on my body burn like the blazes. I got in for about 15 minutes, then got right back out and went to shower myself off. We got together as a group and covered ourselves with the famous Dead Sea mud too, so that meant that I needed to talk yet another shower to get it off. I didn't get back in the water though. Once was enough for me. :)
The last stop of the day was at Qumran, the place where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. These scrolls are amazing and as they are all translated and revealed to the world, the position of the church concerning the Bible as incomplete will become more and more accepted. Many scrolls found at Qumran contain records not found in our Bible today. They were written by Jewish scribes of a radical group called the Essenes. They were a small sect that withdrew from Jewish society to purify themselves with prayer and by bathing many times a day in ritual baths. They believed that they were preparing themselves for the coming of the Messiah. During the Great Jewish Revolt when the Romans destroyed the Second Temple, the Essenes were also wiped out. Before being wiped out, they hide all of their records in various caves next to their settlement in Qumran. All of these caves could easily be seen from the ruins of the town. These records were discovered in the '50's when two Bedouins were throwing rocks into one of the caves, trying to scare out some stray goats, and heard the smash of pottery as one of the rocks hit something inside. They investigated it and discovered the scrolls conserved in pots within the cave. Archaeologists have discovered scrolls in about 200 different caves in the area since then (picture: the cliffs around Qumran, you can see some of the caves).