Exploring the Fifth Gospel

12/23/2025

09/22/2025

The Lamp-post kind of reminds me of Narnia, less the snow. It is what must have been the vantage point of Abraham arriving in the Land of Moriah. Nice angle from the Gabriel Scherover Promenade, overlooking the intersection of the Hinnom and Kidron Valleys towards Temple Mount.

09/20/2025

That 2020 Tour. My first one to lead. Love that group! With our first view of Jerusalem, atop Mount Scopus. Really the northern ridge of the Mount of Olives. The scuttlebutt is that this was the vantage point enjoyed by Titus as he "scoped out" the city before its destruction in 70 AD. The tower of the Russian Orthodox Church is to the left, and the golden dome on the Mount can be seen through the haze to the right.

09/18/2025

The Pool of Siloam now and then. The scene in John 9 where the miraculous healing of the young man born blind took place: The "disciples asked him, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?' Jesus answered, 'It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.' Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, 'Go, wash in the pool of Siloam' (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing." (John 9:2-7)

09/16/2025

09/15/2025

Our February 2026 Holy Land Trip is not to be. Canceled.

09/05/2025

Sprucing up the Jerusalem model at the Israel Museum. The massive, detailed replica of the Old City captures the way it would have looked just before the destruction of the city by the Romans in 70 A.D.

09/02/2025

From the Mount of Beatitudes, overlooking the Sea of Galilee. I'm ready to go back. Are you ready to go?