There are, at most only a handful of detailed biographies of the Founding Fathers that can said to be world class. Walter Isaacson’s Benjamin Franklin, An American Life (2004, 586 pages) is one of them. Meticulously researched, fair to a fault, and beautifully written, this is the way biographies should read. What one learns is that Ben Franklin is the person who did more than anyone else to help give birth to our country. He was the elder statesman with... Read more

Ever since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which came out in 1989, I’ve wanted to come to Petra. And the main reason tour groups go there is not any of the things I’ve already shown you, but of course the so-called Treasury building. So as we conclude this series of posts… let’s go see it. But in fact, this building was not a treasury at all, but rather likely the beautifully carved tomb of King Aretas IV, whom Paul... Read more

Even for those who don’t follow the red line to the end and climb up to el Deir, there is much to see on the ground level…. For example, here is the ancient theater, carved right out of the sandstone…. There is also the colonnaded street where the original shops were, and where today there are little coffee and cold drink shops…. for instance under this tree…. One can also go down the street and see the ancient temple….. just... Read more

There is far too much to see at Petra, to do it all in part of one day, even a long day. As many times as I have gone, I had never climbed the mountain to the el Deir Monastery. And it is a considerable climb to say the least—–850 big steps, often uneven, and on a winding track. Not for the faint of heart, or those lacking balance. Not far up the mountain is a secret rendezvous place— called... Read more

We will end this pictorial odyssey by visting one of my favorite places to visit— Petra, where it is probable Paul got in hot water for sharing the Gospels soon after his conversion (cf. 2 Cor. 12). Petra is the capital of the Nabatean kingdom, which was considerable in the NT era. There were a series of kings all named Aretas, and the one Paul ran into was Aretas IV. The Nabateans were not Jews, but they were Semites and... Read more

Something new on this visit was we stopped at the pottery workshop where they make beautiful vases, plates and other things with images from Madaba, including of course the Madaba map. For example here is an etched vase (not really mosaics pasted on a vase), Or alternatively, you can get a mosaic representation of the Madaba map…. There is a nice demonstration of how they do this detailed work….. I’ll let you guess what that last object does in the... Read more

Here is the Church of the Apostles…. It has a large central nave, with mosaic floors in all directions…. These are more typical of the period, in that they involve animal and people mosaics, not a map. In case you are wondering about those last two shots, that’s a picture of one of the four winds, with one at each corner of the mosaic. For reasons not entirely obvious, Christ is depicted in the central mosaic as the lord over... Read more

Certainly one of my favorite places to visit in Jordan is Madaba, home of the famous Madaba map in the church of St. George, which is still an active Orthodox Church. The dominate form of Christianity in Jordan is Greek Orthodox, but it makes up only a tiny percentage of the population, perhaps 2%. Here is the church itself….. And here are a whole series of shots of the mosaic map in the floor of this church. It was damaged... Read more

Mt. Nebo is an important site for Christians, and there are quite a few churches in the area…. Mt. Nebo is of course the site where Moses saw the promised land today, though at present the view is so hazy, you can only barely make out what is in the distance— which is the Jordan river and Jericho on a clear day. There was an ancient church on this overlook. Here is some of the original flooring of the Byzantine... Read more

One of the sites that I had not personally visited before was Bethany beyond Jordan, which of all the claimed locations of Jesus’ baptism by John, this one has the best claim of all. It’s become a beautiful site with various Orthodox and Catholic churches, and I actually got down in the Jordan and performed a ceremony of baptismal remembrance for various folks…. The river has various tributaries here, and they are not terribly deep in May. I sank up... Read more