The roof of the Israel Museum\u2019s Shrine of the Book was designed to resemble the lid of one of the jars in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were found at Qumran.
(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Today was a simple day.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
We passed through the \u201csecurity wall\u201d into Bethlehem, where we spent a bit of time at the traditional Shepherds\u2019 Field. \u00a0Then we visited the Church of the Nativity. \u00a0We were obliged to wait for some time while a Greek Orthodox service was conducted in the grotto that tradition identifies as the birthplace of Christ \u2014 it is, after all, a functioning church, and only secondarily a tourist attraction \u2014 but we were the first in line, so that was actually better than some previous occasions. \u00a0We also visited the cave (directly adjacent to the Church of the Nativity, under the Roman Catholic Church of St. Catherine) in which St. Jerome is said to have produced his famous (and vastly influential) Biblia Vulgata<\/em> or \u201cVulgate Bible,\u201d the Latin translation that remained the official Catholic Bible from his time well into the twentieth century. \u00a0Following our traditional (excellent) lunch in the Bethlehem Tent Restaurant and a stint of shopping at the Christian cooperative \u201cBethlehem Souvenir Center,\u201d we crossed back into Israeli territory. \u00a0The last stop of the day was the magnificently rich Israel Museum, with its wonderful open-air model of the city of Jerusalem in A.D. 66 and its Shrine of the Book, which displays almost all of the Dead Sea Scrolls. \u00a0Thereafter, in one of the other buildings of the Museum, I took great pleasure in pointing out to members of our group the ossuary or \u201cbone box\u201d of the high priest Caiaphas, who presided over the Jewish trial \u00a0of Jesus; the original \u201cPontius Pilate\u201d inscription\u00a0from Caesarea Philippi; and the ankle bone of a victim of crucifixion, which demonstrates very graphically something of how crucifixion was done.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
(This tour, by the way, was organized under the auspices of \u201cCruise Lady.\u201d<\/a>)<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Jerusalem<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Today was a simple day. \u00a0 We passed through the \u201csecurity wall\u201d into Bethlehem, where we spent a bit of time at the traditional Shepherds\u2019 Field. \u00a0Then we visited the Church of the Nativity. \u00a0We were obliged to wait for some time while a Greek Orthodox service was conducted in the grotto that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>