ISRAEL PHOTOS III -- A COLLECTION OF PHOTOS
FROM ISRAEL
WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF SCENES AND
SITES PERTINENT TO THE STUDY OF CHRISTIANITY
|
Casting Out a Demon
At Qumran there were first century parchment and papyri writings found.
In Cave 4 there was a text recording efforts to rebuke a demon. In text
4Q560 a "... fever demon, chills demon, chest demon", was commanded to not
disturb at night with disturbing dreams, (The Dead Sea Scrolls, M. Wise,
© 1996).
Qumran Settlement near the side of the Dead Sea -- 2006
The ancient Persians had Zoroastrian writings about the powers of light and
darkness; it was the good God versus the evil leader of the demons.
http://demons.monstrous.com/origin_of_the_devil.htm#iranian.
The idea of a good and bad spirit was preserved in the Bible in the book of
Job; a discourse including a tale of God and Satan debating the loyalty of Job.
In Jesus' day hallucinations, disorderly conduct, physical or neurological disorders, and bad behaviors were attributed to demons. The book of Job described Satan as a spirit of temptation and evil.
It is obvious that a demon of shaking and fever was a metaphor for a disease
like malaria. Jesus was able to make people well and to rid them of bad
conditions.
Matthew 12:27 (American Standard Version)
27 And if I by Beelzebub cast
out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be
your judges.
Many of the people rejected Jesus accusing him of being able to cure
people with strange mental and physical disorders by being in collusion with the
devil. Jesus responded with words to the effect that it was not by
the devil that the devil was cast out, for the devil does not cast out
its own. Some went to their traditional religious leaders to try to
get divine intervention, however Jesus was drawing crowds by the
thousands and many were going to him for he had authority instead of
hypocrisy.
Qatzrin/Katzrin Museum 2006 - Byzantine era text
A Byzantine Jewish exorcism prayer in Hebrew on a silver amulet invoking the name
of God (Yahu) to drive the fever/shivers (malaria?) and demons from Yaitha; the
daughter of Marian. The
5th-6th century amulet was
found at Horvat Kanaf in the Golan where Judaism flourished under the Christian Byzantine empire.
The Byzantine era Jewish community above Lake Tiberius called upon Yahu
(Yahweh) to drive out the demon of shaking fever -- probably malaria.
There is a contrasting text from the first century:
Matthew 8
14 And when Jesus was come into
Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother lying sick of a fever.
15 And he touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she arose, and
ministered unto him.
16 And when even was come, they brought unto him many possessed with
demons: and he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all that were sick:
In this case a fever was a sickness that required healing and not a demon to
be driven out. The early Christian writers were able to discern a
difference between a person doing evil and physical illness.
Parable
of the Mustard Seed
A Mustard Field
Along Highway 87-North Shore of Galilee
Mustard
Seeds in the Palm of a Hand
A
Branching Mustard Plant Near the Jordan River/Bethsaida
Mustard
Field March 1999
Mustard Flowers
Chukar Partridges
The Fig Tree
Mt of Olives Fig Tree April
12-13, 2005
Fig
and Pomegranate trees below Siloam in Jerusalem
Israel
Photos II fig tree page
Sycomore Fig Tree
The Good Shepherd
The Parable of the Sheep and
the Goats
Goat
Herder
Camels
Shechem
The Olive
Harvest of Samaria
Mt. Ebal
Olive Tree
Pearl of Great Price
A First Century Synagogue at Gamala
View
from the Vulture Overlook
Overview
of Gamala
Roman
Artillery Replica
A First Century Boat on Display at
Kibbutz Ginosaur
Modern
Galilee Fishing Boats
Kursi
Caves and/or
Tombs
Steep Slope near the Lake
Hippos
Feeding the 5,000
On the Mountain
Walking on Water
Ramot-Zelon area
Alternate location
Mt. Hermon
The Pool(s) of Bethesda in Jerusalem
Healing
Pools
Southern
Pool
Crusader
Chapel and St. Ann Church
The Pool of Siloam in
Jerusalem
Gihon Spring
Hezekiah's Tunnel
Overlook of Siloam
Tower of Siloam
A Watch Tower in a Vineyard/Olive
Grove|
Grape Vines at
Beth Horan
Towers
Mt.
Precipice
South Face
Summit
Over the edge
Measuring Line
View of Nazareth from
near Megiddo
Nazareth
The
Basilica of the Annunciation
Capernaum
Healing a Paralytic in
Capernaum
Bethsaida
First Century Artifacts from Qumran and
Masada
Qumran -- 1st
century pottery
Masada -- 1st century
glassware
Masada -- 1st century
pottery
Masada -- 1st
century stoneware
Waterskins and Wineskins
The Fish and the Coin
Barbel
A Denarius
Casting out a demon
The Road to Jericho
Old Roman Road
Wilderness Above
Jericho
Old Jericho
Western Wall
Gethsemane and the Cave
of Gethsemane
Rolling Stone Tombs - Jerusalem
Other Rolling Stone Tombs
Tiberias
Solar Power in Israel
Salt of the earth
Chorazin
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