A 1200 foot drop from sea level!

I really had no idea what I was getting myself into when I agreed to run up Masada. I hadn’t even reached the half-way point when I just about keeled over with the pungent taste of iron under my tongue. Prior to my endeavor, I looked upon Masada in amazement; following the jaunt up the hill, I looked upon Herod who built it and the Romans who overtook the fortress in amazement. Oh, I also looked upon it in disgust as Craig vomited because of his valiant effort to break Jeremy Heikenen’s record of two minutes and forty seconds. He was 32 seconds short. It was amazing that I was 1200 feet above the base of the fortress built into the cliff (that is a popular number around here), yet I was at sea level.

We looked over the site and discussed the details of Josephus’ account and the archaeological evidence that was contrary to his claims. The story told by Josephus was an honorable one, or at least it was in Roman culture. It was a popular thing to swipe away the bragging rights of an enemy by falling on one’s own sword in the Roman culture. However, in Jewish culture, that was not a very prominent defense against an enemy.

Eleazar gave a powerful speech in Josephus’ depiction of the siccaris against the Roman soldiers. Herod had built this fortress/palace in his megalomania in order to perhaps allow his people to live vicariously through him, despite their poverty. After his death in 4 B.C., he passed it along to his son, Archilleus, who made his father actually look reasonable. He was later banished by Caesar into the Siberia of Rome, southern France. The Siccari were radical assassins of the zealots who killed Jewish people that cooperated with the Romans. They took control over Masada, and eventually, the Romans, led by Silva, decided to remove this faction.It took place during August, perhaps the absolute worst time to do anything in the land. A siege ramp was built, along with many encampments below, to attack the monstrosity of Masada. Eleazar put his faith in God’s deliverance, but this faith was to no avail. Soon the siege ramp reached the top, the fires of war blazed on the wall. An east wind suddenly pushed the wind directly into the Romans ramp, causing great damage. A glimpse of hope was in the eyes of Eleazar and his men. That glimpse was soon shattered as the wind quickly reversed its direction into the walls of Masada. Josephus does not tell his readers that there was a second siege ramp on the northern end of the fortress. His account glorifies the Jews but is completely biased, as is most propaganda. The Jews were not suicidal; they fought to the death. The second siege ramp gives evidence of this.

My second trip to the Dead Sea this semester was not as good as the first one. I had a couple more scrapes and sore spots than last time, and salt, particularly Dead Sea salt, is not a pleasant thing to put on any sort of wound. The beach was not as good as the beach at Ein Gedi Spa, but it was still awesome to float in the water with a big limestone rock on my stomach. I had one drop of that water splash onto my tongue, and I was trying to spit the salt out for the next fifteen minutes. It was once called the Healing Sea, but I think the change of name was very appropriate.

The Ein Gedi Springs made everything I have done in Israel so far seem miniscule. The beautiful fresh water rolling down the wadi was like paradise in that land. Just to the east is the Dead Sea, and to the west is the Judean wilderness. It is absolutely surrounded by desolate land, except for Jericho which is quite a hike to the north. We jumped into the water, went under the glistening waterfalls, and enjoyed every second of it.

Our last stop at Qumran was actually pretty painful. Wind blowing from the west was spitting dust and small pebbles into us as we observed the caves and city in which the community of Qumran lived. Because of rain that fell earlier in the day, the wadi had just been doused with water, making it somewhat unstable. So we were unable to go up into the caves, which was disappointing. More disappointing was the fact that all of the caves have been thoroughly explored - I was hoping that there was still work to be done so that I could get in on it. This picture is cave 4!