Today we went back into the Old City of Jerusalem. It was a busy day, with a lot of pictures, so I decided to break it into two posts: Part 1 and Part 2.
First we went to the Upper Room (aka The Room of the Last Supper). This is built over the traditional location of the room where Jesus celebrated the Last Supper, and also the room of the Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples as tongues of fire. Kevin taught from Acts 2:1-15. This is a ‘B’ site. There is a nice view from the roof of this building, of the Dome of the Rock, and of Dormition Abbey. For more details, see here or here.
Our next stop was the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu. ‘Gallicantu’ means ‘rooster crowing’. It is believed that this church was built on the site of the house of Caiphus. Caiphus was the Jewish leader who put Jesus on trial, and condemned him. It was here that Peter denied Jesus three times before the rooster crowed. Jesus was imprisoned for the night before being taken to Pontius Pilate. Underneath the church there are excavations, including the remains of a large cistern where it is thought Jesus may have been imprisoned for the night. There is a hole in the top of the cistern through which Jesus would have been lowered. This is similar to the Old Testament story of Joseph, when his brothers lowered him into a cistern. Kevin taught from John 18:12-27. This is an ‘A’ site. For more details about this church, see here.
From the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu, we entered the Old City via Zion Gate, and walked through the Jewish Quarter to the Jerusalem Archaeological Park – Davidson Center. For ease of referencing, I’ll just call it the Davidson Center. This is a large area around the south and west portion of the Temple Mount. We spent a lot of time here walking among the excavations. We saw the Western Wall, the Southern Steps, Huldah Gate, Robinson’s Arch, etc. Along the wall, excavations have revealed streets and large stones. These stones still remain from when the Romans destroyed the city of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Jesus foretold this when he told his disciples: “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down”. Jesus walked on these streets! Kevin taught at the Southern Steps from John 9:1-41. Jesus left the temple area, going down the Southern Steps, and came across the man born blind. He told the man to wash in the nearby Pool of Siloam. This is an ‘A’ site. I can’t begin to describe everything we saw in the Davidson Center. You can find more details here or here, or many more websites. We were fortunate it had just recently re-opened (in March 2023) after three years of renovations!
After lunch we headed to the Wailing Wall (aka the Western Wall), which is the topic for the next post.
