israel

The Origins of Christianity Tour: Part 4

Dr John Dickson lecturing on the Southern Steps in Jerusalem
Read time: 24 minutes

The bus comes to a stop and the doors open. Slowly, the passengers disembark. Some are sleepy, some are groggy from not having had enough coffee that morning, some are simply tired. We had been touring Israel for a week now, and programme has been jam packed, with little time for rest. But suddenly everyone perks up and is astonished at the sight before them: Jerusalem bathed in the golden light of sunrise. Read more …

Categories: 

Tags: 

The Origins of Christianity Tour: Part 3

Gamla
Read time: 22 minutes

Our travel in Israel took place in October; just past the peak of summer, so that we would be spared the highest of the temperatures (and it still got plenty hot). Israel, like the Cape Town area, gets its rain in winter, as so we were right at the very end of the dry season. And, like Cape Town, Israel is a water scarce region. But, driving north, the landscape changed. We were not in the desert of the area around Masada, Qumran and the Dead Sea; neither did our surroundings look like the dry, but habitable, Jerusalem. No; despite not having tasted rain in months, what we saw outside the windows of our bus were green trees and lush shrubbery. It was not a succulent jungle, to be sure, but here was life and abundance. We were in what the gospels refer to as the land of Galilee. Read more …

Categories: 

Tags: 

The Origins of Christianity Tour: Part 2

Dr John Dickson at Wadi Qelt
Read time: 22 minutes

In this post, I begin my summary of the Origins of Christianity tour. It will cover my first three days in Israel and two days of the tour, which was focussed on Jerusalem and the area of ancient Judah. Read more …

Categories: 

Tags: 

The Origins of Christianity Tour: Part 1

Jerusalem at sunrise
Read time: 12 minutes

In October I was privileged to join the Origins of Christianity tour to Israel, led by Dr. John Dickson. This was something which I had been looking forward to and planned for a long time, and it really was an awesome experience! I have already done one presentation of the tour for TGIF Stellenbosch; here I want to document my experiences so that I can share it with more people.

This article will be a general discussion about the tour and my experience of it; after it there will be three more articles which recount the tour on a day-by-day basis. Read more …

Categories: 

Tags: 

A Year of Blood

The Eiffel Tower lit up in the colours of the French flag following the attacks of 13 November 2015.
Read time: 9 minutes

The year 2015 has been particularly bloody. In this article I reflect on what all this violence and turmoil should mean to us. I do this by considering two particular attacks. Read more …

Categories: 

Tags: