The great church father Jerome once declared:
“Five gospels record the
life of Jesus. Four you will find in books and the one you will find in the
land they call Holy. Read the fifth gospel and the world of the four will open
to you.”
Jerome’s adage should
receive canonization status. As one cannot effectively play chess without a
board, so it is when reading the Bible without a strong familiarity of the
physical contours of Israel.
The geography of Israel
acts as a hidden character throughout the corpus of the Bible; its personality
silhouettes the stories in the OT and NT. Woven through the Biblical text,
primarily in the OT, is a sub-narrative centered around a neo-trinitarian thread:
God, people, and land. [1]
God created man from
soil. God granted real estate to a nascent people group to inhabit. Emotionally
charged Scriptures comment on the alienation of being exiled from one’s
homeland. Modern conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians stem from an
intense terra-centric ideology.
Land tethers us to this
Earth, informs our worldview, and functions as an identity marker. We tread
upon it every day of our lives without paying respect to its ownership over us.
It dramatically
influences who people become by impacting the psychosocial faculties. We could
say the tangible soil blanketing his planet fertilizes the intellectual soil of
our psychology.
Even Jesus was
submissive to this “law of the land.”
The Gospels claim Jesus
grew up in Nazareth. Now the largest city in the northern district of Israel,
the Jewish historian and native Galilean, Josephus, neglects to even mention it
perhaps indicating its irrelevance in the Galilee region during the 1st A.D.
Remotely couched in a geological bowl in the hills of Lower Galilee, no major
road passed through this hamlet. Nazareth’s view of the surrounding countryside
is obstructed to a large degree by the basin’s rims which act as the horizon
line. But once one ascends the southern edge of the depression and crests the
ridge, the view is nothing less than panoramic. Colloquially called “Nazareth
Ridge” but formally accepted as Mt. Precipice, the 1879 ft lookout affords a
view 30 miles in three cardinal directions (South, West, and East) across the
expansive Jezreel Valley.
 |
| View of Nazareth Ridge in the distance. Courtesy Matson Collection. |
Peering down from atop the Nazareth Ridge over the Jezreel Valley blanketed with rich alluvial soil (330 feet deep in some spots), a dichotomized view comes into focus: the open expanse of agricultural surplus in the valley vs. the agronomic dearth of Nazareth. Seven major highways passed through this valley. It was an international economic turnstile throughout Israel’s history and no different in 1st A.D.
But for a young astute
Jewish student of Scripture such as Jesus who invariably frequented this
lookout with his neighborhood friends, the Jezreel Valley charts a map of OT
stories laden with heroic tales of “saviors” who intervened to rescue their
fellow constituents from oppressive enemies, anointed kings with political
aspirations to exert hegemony in the region, and devoted prophets speaking on
behalf of God with miracles on their resume.
To the west on the Mt.
Carmel Mountain range, YHWH displayed his predilection for pyrotechnics as
Elijah hurled insults at the impotent Syrian storm/fertility god, Baal. Further
down the Carmel Range, the prized city of Megiddo, whom Thutmose III boasted
“…is like capturing 1000 cities.” Ahaziah, sixth king of Judah, became a
casualty at the hands of Jehu the usurper and died there. Josiah, the
avant-garde religious reformer, tragically died at the hands of Pharoah Neco at
Megiddo.
To the south, Saul and
Jonathan lost their lives in battle against the Philistines on Mt. Gilboa.
Their heads were decapitated, and bodies unceremoniously hung on the wall of
Beth-She’an down the slope. Also, to the south at Tel Jezreel, the winter palace
residence of the Omride dynasty where Jezebel manipulated Ahab into murderously
confiscating Naboth’s vineyard and because of it reaped the invective death
sentence of Elijah. Several years later, Jehu staged a coup at the behest of
YHWH. He furiously drove his chariot into the Jezreel Valley from Gilead and
executed Elijah’s oracle; Jezebel was thrown from the window of the palace,
trampled by chariot horses, and her blood lapped up by dogs. Jehoram,
recovering from wounds sustained in battle, was also assassinated by Jehu and
his body disposed of in Naboth’s vineyard adjacent to the palace. A short jaunt
from Jezreel lies the Harod Spring where Gideon encamped against the Midianites
and separated the men from the dogs.
On Mt. Tabor to the
east, Deborah and Barak assembled an army to defeat the chariot forces of
Sisera in the Jezreel Valley. About 50 years before Jesus’ birth, a rabble
rouser by the name of Alexander, the son of a Hasmonean noble, incited a series
of uprisings against Rome and was eventually defeated at Mt. Tabor. Mt. Moreh
protrudes near the center of the valley and preserves the memory of Elisha’s
resuscitation of a dead boy in the village of Shunem on the south side of the
mountain. On the opposite side of Mt. Moreh lies Nain, the village where Jesus
followed in Elisha’s footsteps. He also revived an unnamed widow’s deceased
son. Near Nain, Saul consulted the medium at En-Dor hoping to gain a tactical
edge over the Philistines but instead provoked Samuel to anger after waking him
from his death sleep. Ophrah, modern day Afula, is positioned almost in the
center of the valley and was probably home to the great military liberator
leader Gideon.
And that’s just from the
southern vista of Nazareth Ridge.
Ascension out of the
bowl to the northern ridge and a meager four miles NW sat Sepphoris, a
strategically located city Herod the Great captured in a snowstorm in 39-38
B.C. Coined the “ornament of Galilee,” it served as the capital until the
construction of Tiberias circa 20 AD and preserves the memories of a
rebel named Judas who led the citizens in a revolt circa 6 AD due to a census
issued for tax purposes. In response, the Roman governor Varus dispatched some
of his legions to extinguish the flames. Instead, he ignited tensions and
subsequently reduced the city to ashes. The ~10 year old Jesus may have watched
the city burn perched atop the northern ridge. And three miles north lay the
scanty village of Gath-Hepher, home of Jonah the prophet. No wonder Jesus
connects himself with Jonah on a few occasions. He was also a prophet to
Gentiles but seemed to be rejected as a legitimate diviner by the aristocracy
of Jerusalem on geographic grounds; a prejudice Jesus also felt (John 7:52).
All these Biblical
stories and current events sat within eyeshot of Jesus conjuring up the rich
but violent history of his ancestors. Arguably, the contemporary turbulence he
witnessed (see Sepphoris conflagration) created a visceral reproduction of his inherited
bellicose traditions the Jezreel Valley retained.
The unmet expectations
of OT heroes must have ruminated in his mind. The saviors of Judges and the
kings of Israel and Judah all were to some degree designated messiahs chosen by
God to promote a global awareness of the true God. They were to circulate the
teachings of God, not just to their own constituency but also foreigners
constantly passing through this “land between” imperial empires. Their fidelity
to God in a pantheistic charged cultic environment would separate Israel and
Judah from their neighbors and put on full display the distinctive character of
God as a benevolent deity; a celestial concept so far removed from religious
mainstream thought as is the east from the west.
But Jesus’ recollection
of the past wasn’t the only force he felt.
Below Jesus’ feet, the
bounty of a prosperous life as the traffic of the ancient world flowed through
the Valley. The Samaria Hills to the south housed the road to Jerusalem,
teeming with pilgrims and merchants from Egypt. Arab caravans originating in the
remote wastelands of Jordan entered the fords of the Jordan River carrying an
array of exotic goods from the Orient. A major artery from Damascus in the
north skirted the foot of Nazareth Ridge, meandering through the valley. Ships
from the western Mediterranean walked upon the waters of the sea’s vast expanse
hauling expensive imported cargo sucked up at the port of Ptolemais, easily
seen from the northern ridge. Legions of Roman soldiers carrying their
respective standards and politicians escorted by their entourages landed at
this port, traversing the roads around and through the valley. The rumors and
scandals of the Herodian family reverberated along these roads. The latest news
of proclamations by Caesar and pronouncements by the Senate were on the lips of
those travelling nearby. Revolts in other parts of the Roman empire surely made
their way into conversation amongst a Jewish population bent on reestablishing
their national independence, a circumstance they experienced only ~100 years
earlier under the Hasmoneans. The rhetoric of Roman politicking and burdensome
news of tax rates all must have fallen on the ears of the youthful Jesus.[2]
The sirens of the finer
things of life sang their tune while passing through. The melody of the medley
of options must have been a struggle to resist growing up in a resource-poor
town. The alluring scent of opportunity and intoxicating profusion of commercial
affluence must have tugged at the spirit of Jesus.
All the world had to
offer lay crouched at Jesus doorstep.
Yet, he did not take the
bait.
The external forces
pulling at Him from multiple angles provided every justification to jettison
the call on His life. He waited until “the time had fully come”, submitting to
God’s will and not the temptations of earthly pursuit. Sometimes, what Jesus did
NOT do is equally important, if not more illustrative, than what he did do.
As Jesus peered out over
this valley marked by blood, violence, death, disappointment, and war,
habitually overrun by greater foreign powers, he too may have questioned his
inherent identity and how he fit into the narrative of his people. The
arrowhead shape of the valley itself personifies its tumultuous history as a
war-torn region.
Perhaps he asked himself
the following questions:
How am I to function as
Messiah, given all the failed attempts by my ancestors?
Do I follow suit and
attempt to usher in the Kingdom of God by force as my OT protagonists did or
like the Romans do?
Shunning the ancient war
paths blazed by his ancestors, Jesus opted to pursue the road less travelled.
He refused to repeat his “family” history or replicate the actions of his
fathers.
The aspirations of his
predecessors and contemporaries hinged on political maneuvering, nationalistic
hopes, and expansion of the land through force.
Jesus employed a more
anthropological approach.
His talking points
emphasized right relationship between God and neighbor, internal
self-awareness, and spaciousness of the heart.
The Jezreel Valley was a
psychological crucible, so to speak, for Jesus; a spiritual crossroads he
undoubtedly wrestled with as “he grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with
men.”
The confluence of past
and present of the Jezreel Valley was instructive to Jesus’ singularity and how
He chose to live it out. Exploits and adventures of past celebrated Biblical
characters clashed with the intrigues and promise of the 1st AD
present, creating a battlefield of ideas. Though the Jezreel Valley retains
memories of physical wars, Jesus’ conflict was internal.
Only though interfacing
with the geography of Jesus’ hometown can we arrive at such conclusions. If God
is the consummate teacher, then His selection of this land is His curriculum.
The English word Jezreel is a translation of two Hebrew words meaning “God
sows.” And He certainly was sowing something in Jesus in his formative years.
[1] I am indebted to my teacher, Dr. Paul Wright, who
provided this astute insight pertaining to the overall arc of the Biblical
narrative.
[2] This paragraph is an adaptation of George Adam
Smith’s seminal work. Smith, George Adam. 1920. 4th Edition, The
Historical Geography of the Holy Land, Especially in Relation to the History of
Israel and of the Early Church. Pages 433-434. New York, George H. Doran
company.
