Facts about Jaffa and Caesarea
Before I post pictures of other sites, I want to add a few details about Jaffa/Joppa and Caesarea. I have a study manual on Israel that contains a lot of facts on the sites we visited. It's impossible to retain all of the information you hear from your tour guide. And I want to make sure I don't state something that is incorrect because of my faulty memory.
Jaffa's history goes back to the Canaanites. Jaffa was Solomon's main seaport and is mentioned in II Chronicles 2:16 and Ezra 3:7 as the port where building materials arrived from Lebanon. Jonah 1:3 records the beginning of the prophet's "misguided voyage to escape God's command." It is also where Peter raised Dorcas to life and at the home of Simon the Tanner had a vision of the sheet containing unclean animals, causing Peter to open his kosher heart to the invitation to visit and preach at the home of Cornelius, which began the ministry to the Gentile world.
Jaffa is about a one mile walk along the beach from Tel Aviv to Jaffa. For me, it was the perfect ending to our first evening in Israel (after a rather large buffet dinner of Israeli food).
Caesarea is the Mediterranean port built by Herod the Great. His intent was to create a city equal to Athens and, according to my study manual, "he probably achieved his goal." It became the largest city in Judea, the major port and the official governor's residence.
Caesarea was the home of Philip the evangelist and also the headquarters of Cornelius (the Roman centurion who became one of the first Gentile converts to Christianity). It is the place where the Holy Spirit came to the Gentiles (Acts 10-11). The Apostle Paul spent two years in prison here after his arrest in Jerusalem and before his last journey to Rome (in chains). Paul testified in Caesarea before the Roman governors, Felix and Festus and before Herod Agrippa II and his sister-mistress, Bernice. Herod Agrippa I died here in a spectacular manner (Acts 12:19-23).
The theater was constructed during the time of Jesus and Pontius Pilate. This theater has been restored, seats 5,000 today, and concerts are held here in the summer. The acoustics are said to be amazing.
The aqueduct that I posted a picture of dates to about 100 CE (or AD). But there was an earlier one, which was somehow destroyed. Herod's harbor was completed about ten years before the birth of Christ. It extended about three times as far out to sea as what is visible today. Its structure was possibly sunk by an earthquake that occurred in the third century CE.
I just wanted to add these details to the pictures of the sites. Even though we've all read about these locations and what took place there in our Bibles, it was a big help to me to connect the stories to an actual setting. The pictures cannot recapture the experience of standing there physically (even for me). But I think the pictures are more meaningful when you have a better idea of what you're looking at.
Jaffa's history goes back to the Canaanites. Jaffa was Solomon's main seaport and is mentioned in II Chronicles 2:16 and Ezra 3:7 as the port where building materials arrived from Lebanon. Jonah 1:3 records the beginning of the prophet's "misguided voyage to escape God's command." It is also where Peter raised Dorcas to life and at the home of Simon the Tanner had a vision of the sheet containing unclean animals, causing Peter to open his kosher heart to the invitation to visit and preach at the home of Cornelius, which began the ministry to the Gentile world.
Jaffa is about a one mile walk along the beach from Tel Aviv to Jaffa. For me, it was the perfect ending to our first evening in Israel (after a rather large buffet dinner of Israeli food).
Caesarea is the Mediterranean port built by Herod the Great. His intent was to create a city equal to Athens and, according to my study manual, "he probably achieved his goal." It became the largest city in Judea, the major port and the official governor's residence.
Caesarea was the home of Philip the evangelist and also the headquarters of Cornelius (the Roman centurion who became one of the first Gentile converts to Christianity). It is the place where the Holy Spirit came to the Gentiles (Acts 10-11). The Apostle Paul spent two years in prison here after his arrest in Jerusalem and before his last journey to Rome (in chains). Paul testified in Caesarea before the Roman governors, Felix and Festus and before Herod Agrippa II and his sister-mistress, Bernice. Herod Agrippa I died here in a spectacular manner (Acts 12:19-23).
The theater was constructed during the time of Jesus and Pontius Pilate. This theater has been restored, seats 5,000 today, and concerts are held here in the summer. The acoustics are said to be amazing.
The aqueduct that I posted a picture of dates to about 100 CE (or AD). But there was an earlier one, which was somehow destroyed. Herod's harbor was completed about ten years before the birth of Christ. It extended about three times as far out to sea as what is visible today. Its structure was possibly sunk by an earthquake that occurred in the third century CE.
I just wanted to add these details to the pictures of the sites. Even though we've all read about these locations and what took place there in our Bibles, it was a big help to me to connect the stories to an actual setting. The pictures cannot recapture the experience of standing there physically (even for me). But I think the pictures are more meaningful when you have a better idea of what you're looking at.
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