Friday: Australia & Bethsaida

Early to rise and take a towel outside on the Beck sidewalk to dry my office study den windows that are so covered with condensation I cannot see downtown StAndrews. Humidity must be high, IDK, my phone is in the bedroom, where Linda is still asleep, so I can't instantly check Weather.

Admittedly, IDK much but I do know that today, May 22, is a summer morning, not a spring morning. I also know that there was a Time when summer was my favorite, but it was because school was in summer vacation for me and though we may not have thought about it that way, the entire culture was built around the school year.

So it was new and seemed odd, my first visit to Australia, spring 1978 in the Northern Hemisphere, learning about their school year

Three months school one month vacation: 4

School year does not control the culture: 12

Their summer vacation month (Southern Hemisphere, remember, winter there when summer here) started before Christmas and went for a month into January. And industry largely shut down during that month. At least, manufacturing industry, perhaps less so the food and hospitality industries.

It seemed more sensible than our school year schedule that may be based on agriculture cycles, plow, plant, harvest; as well as avoiding being cooped up in a classroom through insufferably hot days of summer, both factors far less significant today.

There was something else that to me was more basic. The year round academic cycle, which seems to make so much sense, made for a different apprehension of the culture, a different reality and sense of Time. Again, our entire culture, if not our entire civilization, is bound by the nine month academic year. It's basic, the framework, the matrix for how life works in America. Yet It's unreasonable and illogical, makes no sense whatsoever, for the academic year to be so governing a factor over everyday life. In fact, yesterday I read, don't see it readily this morning, that in at least one state they are considering going to a year round academic year, and that the Covid19 disruption creates the opportunity to decide so and work it out. Makes sense, though it would bring about any number of changes in the culture, would be a welcome opening to reset everything we do.

Early reading this morning, from Haaretz,
https://biblearchaeologyreport.com/2019/09/11/biblical-sites-is-el-araj-bethsaida/
about excavation of a site on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Remember, "As of old, Saint Andrew told it, by the Galilean lake", and "They cast their nets in Galilee, just off the hills of brown". A tell at al-Araj that some are thinking may be the old town of Bethsaida. Good short read for anyone interested, summarizes as follows

The El-Araj Excavation Project has only four seasons of digging under their belts, but have made promising progress. It’s clear the site was occupied at the time the Bible and Josephus describe Bethsaida being an active village. Some of the finds also point to some sort of urbanization in the Roman period. The excavations are still in their infancy, however, and much work is needed before a positive identification can be made that el-Araj is indeed Bethsaida-Julias. At this point, there have been no significant finds that would contradict such an identification, and several that may point to it. For now, it is best to conclude that el-Araj is the leading candidate as Bethsaida, the hometown of Peter, Andrew and Philip (John 1:44) and the village that Jesus actively ministered in (Matt. 11:21).

John 1:44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

Matthew 11:20 Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades. For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. 24 But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”

Peter and Andrew, Bethsaida? What about Capernaum? And what about James and John?

Mark 1:16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.

19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. ...

29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. 30 Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and ...

great pics of Capernaum: https://www.google.com/search?q=pic%20ruins%20at%20capernaum&tbm=isch&hl=en&hl=en&tbs=rimg%3ACdObLvOmVEJ5ImDU5aWFrYF6XFt3UnSNUc8tZFv2iz9SYVHVrgyU0Su_1UH7f2GpQSc3ro58lMeNQVTMkIXREDjTsqXrH6slF0z9X_1_1ovSuyLdzuohBoOtvVmEGaLMr43pDXspzZ13XCNZrQqEgnU5aWFrYF6XBGOrL5kOpNTXioSCVt3UnSNUc8tEesDvs2zrQgYKhIJZFv2iz9SYVER8Ghve-WILx8qEgnVrgyU0Su_1UBHyKc6k3UolXCoSCX7f2GpQSc3rEb12alYA08lqKhIJo58lMeNQVTMR5ACWNMMWYgoqEgkkIXREDjTsqRGhHWUDPsi6ByoSCXrH6slF0z9XEQewv2KStFoyKhIJ_1_1ovSuyLdzsRRf84u3DhxwQqEgmohBoOtvVmEBE8qlbXwr2UySoSCWaLMr43pDXsEa5nZo4BkT2YKhIJpzZ13XCNZrQR00Nl0Ng7kgxhaZXndo6cZXg&ved=0CB4QuIIBahcKEwiw7vCf0MfpAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQNA&biw=1341&bih=717#imgrc=vUgG2SQWTP7SeM

There isn't exactly the same sequence and/or events in either Matthew 4 or Luke 4, but taking Mark as my gospel foundation, I'd always assumed (yes, I know) that all this happened on the seashore right there in Capernaum. And that Peter & Andrew, James & John had grown up as boys together, probably as BFFs, in Capernaum, not Bethsaida.

But now I look again at the walking sequence of locations as Mark, tells it, I wonder if the call of the first two, then two more, disciples was at Capernaum after all? Maybe it was a morning's walk away, in Bethsaida? I still don't think so. Maybe Gospel John, coming even a generation later than apparent Mark's 70 AD writing, hadn't heard about the fishermen's Capernaum connection? IDK. I do recall though, that in the excavated Capernaum a house has been traditionally identified as the home of Simon Peter. Maybe some from our parish who have been there recently, know better than I.

Anyway, as usual, being an Episcopalian, I'm happy to end with more questions in my mind than answers, and I wish I were meeting with my beloved Sunday School class to work it out.

T+

Underway! Making for Studstrup, Denmark with wood pellets.

pics pinched off the linked article from Bible Archeology Report.