HOLY LAND JOURNEY

 

When you read about the cave at the end of Ephron's field, do you ever imagine what that actually looked like? Ever wonder if the field is still there? Do you envision the garden as you read Jesus' prayer? Or visualize the path that he walked as he carried the cross?

It is difficult to picture the surroundings in which Jesus and all of his biblical predecessors lived and preached, especially so if one has never seen the drastically different landscape, wildlife, and architecture of the Middle East. And while it's good for children to let their imaginations wander, adults really should know just how and where such important events took place. That is why The Bible Land Shop commissioned the creation of three separate, feature-length films that carry one through the stories of the Bible and the history of the Holy Land.

In "Holy Land Journey" our guides begin from the very beginning of the Bible: follow in the footsteps of the Children of Israel, travel to all of the locations where Jesus sojourned and preached, to the sites of his arrest, crucifixion, and burial, through the Roman, Crusader, Turkish, and British occupations, right up into modern Israeli life. Educational and inspirational narration tells the stories of each holy place in the words of the Bible along the way, transforming what might have once seemed like distant and ancient episodes into very real, very modern lessons for the present.

It is a good thing to have read the Bible. But it is a hard book to know unless one has been to its home, has seen what it witnesses. "Holy Land Journey" turns the printed text into a living one so that you can not only now imagine it, but actually experience it.

Experience. . .

• The journey of the Children of Israel: the desert dwellings of the Patriarchs and the modern Bedouin, Sodom and Gomorrha on the Dead Sea, Mt. Moriah, the burial cave of Machpelah, Rachel's burial site, Joseph's tomb at Nablus, the path of Moses, the Jordan River at the crossing into the Promised Land, Deborah at the Valley of Jezriel, Mt. Tabor of the Canaanites, Sampson and Delilah's Ashkelon, David and Goliath's Valley of Elah, the Tower and the City of David, King Solomon's Jaffa Port and Eilat, King Ahab's Megiddo, and King Herod's Temple and castles;
  
  
• The life of Jesus: Nazareth (Zebulun) and its modern carpenters, Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity, the Temple steps ascended by Joseph and Mary, John the Baptizer's Ein Kerem and its many churches, the Mountain of Temptation overlooking Jericho, the site of the wedding at Cana, the pools of Bethesda and the church of St. Anne, Bethany near Jerusalem, the modern day Good Friday and Easter processions through the gates of the Old City, the Mount of Olives, the money-changers' courtyard at the Temple, the rarely seen interior of the Dome of the Rock mosque, Samaria's well and nearby church, the fishing village of Capernaum, the planes of Megiddo, Mt. Tabor and the Church of the Transfiguration, the glorious churches that dot the hills above the Sea of Galilee, the Galilean synagogues of Jesus' day, the site of the Last Supper near Zion Gate, the garden on the Mount of Olives and the nearby chapel that remembers Peter's betrayal, the place of the meeting with Pontius Pilate, the stations of the cross (Via Dolorosa), and the tomb in the garden where the angel announced ". . . he has arisen!"
  
  
• The period of occupation: the destruction of the Second Temple, revolt and Roman invasion at King Herod's fortress, the resulting mass suicide at Mt. Masada, the Roman empire's Caesaria, the city of Avdat built by Roman converts, the seat of the Sanhedrin in Beit Shearim, home of the compiler of the Mishna, Yehuda HaNasi, Moslem conquest and Hebron, sacred sites of the Moslems in the Holy Land, the Moslem palace at Jericho, the Crusader fortress in the Golan Heights, the Turkish conquest and Wadi Kelt, the site of Napoleon's defeat, Sir Montefiore's Yemin Moshe and the birth of modern Jerusalem, and Allenby entering through Jaffa Gate to herald in the era of the British Mandate during World War I;
  
  
• Modern Israel and her neighbors: ancient sites of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the rose-colored city of Petra, Jerash, Amman, Madaba, Mt. Nebo, and modern life, traditional dance, music, and customs in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Mt. Tabor, Nazareth, the Mount of the Beatitudes, Capernaum, Eilat, the Sea of Galilee, Haifa and port, the Golan Heights, Jaffa, Mt. Zion, and the Mount of Olives.

Director/Producer: Reuven Dorot
Running Time: 110 minutes