Fishing on the Sea of Galilee

Have you ever wondered what it must have been like to fish on the Sea of Galilee  during the time of Jesus?

If you love fishing and fishing stories you might want to visit  this 
land-locked sea (lake) some day. It is a beautiful lake actually some 20.92 kilometers  or 13 miles long by 11.27 kilometers or 7 miles wide and had a thriving fishing industry during Jesus' day.

The area around this sea is quite picturesque but rugged. Like the Dead Sea it lies at the bottom of the Great Right Valley -- not quite as low as the Dead Sea which is 1400 feet below sea level -- but still quite deep at 690 feet below with rock shores surround much of it and Mount Hermon at its northern end.

Here the fishermen of Jesus day  cast their nets either from boats or from the shore. Sometimes the water was calm but during the winter cold winds often whipped up choppy waves and in the summer powerful storms frequently roared down the slopes and across the warm waters creating havoc for unwary sailors as described in Mathew 8: 23-27 just as it does for fishermen and sailors in these waters today, although now of course they are much better equipped.

Next we'll take a quick look at some of the boats and equipment of these early fishermen.

The Center of Worship and Political Intrigue for Centuries

This ancient city situated in the central mountain range of Judea, about 34  miles from the Mediterranean Sea has been the center of worship and political intrigue for centuries -- from today all the way back to early Christian times (Much of the opening books of Acts takes place here) and to  the time of King David of Israel.

This city is none other than the hilltop fortress of Zion captured and renamed Jerusalem by King David in 1070 B.C.E.

From this time on the city has grown to include such other areas as Mount Moriah, youi'll remember, is  where Abraham tried to sacrifice his only son Isaac some 1900 years earlier.

David's son, King Solomon, looking for a central point for, political -- the Jewish Sanhedrin was located here --  as well as social and  religious events made Mount Moriah a part of the city of Jerusalem with a temple he built on it.

Worshipers from many parts of the Mediterranean traveled here to sacrifice, worship and observe seasonal festivals such as the Festival of Booths and Passover in obedience to Jehovah's command at Deuteronomy  16:16: where he said:  "Three times in the year every male of yours  should appear before Jehovah your God in the place that he will choose."  This was Jerusalem from the time of King Solomon -- at least until the temple was destroyed by the Romans in  70 C.E.

Buyers and Sellers During Bible Times

Both specialized retail and the problem of inflation began early in human history although much of the economy during Bible times was still based on farming, herding and bartering.

Still early predecessors to our shopping malls; Bible writers speak of such early markets situated at city gates as the Sheep Gate, the Fish Gate, and the Gate of Potsherds.

Nehemiah 3: 1,3 mention two of these gates, describing how "Eliashib the high priest and his brothers, the priests, proceeded to get up and build the Sheep Gate. They themselves sanctified it and went setting up its doors" And at Jeremiah 3: 1, and 3 Jeremiah is directed by God to go down to the Gate of the Potsherds  to buy an earthenware flask apparently.

Inflation too had early roots in human history with prices that kept getting higher and higher. The actual price of merchandise naturally fluctuated throughout the centuries just as they do today and it is hard to pinpoint what something would have cost at a given date --but generally prices for got steadily more as we can see in the human slave trade;.

The information from ancient sources, including the Bible shows that this trade existed and that when slaves were sold to new masters inflation was a factor.  Joseph, the son of  Joseph, for instance was told by his brothers for 20 silver prices, (possibly shekels)  in the 18 century B.C.E. according  to Genesis 37:28.

Three hundred years later, however, the price had risen to 30 shekels -- by the 8th century  B.CE. to 50 shekels according to Exodus 32:22 and 2 King s 15:20 -- and  by 200 years after this, during the time of the Persian Empire, the price for a slave had risen to 90 silver shekels.

So neither specialized commercial centers or the problem of inflation are something new to the modern era.

See You Next Year

  Have A Great Holiday. See You Next Year!

Do Ants Really Do That?

Remember how Proverbs 6: 6-8 say: " Go to the the ant, you lazy one; see its ways and become wise. Although it has no commander, officer or ruler, it prepares its food even in the summer; it has gathered its food supplies even in the harvest."  This,  as we'll see  was no myth or allegory.

According to experts some ants, including the harvester (Messor semirufus) found in Israel today do in fact gather and store food.

These ants leave their nests during warmer weather to harvest or collect such things as seeds they find either on the ground or growing on plants -- just as we today often search for and pick fruits from trees.

Not only that but this species of ant also  constructs nests close to granaries or threshing floors and store their harvest in underground ganaries or chambers  up to five inches in diameter and one-half inch high. 

These are not isolated holes in ground forcing the ants to expose themselves to predators or cold weather to run from one to the other in search of more food.  Each granary is a part of  a network connected underground by galleries forming an underground city.

Such well-stocked colonies enable the ant to survive underground for up to four months without any outside source of food -- or water.

So Solomon's advice to copy the planning and activity of the ant was truly well founded.

How Far Did Early Missionaries Travel?

Part 3 - Pytheas Sails North

In 320 B.C.E. the Greek mariner set out on a voyage to discover new lands north of the Mediterranean

By that year Massalia (now the modern French city of Marseilles)  had become a prosperous commercial centre with traders sending Mediterranean wines, oils and bronzeware to countries to the north and importing amber and raw metals, such as tin  from those lands.

According to scholars Massiliote traders commissioned  Pytheas to find a quicker (and  probably safer) sea route to those lands. From the careful account that Pytheas kept of seas, tides, geography as well as the different peoples he encountered and different readings he took of the sun's angle  with a survey device known as gnomon which  showed how far he had traveled,  it appears that after sailing westward from Massalia  he sailed north along the Iberian  Peninsula ( Spain) to Brittany (France) and then northward still farther between Ireland and Britain and even farther north.

 He wrote that he sailed some 6 days north of Britain to  the land called Thule, a land where the sea was frozen and had a midnight sun.

There is some debate about exactly what land this was: Iceland, Norway, the Faroe or Orkney Islands, but Pytheas described it as a land of frozen seas and "the midnight sun" so he obviously had sailed pretty far north before returning home, sailing south through the North Sea back to Brittany and the Atlantic coast and home.

Other Phoenician, Greek, Roman, as well as sailors from other lands followed followed over the years. The world of Paul's day was one of expanding exploration, trade, and travel around the southern tip of Africa as well as far north as the Arctic.

But for most people these new territories were still unknown to most  of the people Paul was writing to and it was not likely that he had these frontier territories in mind when he spoke about the good news being preached, "in all creation that is under heaven."

It  was more likely that he was still referring to Mediterranean lands  such as: Parthia, Elam, Media, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Asia Minor parts of Libya, and Rome. By Paul's day, long after Pentecost of 33C.E.  when many Jewish persons as well as proselytes from these lands accepted Christianity the Christian message had indeed become well known in these areas of Mediterranean.

It's possible that individuals could have begun to carry the Christian message even farther afield into Africa and Europe by Paul's day -- but if so there is apparently no record of it.  

Creator Needed

Notice in the post below that  it was scientists that designed and built this brain.

Nothing like this ever happens without intelligent direction -- a Designer.

Now the same designers will have to keep this brain maintained or like everything else it won't improve by itself. It will start to crumble.

 The Bible says that God created... Yet evolutionists  will still claim that the human brain -- just evolved by itself.