Samford Summer in Israel

The Samford group at Khirbet Qana (NT Cana?) overlooking the Beit Netofa Valley; clockwise from upper left: Joe Clark, Aaron Carr, James Strange, Adam Quinn, Laura Snyder, Rachel Smith, Maggie Johnson , David Bayless

At the Roman aqueduct near Caesarea; L-R back: Carlos Lugo, Rachel  Stivers-Bender, Joe Clark, Rachel Smith, Olivia Leftwich, Andrew Watkins; L-R front: Michael Leung, Adam Quinn, David Bayless, Maggie Johnson, Laura Snyder, Claire Oldfather

Composed 2 June 2012 We have finished our second week of digging and have taken our second tour of sites and a body of water.   In addition to seeing Magdala and Capernaum, with a break for a dip in the Sea of Galilee, yesterday we toured Khirbet Qana, which lies across the Beit Netofa Valley from our site.   The view of the valley from this hill is simply breathtaking.   The site may well be the town of Cana, known to us only from the Gospel of John.   Its inclusion in that Gospel and the record of its occupation bring up some interesting questions, not the least of which is why does John mention it at all?   In the fourth century Christians and Jews co-existed at Cana as they did at Capernaum and many other towns in the Galilee.   The tour was led by Tom McCollough of Centre College, who is one of the site’s excavators and now the director of that project.   He has been helping us out at our site as well.   I told the students it is a rar...

Composed 27 May 2012 We arrived in Israel in two separate groups and have begun the inaugural season of the Excavations at Shikhin.   The mishaps have been minor.   They involved one student missing her flight but arriving with the later group and one student (not a Samford student) arriving on time and taking the train from the airport because he assumed we had left without him.   We had not, and we spent quite a long time scouring the airport for him.   He arrived safe and sound despite the inclination of several people to throttle him. It’s difficult to describe what this country does to a person who returns often over a lifetime.   Some say, “It gets in you and you can’t get it out.”   “It,” of course, refers to Israel, however one constructs it.   If that statement sounds a bit like a layman’s diagnosis of an infection, I suppose the metaphor is apt if you regard this particular contagion as something you want.   I do know that I be...