There is so much history in Israel, so much
to see and know about, and every site has hundreds, or most likely thousands of years
of history. How are you to approach the sites? What should you try to remember and what should
you emphasize? I am now in Jerusalem, walking to the Garden
of Gethsemane, one of the most important sites for millions of Christians here in Israel. But instead of telling you about this important
place, the Garden of Gethsemane and the Church of All Nations, also known as the Church of
Agony, I am going to do something else. I am going to lay out my approach to guiding
in churches. Will you be a tour guide by the end of this
video? No, but it will allow you to better understand
all the churches in Israel. I always start with geography. You haven’t flown all the way to Israel
to hear a lecture that you could have heard in your church. Where are we? What can we see on our left and right? This is extremely important when talking about
the life of Jesus because everything has meaning. In Christianity there is the idea of Holy
Geography. Churches commemorate many of the events that
occurred during Jesus’ life. This is a concept you won’t find in Judaism. You don’t find synagogues placed where biblical
events took place. What am I talking about? Let's have a look at where we are now. To the left we have Mount Morahia, where the
Old City is located, and to our right we have the Mount of Olives. So on one side, on one mountain, we have the
resurrection and on the other side, on top of the mountain, we have the ascension. On both sides we can see the divine sides
of Jesus and here in the valley, in the lowest place, we meet the human side of Jesus. Jesus in his darkest hour. But before we dive into the story itself,
there are more things to understand. Jesus spoke Hebrew and Aramaic. You have probably read a translation of the
bible and there are things that are lost in translation. One of them is the names of places. All the place names have meaning, sometimes
we know it and sometimes it is not so clear. On this occasion it’s very clear. Gethsemane is actually made up of two words
in Hebrew: Gat and Shmanim, or oil press, this is where olive oil was made 2000 years
ago. The Mikva, or ritual bath, that was found
in this area, confirms this name as the Jews purified themselves before making oil and
wine. In this beautiful garden you can see some
ancient olive trees, which are hundreds of years old. There is a lot to say about oil and olive
oil at many of the sites in Israel, especially here where we are so close to the temple area. Also, the meaning of the word Christ is Meshiach,
or Messiah in Hebrew. Meshiach in Hebrew and Christos in Greek mean
the same thing - to anoint, to anoint with olive oil. We’re passing through the garden and approaching
the building. You don’t need to be an archaeologist to
see that this is not an ancient building. And it is not ancient at all. It was built a hundred years ago. How is it possible that so many of the churches
in Israel are new? They are supposed to be 2000 years old. Most churches in Europe are older than the
churches you see in Israel today. In order to understand this, you need to understand
the history of the land of Israel. Jesus lived in the Roman era. Only 300 years later did the Roman empire
start to convert to Christianity and build the first churches. Most of the first churches were destroyed
by the Persians and the Muslims in the 7th century. Then they were rebuilt by the Crusaders and
destroyed by the Mamluks, a Muslim empire, before being rebuilt by the British. So many churches have 3 layers: built by the
Byzantines, destroyed by the Muslims, rebuilt by the Crusaders, destroyed by the Mamluks,
and rebuilt by the British. Is it true of all churches? No. But it does give you a basis for understanding
other churches. So here we can see a new church that was built
on top of a Byzantine church and a Crusaders church. If you enter the church you will see glass
on the floor in some areas to show the mosaics of the ancient churches. The architect of this church, and of many
other Catholic churches in Israel, was Antonio Barluzzii. I try not to mention too many names and dates
because other than showing how much the tour guide can remember, it has no meaning to the
average traveler, but the name Antonio Barluzzi is a name worth remembering. In the churches he designed, he tries to incorporate
the story into the building, so here we have a dark church with a blue-purple light to
allow us to focus on the event that happened here. And now we get to the heart of the matter. Nice churches can be found all over the place. But here we have what you will not find in
any other churches in the world, the bedrock. This is what you came for. To see the actual place and to read from the
New Testament. This is the passage to be read here - Gethsemane
36Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them,
“Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee
along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed
with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” 39Going a little farther, he fell with his
face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from
me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” 40Then he returned to his disciples and found
them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for
one hour?” he asked Peter. 41“Watch and pray so that you will not fall
into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42He went away a second time and prayed, “My
Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your
will be done.” 43When he came back, he again found them sleeping,
because their eyes were heavy. 44So he left them and went away once more
and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. 45Then he returned to the disciples and said
to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man
is delivered into the hands of sinners. 46Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” Usually, actually always, I ask someone from
the group to read the passage. To see people so moved to be in the places
they have heard about their whole lives is a real highlight for me. As tour guides we obviously know the history
and significance of the sites we go to, but because it is our job, it tends to become
routine. And to see people moved by the sites reminds
me of the true essence of my work. The emotions that people experience when visiting
these places, these holy places, is the most important thing. I never say everything I know because less
is often more and the guide's job is to to make the connection, to serve as a bridge
between the site and the people on the tour. The guide should never stand in the center. As much as we tour guides love to talk and
hear our own voices, nobody has come to Israel to hear us. If there is sufficient time and interest,
there are many small details I could add here, and in every church, depending on the country,
denomination and even the way the group walked to the church, whether it was on foot or after
getting off a bus. The church is called the Church of All Nations
because it was built after WWI using donations collected from countries that fought on both
sides on the conflict. So if the group is from Argentina, Brazil,
Chile, Mexico, Italy, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Canada, Germany, or the
United States of America, Ireland, Hungary, or Poland, I mention it. I am no expert in religious groups but I think
that with Catholic groups you can talk more about the church that belongs to the custodia
terra sancta, and with Protestant groups you can talk more about archeology. But it really depends on the group. Usually this is the second church that we
visit on a day tour in Jerusalem, after a visit to the top of the mountain, so there
are still a lot of places to see. If I have walked with the group from the top
of the Mount of Olives and am continuing on foot to the Old City, then I don’t dwell
on the facade, but if we’re going to get back on a bus parked in front of the church
then I do talk about the facade. You can see the four evangelists. First is Mark. Second, Luke holds a quote from Luke 22:43–44
"And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood
falling down to the ground." Followed by Matthew holding Matthew 26:42b
“My Father, if this cup cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” The final statue is of John. In the mosaic you can see Jesus in the middle,
on one side the simple people crying and on the other side the ones with power that didn’t
recognize him and on the book one of them is holding it says one word - ignorance. At the top you can see two deer, to remind
us of the verse in Psalms 42 “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs
after You, O God.” That’s it. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did then I will just say that a lot
of what I said, many of the principles that I use when guiding, I learnt from my teachers
Nir Keinan, Urial Feinerman and Gali Nachum. If you want to hear all of my explanations
you can purchase my app - Jerusalem with Oren and if you are an analog person living in
a digital world, you can also buy my booklets. All the links will be down here, see you next
week, Yalla bye!
