Day 14

Our first full day at the Sea of Galilee saw us head first to Cana, where Jesus performed his first miracle, turning the water into wine. There are actually three towns in Israel called Cana, but given the proximity of this one to Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth it’s likely that this is the place. As usual at these places one of the denominations (usually Roman Catholic or Greek Orthodox) has built a church as a monument. From there to the Roman settlement at Sepporus, which features some beautiful mosaics in the ruins of a wealthy person’s home. There is one in particular which is famous as the ‘Mona Lisa’ of Israel; the face of a beautiful woman, in incredible detail. The same building contained another more practical example of Roman ingenuity, a toilet that featured running water. As it’s very close to Nazareth it’s quite possible that Joseph (Jesus’ father) would have got work as a stonemason at this site (he was in fact more than a carpenter) and that he would have brought the boy Jesus along with him to work. There’s an intriguing detail in the gospels that supports this theory. At Sepporus there is a theatre where plays were performed, and the notion of ‘hypocrisy’ (a Greek word) introduced in the sense of a player using a mask or playing a part. The word ‘hypocrite’ does not exist in Aramaic or Hebrew, yet Jesus uses it several times. Little details like this have made our trip quite fascinating. Later we visited Nazareth (somewhat unremarkable as a town except for a massive Roman Catholic church) and in the afternoon we visited Bet She'an, the location of a large Roman city and a very strategic position in military campaigns throughout the centuries, right up until the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon. We ended the day with a refreshing dip in the Sea of Galilee.