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(B)
"Mount Tabor "
(B)
"Mount Tabor "
"Around the Church of the Transfiguration"
Lower Galilee, Israel
Wednesday, December 25, 2013Lower Galilee, Israel
Fifth Day of my Holy Land Trip, Mount Zion, Jerusalem
My Holy Land Trip
"Mount Tabor "
Lower Galilee, Israel
The church was
built from three Naves which are separated by two rows of
columns holding the arches. In
the two bell towers on either side of the entrance to the
building, there are two Chapels.
The northern chapel is dedicated to Moses and it contains an image of him
getting the Tablets of Stone on Mount Sinai, and the southern
chapel is dedicated to Elijah the prophet and it contains an image
of him in his confrontation with the Ba'al prophets
on Mount Carmel.
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On the upper part of the church, above the
altar, there is a mosaic which depicts the Transfiguration, and
on the Transfiguration holiday on August 6, it is illuminated by the
sun beams which are returned from a glass plate located on the church's floor.
A rock near the
entrance of the church has an engraving in ancient Greek and beside it there is
an engraving of a cross. Nearby
there are the remains of the monastery of San Salvatore (Monastère St Salvador)
which was established by the Order of Saint Benedict in 1101.
The Church
of the Transfiguration is a Franciscan church located on Mount Tabor in Israel.
It is traditionally believed to be the site where the Transfiguration of Christ took place, an event in the Gospels in which Jesus is transfigured upon an unnamed
mountain and speaks with Moses and Elijah.
Passage to the Church of the Transfiguration:
The current church, part of a Franciscan monastery complex, was completed in 1924. The
architect was Antonio Barluzzi. It was built on the ruins of an
ancient (4th–6th-century) Byzantine church and a 12th-century church of
the Crusader Kingdom period. There is a Greek Orthodox church located on Mount Tabor as well,
dedicated to the same purpose.
The church
contains three grottoes belonging to the Crusader church. They
were described by Jonas Korte, a
publisher from Eldena, as
"three chapels, with a small altar.
They are called tabernacles, and
they are said to represent the three huts which Peter desired to build, one for his Master
(Jesus) the other two for Moses and Elias (Elijah)".
Franciscan Monastery, side of the Church of Transfiguration, Mount Tabor:
There is a chapel in each of the two towers at
the western end of the church. The Chapel of Elijah is located in the south
tower; the north tower holds the Chapel of Moses.
The Grotto of Christ is in the eastern part of the church. Steps lead down to a lower level containing a sanctuary roofed with a modern vault.
In front of the Church of Transfiguration, Mount Tabor:
There is a chapel
in each of the two towers at the western end of the church. The Chapel of
Elijah is located in the south tower; the north tower holds the Chapel of
Moses.
In the upper part
of the church there is a mosaic on a gold ground representing the
Transfiguration. On Aug 6th,
which is the "day of the Transfiguration" in some church calendars,
the sun strikes a glass plate set into the floor so that the golden mosaic is
briefly illuminated.
The
Transfiguration of Jesus is an event reported by the Synoptic Gospels in which Jesus is transfigured upon a
mountain (Matthew 17:1–9, Mark
9:2–8, Luke 9:28–36). Jesus
becomes radiant, speaks with Moses and Elijah, and is called "Son" by God. The transfiguration put Jesus
above Moses and Elijah, the two preeminent figures of Judaism.
Several mountains
have been identified as the site of the Transfiguration, for example the
tallest mountain in Israel, Mount
Hermon. Mount Tabor is closer to the center of Jesus’ activities and therefore
the Bishop Cyril of Jerusalem wrote in the year 348 that he
preferred Mount Tabor to Mount Hermon. Thus Mount Tabor was accepted as the
site of the transfiguration of Christ.
Mount Tabor is a steep round hill on the north-east side of Yizreel
valley. It played an important role in the biblical history, and tradition
links it to the Transfiguration of Jesus. The hill is strategically located on
the main north-south ancient road, and was an important fortress during the
First and Second Temple, Greek, Roman and Crusaders times.
Armageddon. The word itself is awesome, ominous. The Apocalypse
erupts, the forces of Good and Evil collide, and unbelievers are doomed. A
battleground where the international highway between Mesopotamia and Egypt
widened enough to accommodate armies, the list of warriors who fought in the
Valley of Megiddo reads like a Who’s Who of warfare: Pharaohs Tutmose and Neco,
Barak, Gideon, Sennacherib, Josiah, Saul, Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, Saladin,
Turks, Brits and Israelis.
