La Sierra, WWU profs lead Middle East “Jesus & Judges” study tour

  Divinity School  

During the month of July, nine La Sierra University students and six other travelers studied the life of Jesus and of heroes and tribes from the Book of Judges in the locations where their stories were born. It was the first edition of a tour organizers aim to continue in the future.

"Jesus & Judges" tour group on the Sea of Galilee. (Photo: Ryan Lopez)
"Jesus & Judges" tour group on the Sea of Galilee. (Photo: Ryan Lopez)
Capernaum House, possibly of Peter, and Octogonal Church. (Photo: Carmen Clark)
Capernaum House, possibly of Peter, and Octogonal Church. (Photo: Carmen Clark)
Checking artifacts at Jarash with Doug Clark, third from left, tour organizer.
Checking artifacts at Jarash with Doug Clark, third from left, tour organizer.
The Garden of Gethsemane. (Photo: Carmen Clark)
The Garden of Gethsemane. (Photo: Carmen Clark)
Heshbon, with Mt. Nebo in Background (Photo: Keoni Oliver)
Heshbon, with Mt. Nebo in Background (Photo: Keoni Oliver)
Baptism in the Jordan River.
Baptism in the Jordan River.
Umm Qays-Gadara.
Umm Qays-Gadara.
View of Jezreel Valley from Mt. Tabor, sites of Deborah and the transfiguration stories. (Photo: Carmen Clark)
View of Jezreel Valley from Mt. Tabor, sites of Deborah and the transfiguration stories. (Photo: Carmen Clark)
Wadi Mujib-River Arnon in Jordan. (Photo: Koeni Oliver)
Wadi Mujib-River Arnon in Jordan. (Photo: Koeni Oliver)

Called the “Jesus & Judges Study Tour,” the inaugural journey, organized by La Sierra University’s Center for Near Eastern Archaeology, took college students and interested others to key sites in Jordan, Israel and Palestine from July 2 - 25. The sites are connected with stories in the Book of Mark concerning Jesus’ birth, His baptism, travels, and His death, and the death of John the Baptist; and with the stories from Judges about individuals such as Gideon, Deborah, Abimelech, Samson, Ruth, the Benjaminites and Levites.

The interdisciplinary course was led by three instructors – Kendra Haloviak Valentine, La Sierra professor of New Testament studies; Douglas Clark, director of La Sierra’s archaeology center and former La Sierra University Divinity School professor; and Beverly Beem, professor emeritus of English at Walla Walla University.

The tour was centered in three locations: Madaba, Jordan, and Jerusalem and Tiberias in Israel, with a supplemental visit to Petra, Jordan. Small hotels with classroom facilities in each place functioned as satellite campuses and served as spring boards for exploring sites in the region which are connected to stories in Judges and/or Mark. For instance, in Jordan the class visited sites connected with the end of the Gideon story--Succoth and Penuel in the Jordan Valley. Jerusalem and the region of the Sea of Galilee provided the context for much of what students read in Mark.“Students read volumes and articles, met for class every evening to debrief our travels and readings, wrote reflection papers, [and] explored a wide variety of approaches to the texts in order to extract as much information as possible,” Clark said.

The “Jesus & Judges Study Tour” is one of many such expeditions led by La Sierra’s Divinity School professors to the Holy Lands over roughly 30 years. The tour derives from an interdisciplinary course on Judges previously taught by Clark and Beem at Walla Walla for 15 years with the idea of one day taking the course on the road. “In time this dream took on a New Testament component, the Gospel of Mark, thereby giving students immersive study tour experiences in both the Old and New Testaments,” said Clark.

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