Depart the USA

Transfer from Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv to our hotel on the Mediterranean Coast. Overnight on the Mediterranean Coast.

Continue to enjoy the Coastal Plain as we tour the spectacular Roman complex and engineering feat of Herod the Great known as Caesarea Maritima. View the Jezreel Valley – the place imagined as the stage for the great final battle between good and evil from Megiddo. Recall the childhood of Jesus at the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth. Overnight in Tiberias.

Experience a boat ride across the Sea of Galilee, and look into the life of first-century fishermen with the ancient boat at Ginnosar. Visit Jesus’ home away from home, Capernaum. Recall the feeding of the 5000 with five loaves and two fish, as well as John 21 at the Church of the Primacy of Peter. Meditate on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount with Holy Communion on the Mount of Beatitudes. Visit the hometown of Mary Magdalene at Magdala. Overnight in Tiberias.

Experience Old Testament history that stretches from the Canaanite period to the Israelite monarchy at Tel Hazor. Simultaneously, step back into ancient Israelite religion and politics at Biblical Dan amidst the natural beauty and modern political importance of its Nature Reserve. Recall Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ at Caesarea Phillipi. Visit the Old Testament city, New Testament fishing town and home of several disciples, Bethsaida.

Get a glimpse of Jewish worship in the Byzantine period (6th century) at the Beit Alpha Synagogue. Recall the story of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman (John 4) at Jacob’s Well in Nablus (ancient Shechem). Explore the ruins of Samaria, the ancient capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, built by Omri and later inhabited by Ahab and Jezebel. Overnight at the Dead Sea.

Enjoy a full day of rest and renewal in the Judean Wilderness, the setting that was spiritually formative for both John the Baptist and Jesus. Overnight at the Dead Sea.

Continue our experience of life in the wilderness with a visit to the third-century CE Ein Gedi Synagogue. See where the Dead Sea Scrolls, including some of the oldest biblical manuscripts in the world, were found at Qumran. Visit the lowest and oldest city on earth – Jericho. Remember our baptism at one of the places John the baptizer was active, Bethany Beyond the Jordan. Overnight at the Dead Sea.

Visit Masada, a grand mountain-top fortress of Herod the Great and place of the Zealots’ last stand against the Romans. Travel along biblical Israel’s southern frontier of the Negev Wilderness with a stop at the ancient Israelite fortress of Arad with its impressive “miniature” temple complex. Our day concludes with a drive through some of the beautiful Shefelah, ending in the Judean Hill Country. Overnight in Bethlehem.

See some of the original Dead Sea Scrolls, a massive outdoor scale model of Jerusalem as it was at the time of Jesus, and visit the archaeological wing of the Israel Museum. Honor all those touched by the Holocaust at the Yad Vashem Museum and memorial. Overnight in Bethlehem.

Ponder the holy mystery of the incarnation at the Church of the Nativity. View the Judean Hill Country and Judean Wilderness from Herod the Great’s hilltop fortress and burial place known as the Herodium. Discuss the Christian Presence in and around Bethlehem with Rev. Ashraf Tannous. Recall the angel’s announcement at Shepherds’ Field. Overnight in Jerusalem.

Immerse ourselves in four thousand years of history and faith on The Temple Mount. Visit the place of one of Jesus’ healing miracles at Bethesda Pools. Experience Jewish prayer and meditation at the Western Wall. Get a glimpse of ancient Jerusalem as Jesus saw it at the Davidson Center with the Temple Mount Excavations. Lunch will be in the Jewish Quarter. Visit the Shorashim Judaica shop and dialogue with owner Moshe Kempinski. Enjoy free time in the Old City. Overnight in Jerusalem.

Our morning begins on the Mount of Olives to recall Jesus acquiring the donkey for his triumphant ride into Jerusalem, the giving of the Lord’s Prayer at Pater Noster Church, Jesus weeping over Jerusalem at Dominus Flevit, and his praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, commemorated by the adjacent Church of All Nations. Next, we continue our Holy Week journey as we experience the setting of the Last Supper in the traditional Upper Room, and recall Peter’s three-fold denial of Jesus at the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu. We then enter the Old City through Zion Gate to begin the historical Via Dolorosa outside what we now know as the Praetorium, the place of Christ’s condemnation, proceeding then to Calvary and the empty tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Possible overnight in Jerusalem.