Richardson Review 9-29-08

 

Dear Family,

 

We have had a great week made special by all the activities our grandchildren were involved in that they invited us to share with them.  Let me recap our week for you.

 

Sunday evening Randall and Lidiette Greeley invited us to be with them for the ordination of Thomas to the Melchizedek Priesthood. Years ago Dad ordained Randall to the Melchizedek Priesthood. We were surprised when we went to their home for the ordination to meet a counselor in their Stake Presidency that I taught years ago in second grade.  Their Bishop was also our home teacher.  We also enjoyed visiting with his grandparents, Ron and Cindy Greeley.  They just returned from a business trip to England.  Monday evening we had home evening and I went to the promotional of the movie, Forever Strong about a Rugby player who left Flagstaff to go to Utah to a Juvenile Detention Center and playing soccer at Highland High School helped him change around his life.

 

Tuesday we attended the Mesa High Choir Concert where we were able to listen to four of our grandchildren perform.  Chelsea performed in "En Chante" and then performed with her brother and cousin in a combined number with "Music Men".  Two of the eight performers in Music Men were our grandchildren.  I was frustrated though when I tried to take pictures because Jaron was at one side of the stage and Nathan on the other side and I couldn't get them both in the same picture. Dad and I enjoyed their "Jailhouse Rock".  Rebekah performed some outstanding numbers in "A Cappella".  It was great to see all four in the same concert.

 

Thursday we flew to Salt Lake for some more great entertainment.  I went with Tami to eat school lunch with Kaitlyn and Ashley and to enjoy their 2^nd and 3^rd grade classrooms.  It made me remember lots of fun times when I was teaching 2^nd grade.

 

Melvin surprised us in the evening by taking us to the Ringling Brothers and Barnham Bailey Circus at the Delta Center.  The girls had no idea where they were going.  We enjoyed the pre show and then enjoyed the big circus parade, the dog show, horse show, trapeze, elephants, tigers, clowns, etc.  They had seven motorcycles all ride around a big cylinder that was amazing as sometimes they were riding upside down.  We had a wonderful evening together.

 

Our main reason for going to Utah was to watch Camille perform in Beauty and the Beast.  We went down to Provo early and got to see Braden and Alison, our BYU freshmen who are living in halls at Heritage Hall right next to each other.  We also visited Bret and Carrie and Jordan for a few minutes.  We planned to visit Adis Regar, our BYU student from Bogor, Indonesia but she didn't get home from work in time. Everyone seems to be doing well. We enjoyed so much Beauty and the Beast.  Camille did an outstanding job as Belle and had several solos.  Her father in the production was Elder Chamberlain that we knew when we served together as Nauvoo Missionaries.  It is fun to tell people that Beauty and the Prince, Jason Millar, who changed from a Beast to a Prince, met at the production.  They plan a wedding on November 21^st in Nauvoo.  We met Jason for the first time at the production and we are impressed that they are good for each other.  We appreciate Melvin and Tami taking us to the production.  We had a great time. 

 

We are so thankful for talented grandchildren and the health to be able to enjoy your performances.  Truly you make life enjoyable for Grandpa and me.  Remember to daily read from the scriptures and remember your prayers morning and evening and remember that Grandpa and I love you. Love, Mom, Grandma, Lavona

 

  

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Israel Education #7

ISRAEL EDUCATION #7

 

JERUSALEM AT THE TIME OF JESUS (CONTINNED)

 

THE TOMB OF JESUS

 

            As with other sites of the events of the last days of Jesus' mortal life, there are two major possibilities for the location of his crucifixion, burial, and resurrection.  According to scripture and Jewish customs, the site must have certain characteristics:

 

1.      It must be outside the city walls, "nigh to the city" (John 19:20).

 

2.      It must be near a main thoroughfare (see Matt. 27:39; Mark 15:29, John 19:20)

 

3.      It must be a place of execution (see Mark 15:27; Luke 23:33).

 

4.      There must be a garden nearby (John 19:41; 20:15).

 

5.      The garden must contain at least one tomb (the tomb was near the place of crucifixion—John 19:41-42).

 

6.      The rock tomb must be newly cut (Matt. 27:60; Luke 23:58; John 19:11).

 

7.      It may have an anteroom (a mourning chamber) and several places for burial; in any case, it must be large enough to walk into (Mark 16:5; Luke 24:3; John 20:8)

 

8.      It must have a large, heavy stone to seal the entrance, with a groove or trough for a stone to roll in (Matt 27:60; Mark 15:16; 16:4; Luke 24:2).

 

9.      The tomb entrance must be small, so that one has to stoop to look inside: a person looking in from the outside could see the place where the body was laid (Luke 24:12; John 20:5, 11-12).

 

10.  The tomb must have someplace when linen burial clothes could lie and where a "young man" cold sit (Mark 16:5), or where two angels could sit, one at the head and one at the foot of where Jesus' body had lain (John 20:12).

 

Let us consider these criteria as we examine the two options for the site of Jesus' crucifixion, burial, and resurrection.

 

Site one.  The Church of the Holy Sepulcher has long been the traditional site of these venerated events.  In the fourth century A.D. Constantine's mother, Helena, made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and identified the spot, which had a pagan temple built over it.  Recent excavations show that this site, though now within the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, was outside the walls in Jesus' day.  Its location just outside the western city wall could have provided a busy thoroughfare for travelers.  There is no evidence that it was a place of execution or that there was a garden nearby.  A stone quarry existed at the Holy Sepulcher site in the first century after Christ.  Roman period tombs have been discovered in the bedrock below the church.  They are kokhim, typical sepulchers from the period, rock-cut burial niches with enough space for a single body.  There may have been room for someone to walk into the entry chamber of the tomb.  There is no evidence that large stones could be rolled to seal the entrance or that there was a bench or shelf on which a body could be placed or on which someone could sit inside a sepulcher.  Two angels could in no fashion situate themselves inside a kokh.

 

Site two. The other possible site is the Garden Tomb, just outside (north) of the Damascus Gate of today's Old City.  The tome, discovered only last century, is not a place of pilgrimage for many thousands of Christians.  This site was outside the walls of the city in Jesus' day along side a main thoroughfare.  It appears to have been a place of execution; today's Damascus Gate was called "St. Stephen's Gate" during the first millennium after Christ, suggesting that Stephen was killed in this area.  St. Stephen's Church)(St. Etienne), from the fifth century after Christ, is immediately north of this site.  One of ancient Jerusalem's biggest cisterns and a wine-press identify the grounds as possibly having been a garden at that time.

 

Many tombs have been discovered in the vicinity, most of them dating to the seventh and eighth centuries before Christ.  The Garden Tomb itself appears to be part of a complex of Judaean tombs from those centuries; most of the complex lies north of the Garden Tomb in what is now the property of the Ecole Biblique, the French School of Archaeology.  These tombs, unlike the later kokhim, are chambers with side rooms branching off in several directions.  Each chamber contained, usually, three benches on which bodies were placed.  Underneath one of the benches in each room was a repository for bones, suggesting reuse of the tombs over many generations.

 

A "new tomb" could also mean a newly remodeled tomb not yet used in the newly cut form.  The Garden Tomb is nearly identical in style to the older tombs but has some features of later styles.  There is no repository for bones, no evidence that it was used many times.  It does have more than one room and is large enough to walk into.  There is no stone at its entrance, but the trough for rolling one into place is clearly visible.  The original entrance was short enough to require stooping to enter.  And there was a bench or shelf (before Byzantines or others later carved out a sarcophagus) on which burial clothes could have lain and on which angels could have sat, on the right side as one enters the tomb (see Mark 16:5).

 

Some have objected to the Garden Tomb as the burial place of Jesus because its structure appears to be of the style used seven or eight centuries earlier.  There are tombs from the early Roman period, however, that combine both old Judaean and Roman-period styles.  At Khirbet Midras in the Shephelah, for example, is a tomb complex dating to the first century before Christ that has the older chambers containing benches but also features the later kokhim, or niches, and sarcophagi and ossuaries.  Even the St. Etienne tomb complex, of which the Garden Tomb seems to be a part, has a chamber with sarcophagi quite distinct from the other chambers.  While investigating ornate tombs in the Hinnom Valley, Leon Ritmeyer noted that some of the tombs that originated in the First Temple period were adapted and reused in the Second Temple period (early Roman period).  "One of [the] side chambers with First Temple-period burial benches leads into an elaborate system of five tomb chambers with kokhim.  In this way, too, the First Temple-period tomb was re-used and exte3nded in the Second Temple period."

 

Of the two possible sites, the enduring reverence of tradition favors the Ho9ly Sepulcher site, but the Garden Tomb more completely matches the scriptural description.  There is presently no way to know if one of these two sites or yet another site was used for Jesus' burial.  Regardless of investigations and evidences and surmises and conclusions, it is not wise to affix faith to a particular site.  Belief is beyond physical territory.  To the Christian, the most important message is, "He is risen; he is not here" (Mark 16:6).

 

THEOLOGICAL RATIONALE FOR JESUS' BURIAL SITE

 

A more theological or philosophical reasoning may be advanced for looking to the north for the place where Jesus' sacrifice occurred.  We recall that two millennia before Christ, Abraham made the long, strenuous trek from Beersheba to Mount Moriah, later known as the Temple Mount (2 Chron. 3:1).  He knew how repulsive and foreign human sacrifice is to the true worship of God, yet the command had been given to sacrifice his son.  The test was perfectly designed for Abraham, who with Sarah had waited so many years for the covenant son, whom he loved.  Now the Lord called on him to sacrifice, to give up, that beloved son.  Paul wrote that "by faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son" (Heb. 11:17).  Abraham's offering of his son Isaac was a similitude of God's offering his Only Begotten Son.  And both may have been accomplished at the same location.  By following the hill of Moriah northward to just outside the Second Wall of the city, we see a prominence where the Garden Tomb and other nearby tombs are situated, which was apparently a site of execution and burial in antiquity.

 

When Abraham and Isaac approached Moriah, Isaac reminded his father that they had the wood for the sacrifice but asked where the sacrifice was.  Abraham prophetically responded, "My son, God [Elohim in the Hebrew text] will provide himself a lamb" (Gen. 22:7-8).  When Abraham's test was consummated, and the angel of the Lord stopped the sacrifice of the son, a ram (not a lamb) was substituted.  But two thousand years later, possibly on the northern extension of this same mountain, God did provide a lamb—the Lamb of God was sacrificed.  We recall that a lamb slain on the great altar of the temple was slain on the north side of the altar (see Lev. 1:11).

 

Abraham knew something of the meaning of his similitude-sacrifice.  He had uttered prophetically—not unintentionally or accidentally—that God would provide a lamb as a sacrifice, and he knew that the Son would be that sacrifice, to be made at that very place—the reason for the long trek to Moriah instead of using some hill in the Negev.  Jesus said in the Temple itse3lf, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it and was glad" (John 8:56).

 

Thus, the Passover Lamb was slain at Passover time on the north of the Altar of Moriah as an atonement for sin, the symbolic and typical purpose of all the lambs slain on the Temple altar over the centuries—those sacrifices all prefigured that greatest Sacrifice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

 

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Help needed for Family Temple Names

Dear Children and Grandchildren,
 
We just finished all the endowments for the Indonesians and their sealings to their parents.  Thanks to those of you that helped with this project.
 
I just printed out all of the names that I had reserved in the computer for family history.  I need help now to do the temple work for these family members.   
 
We have 38 male names to do baptisms for and 5 female names  and then the Initiatory and Endowment for them plus 2 couples to be sealed and 4 daughters and 3 sons to be sealed to their parents.
 
Let me know if you can hep with any of this.  I don't want to give you the slips unless you have a definite time you are going to the temple to get the work done.  I feel an urgency to get this work done but of course will need to get the baptisms done first. 
 
Thanks for all your help. 
 
Love,
 
Mom/Grandma Lavona Richardson

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Wo Be unto Him That Is at Ease In Zion

Dear Children and Grandchildren,
 
This is an article that I think we all need to read and think about.  We love you and pray for you with the challenges we all have.
 Love,
Mom/ Grandma Richardson
 
 
"Wo Be unto Him That Is at Ease in Zion "
By G.G. Vandagriff
The above scripture from 2 Nephi 28:24 surely applies to our day. As the family is literally being attacked on all fronts, the basic unit of our society is being torn apart.
Members of the church in California are being taxed with a great mission to urge the passing of an amendment to their constitution that would defend marriage as being between a man and a woman. As my daughter is raising her family there, I am greatly concerned about the future of marriage and the family in this state.
The plague of pornography is keeping young men from marrying. I sat holding a weeping young friend of mine as she told me her boyfriend had just confessed that he couldn't take her to the temple because of his addiction. A stake president of a young married stake at BYU reported to me that the number one problem he faced was the addiction of married young men to pornography. The hearts of their wives were being broken daily and new marriages were being destroyed.
Modern fiction, film and TV represent the family in contorted, perverted ways. Living together out of wedlock is the norm. A top selling book I recently read (and believe me I didn't see this coming) portrayed a woman who fell in love with a transvestite and preferred him in his female personality because she could talk to him better that way!
Those of us who write "clean, family supportive fiction" are put in a small section in the back of the bookstore, titled "Inspirational." At least someone realizes what we write is inspirational, but when we are pigeonholed there, we only get to "preach to the choir."
How Can We Get our Message Across?
It is my true belief that those of us who were born and received the Gospel at this time in this dispensation were all given a mission to help prepare the earth for the Second Coming. These missions grow increasingly urgent.
We have seen a Mormon presidential candidate mocked and scorned because he was "too clean," because he had no vices. One woman interviewed for TV, said, "How can you trust a man like that?" Romney also touched some invisible button that resulted in the venting of vitriolic anti-Mormonism. Every lie Satan could muster about our "cult" was aired on prime time news.
Clearly, we have a lot of work to do concerning our image and what we stand for. It is time for each of us to prayerfully, humbly approach the Lord and ask him to reveal to us what we can do in this battle against Satan to tear our society apart. We cannot afford to be at ease in Zion . This will take many of us out of our comfort zone.
I would much rather write articles and books that don't contain sex, violence, or bad language for Meridian and Deseret Book, than to try to write for non LDS consumption. But I know that I must at least try to get a pro-family message across. It is like pushing a huge rock up a hill to go against the liberal New York publishing establishment. However, this is where I have to draw on the enabling power of the atonement. The Lord wants his message out there. There are plenty of people who are not members of the Church who want to hear about intact, happy families. So I have to believe, have faith, and rely on the Lord to make up my lack. This means I must refine my talents, seek opportunities to share them, and step up to the bat when they come. I am basically shy, but I must be assertive about my beliefs and speak up when I have the chance.
All of us have talents and abilities. First, we must secure our homes against the evil that would destroy them. We must arm each child with the skills, faith, and desire to fight as the sons of Helaman. Then we must reach out in our communities with our given gifts to make our voices heard.
There has been much said in this American election about "change." The enthusiasm for candidate Sarah Pallin is a huge indicator that people love a "hockey mom" who chose to give birth to a Down's Syndrome child. She represents the average, normal woman in America and she is unafraid of projecting that image. She has used it to her advantage. There is almost a collective sigh of relief among the majority of us who have been lampooned and under-represented for our beliefs.

Pure Religion

Most of us will not run for office, but we can consult God and our hearts to know how we can best serve. We need to hold one another up. Every single family has its challenges. How can we serve the widow? How can we educate the illiterate? How can we extend ourselves to those who carry so many worldly burdens that they can scarcely make it through a day?
First, we must strengthen our own individual relationship with our Savior, feel His grace and love. When we are full of His grace, we will be magnified. We will not be full of fear, but of "love and a sound mind," as Paul says. We must remember the account in Elijah when the chariots of fire were seen. Legions of spirits are on our side. There are more with us than against us. We can be anxiously engaged without being anxious.
When we feel the power of the Savior within us, we want to serve. We want to go forth and feed the needy, serve the poor in spirit, "lift up the hands the hang down." We want to magnify our talents and use them to serve the Lord in this day when we are doing battle against the adversary. My son actively uses the war chapters in the Book of Mormon as a blueprint for how to fight Satan and have success in preserving the Saints and converting the honest in heart.
If you have been blessed with a good education, how can you best use that education to change the lives of others for the better? How can you use it to bring souls to Christ? If you have been blessed materially, how can you use your wealth to lift others up? What about talent and imagination? Can you use these to put the church in a favorable spotlight? Look at little David Archuleta and the great exposure he gave the Church on American Idol! And then, of course, everyone knows Stephanie Meyer, a Mormon homemaker who blew Harry Potter off the number one spot on the New York Times best seller list, resulting in an in depth interview in Newsweek about her beliefs.
We all have a void within us that can only be filled by the unconditional love of the Savior for us and ours for others. When we are stretching ourselves, striving to push against stereotypes and the agents of Satan, we will not fall victim to the "pride cycle," but will be filled with the enabling power of the atonement. We will realize our dependence on the Savior, and He will be ever present in our lives.

 

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ISRAEL EDUCATION #6

 

JERUSALEM AT THE TIME OF JESUS (CONTINUED)

 

 

             The Palace of the High Priest Caiaphas

 

            Quirinius, the legate of Syria who had conducted a census at the establishment of Judaea as a province, also established Ananus (Hanan, or Annas in the New Testament) as the high priest in Jerusalem.  He and his influential family, including Joseph Caiaphas, his son-in-law (see John 18:13), virtually monopolized that office for the succeeding thirty-five years.  The high priests were drawn from the narrow Sadducean circle and were regarded by Roman governors as their intermediaries with their Jewish subjects.

 

            The Palace of Caiaphas was situated either on the summit of today's Mount Zion, just outside the Zion Gate in the Armenian cemetery, or down the slope a hundred yards on what are now the grounds of St. Peter in Gallicantu (Latin, "cockcrow").  At the latter site, excavations uncovered a complete set of Jewish weights and measures, possibly indicating judicial purposes.  Also found was a large lintel inscribed with the Hebrew word corban (offering), suggesting that the residents served in priestly functions.

 

            At the palace some of the Sanhedrin convened illegally for the trial of Jesus.  Jewish law forbade a court to sit at night and on or before the preparation day for the high Holy Day.  In the porch, or colonnaded courtyard, of this palace (see Matt. 26:71), Peter denied knowing Jesus as he warmed himself at a fire during the early morning hours (see Luke 22:55-62; John 18:15-18).

 

                      PILATE'S HALL OF JUDGMENT

 

            Jesus' trial before the Roman governor Pontius Pilate took place on what John called "the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha" (John 19:13).  The Hebrew (or Aramaic) Gabbatha is equivalent to the Greek lithostroton, meaning the stone courtyard of the hall of judgment: "Then led they Jesus. . .  unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the Passover" (John 18:L28; see also 18:33; 19:9; Acts 23:35).

 

            The hall of judgment was also called in the New Testament the Praetorium (Mark 15:16), a Latin term for the palace with its hearing room to which the Roman governor came to transact public business.  In the same room was Pilate's judgment seat (Greek, bema), a raised platform resembling a throne on which the governor sat in judgment.  "When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat" (John 19:13).

 

            Tradition and modern scholarship have identified two main possibilities for the place where Jesus was accused before Pilate: the Antonia Fortress and Herod's Palace.

 

            The Antonia Fortress was the massive governmental and military headquarters at the northwestern corner of the Temple Mount.  Originally constructed by the Hasmonaeans and known as the Bira (Greek, Baris), it was reconstructed and fortified by Herod the Great and named after Mark Antony.  "It is quite possible to argue that Pilate's seat of judgment was in the Antonio. as is persuasively done by Pere Vincent," wrote dame Kathleen Kenyon, excavator of Jerusalem.  A substantial contingent of soldiers was stationed at the Antonia, the biggest fortress in Jerusalem, to keep watch over the Temple Mount—the soldiers' main reason for being in Jerusalem.  Years later, Roman soldiers and then temple guards took the Apostle Paul down to the Sanhedrin at their meeting place in the Temple and returned with him back up into the Fortress, also called "the castle: (Acts 21:34, 37; 22:24; 23:10).

 

            Some ancient sources and modern scholars propose, on the other hand, that the official residence of Roman governors who came up from Caesarea was at Herod's Palace, on the west side of the city, so Jesus' encounter with Pilate must have occurred there.  Without additional evidence, it is impossible to conclusively determine which of the two sites might be the location of Jesus' presentation before Pilate. 

 

            The accusation brought against Jesus before some of the Sanhedrin, was blasphemy—claiming to be God or insulting or violating the sanctity of God, the greatest crime in Jewish law.  Romans cared little about the God of the Jews; they themselves had numerous gods whom they cursed at will.  There was, however, an accusation that was serious enough to cause the governor to arise very early in the morning to hear—sedition against the Roman government.  In fact, the chief reason Pilate had come up to Jerusalem from his usual residence in Caesarea on the coast was to keep his Roman eyes on the Temple Mount, the traditional focus of would-be insurrection and any initiatives to independence during the Passover.  Pilate had already dealt viciously with several messianic revolutionary movements.  Some Jewish leaders, though anxious to see this popular preacher Jesus disposed of, were interested in passing the responsibility for his death to the Romans, so they shifted the charge from blasphemy to treason to bring about a Roman sentence of death (see Luke 23:1-2).

 

            Though Jesus would usually not resent active hostility against the Romans, in this case they pressed the charge that Jesus was conspiring to become king of the Jews and was, therefore, a threat to Caesar as well as to the comfortable position of the Sadduccees and high priests who held their positions by the good graces of the Romans).  Jesus' Jewish accusers even went so far as to accuse Pilate of being no friend to Caesar if he dismissed the charges against Jesus (see John 19:12).  Pilate tried several means to placate the Jews. First he proposed the release of one notable prisoner for the festival: Barabbas or Jesus (see Matt. 27:15-18); John 18:39-40).  Barabbas was a revolutionist who may have appropriated a messianic title: his name means "son of he father:' Jesus, on the other hand, claimed to actually be the "Son of the Father."  The Jews chose to have Barabbas released.  Then Pilate scourged Jesus—flogging him with a leather whip containing jagged pieces of stone, metal, or bone—in the hope of satisfying the accusers (see Luke 23:1; John 19:1-5).

 

            With no reliable witnesses and on the testimony of the accused alone, despite Pilate's inclination to acquit Jesus because of lack of evidence (see Luke 23:4, 15, 22; John 18:38; 19:4,6), and despite Pilate's own suspicion of the accusers' motives (see Matt 27:18), Jesus was ordered to be crucified, the usual method of exe3cution for a noncitizen. Tradition claims that Peter later was also crucified; in contrast, Paul, a Roman citizen, was beheaded.

 

 

GOLGOTHA/CALVARY, The Place of Execution or Burial

 

        The King James Version of Luke identifies the place of Jesus' execution as Calvary, whereas the other three Gospel writers call the place Golgotha: "He bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: (John 19:17; see also Matt. 27:33; Mark 15:22)

 

            All four writers associated the execution site with a skull.  Hebrew gulgoleth and Aramaic gulgutha both mean "skull," Luke's Calvary is actually the Latin translation of the Greek kranion, which means "skull."  Luke 23:33 reads in the Greek: "When they were come to the place, which is called kranion, there they crucified him."

 

            To what does "skull" refer?  The site could have had the physical appearance of a skull, or the name could have derived from the Pace's long-standing use of executions.  It probably involves its being a place of burial. John 19:17 in the Joseph Smith Translation indicates that Jesus was taken "into a place called the place of a burial; which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha" (emphasis added).

 

 

 

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Richardson Review 9-21-08

 

Dear Children and Grandchildren,

 

Thanks to all of you for your visits, telephone calls and gifts to help make Dad's 77^th birthday the best.  I think he really enjoyed the day.  Every year in September I put out our dental souvenirs and we remember what a great dentist Dad was and all the service he gave everyone. He is a great father and grandfather. Ray invited us to Joe's Barbeque for lunch. I made a special chicken birthday dinner and blueberry cheesecake for his birthday cake.  He didn't have any problems blowing out the candles so should get his wish.

 

His special day was made even nicer because Russ, Margie and Lucy drove up from Tucson to visit us.  We are so grateful to have Russ home from Afghanistan safely and for their family to be together again.  Dad and I took care of Lucy while her parents attended an endowment session at the temple.  Lucy enjoyed building towers with Grandpa and letting me hold her and read her books, play musical instruments, etc.  We enjoyed so much having them here.

 

A week ago on Saturday Amy gave us special service when she came and moved our bedroom all around and helped us get more room.  It also changed the environment for Dad and makes a change for him.  I will show you the picture wall I made in our bedroom in the next mailing. 

Monday Neil and Tina Sundberg invited us over for delicious Indonesian food and brought back so many wonderful memories of our mission in Indonesian and the people we love so much.

 

A couple of weeks ago we flew to Council Bluffs, Iowa.  While there we were able to watch Miriam teach seminary and I went with them to Des Moines for an exciting football game where Lincoln High School played Abraham Lincoln High School in Council Bluffs.  It was fun to see Colby who is a great football player and made lots of good plays.  It was a very exciting game against a big school.  They didn't think they had a chance to win but ended up winning 14-9.  Jamie was a cute cheerleader as she cheered them on to victory.

 

 We also enjoyed going to Tony's first stake conference as a member of the Stake Presidency.  Tony spoke at all three sessions.  We enjoyed the two times we got to hear him speak and are grateful for his strong testimony of the gospel, his great delivery.  We got to hear lots of good comments about his service.  We also enjoyed getting to see our grandson, Elder Ellingson, who is serving in their stake as a full time missionary. I guess Council Bluffs is foreign for a missionary from Arizona. We heard lots of good comments about how he is obeying the mission rules and working hard.  He and his companion had one of their investigators out to church.  We were privileged too to hear his mission president and mission mother speak at Stake Conference. 

 

We always enjoy your visits.  Last Sunday we enjoyed a visit from the Mortensens and the ice cream they brought for a treat during their visit.  The Ellingsons said that they plan to visit tonight.  Also this afternoon Randall and Lidiette Greeley have invited us over to their home where Thomas will receive the Melchizedek Priesthood.  He just turned in his papers to serve a mission.  They also just came home from visiting the Becks after their conference in Iowa and enjoyed visiting Kanesville Tabernacle and the Winter Quarter's Visitor Center. 

 

Life is good.  The Church is true.  Dad continues to suffer from headaches, loss of memory and dizzy spells but is making the most of it and enjoying life.  Thanks for being the good people you are and for the joy you all bring into our lives.  Dad also sends his love.

 

Lots of love, Mom, Grandma, Lavona Richardson

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                         ISRAEL EDUCATION #5

JERUSALEM AT THE TIME OF JESUS (CONTINUED)

The Eastern Limits of Jerusalem

 

            When Jesus went to Jerusalem, he usually stayed in Bethany, which "was nigh unto Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off" (John 11:18) on the eastern side of the Mount of Olives range.  The fifteen furlongs, or stadia is approximately two miles.  Bethany is likely the same as Ananiah of the Old Testament (see Neh. 11:32), though the names have different meanings (Ananiah signifies "Jerusalem covers"—as a cloud does—and Bethany allegedly means, "house of dates").  Today the name of the town is

el-Azariyeh, preserving the name of its famous citizen, Lazarus. Jesus often lodged with his friend Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha (see John 11:1).  On other occasions he stayed with "Simon the leper," that is, a man named Simon who had been a leper but was healed (see Matt. 26:6).  The traditional tomb of Lazarus that visitors see today may actually be the tomb from which Jesus' friend was raised.

 

            "They drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphange" (Matt. 21:1).  Two of the three passages referring to Bethphage mention it side by side with Bethany—the two towns were near each other on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives.  Bethphage means "house of figs," and many fig trees grow in the vicinity.  Rabbinic literature cites Bethphage as the eastern limit of the city of Jerusalem.

 

            Jesus' first coming to Jerusalem as King was from the east, as his Second Coming is prophesied to be.  At Passover time, a time of celebration, Jesus accepted the acclamation of King and triumphantly proceeded into other city (see Matt. 21).  He likely entered the Temple Mount where today's Golden Gate is located and then turned into the Temple, instead of going into the Antonia Fortress to take on the Romans.  That made all the difference—it showed that the Messiah was a spiritual, not a political, deliverer.

 

                        POOLS OF WATER IN JERUSALEM

 

            Jerusalem enjoyed highly developed water resources during the late Second Temple period.  Wells, springs, cisterns, aqueducts, and pools served the need for water of one of the greatest walled cities in the Near East.  Moving water—groundwater and water transported via aqueduct—was the best water, because open pools have the disadvantages of heavy evaporation, silting, and exposure to sewage and other pollutants.  Notwithstanding the disadvantages, Jerusalem had at least ten large pools in this period.  Two are mentioned in the New Testament: the Pool of Siloam and the Pool of Bethesda.

 

            Jesus one day sent a man blind from birth to the Pool of Siloam.  He answered the man's plea for sight by making a clay paste, applying it to his eyes, and instructing him to go to the pool and wash it off.  The blind man obeyed and was healed (see John 9:1-11). 

 

            The Pool of Siloam stands at the end of the ancient City's unique hydrotechnical project: Hezekiah's Tunnel.  We recall that in the year 701 B.C., King Hezekiah encouraged by the prophet Isaiah, prepared for the attack of the Assyrian king Sennacherib's forces by repairing the city walls and carving out of solid limestone an underground water channel nearly eighteen hundred feet long to camouflage the Gihon Spring, the city's main water source, and carry its waters inside the city for safe access.  By Jesus' day, the pools at the south end had provided water storage for seven centuries.

 

            The double pool called by Pool of Bethseda (or Bethzatha, possibly Aramaic, "House of Mercy") was situated just north of the Temple Mount gate called in Greek, probatike (pertaining to sheep), the gate through which sheep are supposed to have been brought into the Temple for sacrifice.  "Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches" (John 5:2).  Five porticoes, or porches, surrounded the twin pools: four around the sides and one between them.  Certain medicinal or curative properties were ascribed to the pool.  A superstitious tradition had an angel coming down and "troubling" the waters—probably the result of a siphon-karst spring flowing into the pool, causing bubbling at the surface.  At this pool Jesus met a man who had been lame or paralyzed for thirty-eight years.  On the Sabbath Day he raised him up, completely healed (see John 5:1-16).

 

                                             THE UPPER ROOM

 

            The most important events of the last week of Jesus' life began in "a large upper room furnished and prepared" (Mark 14:15).  The longest and strongest traditions indicate that the house containing the Upper Room was on the hill today called Mount Zion (the Western Hill).  That room was where Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his apostles, where he instituted the sacrament of the Lord's Supper (see Matt. 36:26-29; Luke 22:15-20), where he gave special meaning to the washing of feet (see John 13:2-17), and where he revealed who would betray him (see Matt. 26:20-25; John 13:18-30).

 

            In finding the guest chamber, Jesus instructed Peter and John to follow a man bearing a pitcher of water from the Gihon Spring, or the Pool of Siloam.  Because women usually carried the water, some suppose that this man may have been part of the semimonastic Essene community known to have resided in that part of the Upper City.  The apostles proceeded as Jesus had directed and made final preparations for celebrating the Passover—according to John, a day earlier than the community at large, because by sundown on Friday evening Jesus, as the Passover Lamb, would have been sacrificed (at the same time as the Passover lamb on the Temple altar) and would be in the tomb (see John 13:1; 18:28; 19:14).

 

            The Upper Room was a furnished room (Greek, estromenon; specifically refers to a feast or festival setting).  The room likely included a triclinium, a U-shaped, low-lying table around which person reclined with their feet toward the outside.  If this Upper Room is the same chamber where the resurrected Jesus appeared to many disciples (Luke 24:36-49) or where the apostles and a hundred others were met to fill the vacancy in the Quorum of the twelve Apostles (Acts 1:13-26), then it may have been the home of John Mark's mother, which served as a meeting place for the followers of Jesus after the Resurrection (Acts 12:12).

 

            When Jesus and the eleven apostles had concluded their early observance of the Passover—the last legitimate Passover in history—and after he had given his farewell instructions about unity, love, and the Holy Spirit to his closest associates, "he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered" (John 18:1).  The Kidron (New Testament, Cedron) is a wadi that begins about a mile north of the Temple Mount and turns southward to run between the Mount of Olives and the Temple Mount, continuing past the former City of  David, where it joins its tributaries, the Tyropoeon and Hinnom, and then continues southeastward for twenty miles through the Judaean Desert to the Dead Sea.

 

                              THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE

 

            On the slope of the Mount of Olives was a garden area to which Jesus liked to retire for meditation and prayer.  "Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples: (John 18:23; see also Mark 14:32).  The Garden was named Gat Shermen, which in Hebrew means "oil press."  Just as the juice of the grape or olive is pressed and crushed by the heavy stone in the press, so the heavy burden of the sins of the world that Jesus carried would press the blood out of the body of this Anointed One.  In Gethsemane, among the olive trees that were themselves symbolic of the people of Israel, was accomplished, along with its consummation at Golgotha, the most selfless suffering in the history of humankind.

 

            Rather than the small area now enclosed by the walls surrounding the Franciscan property that includes the Basilica of the Agony, the Garden of Gethsemane must have extended a considerable distance up the slope of the Mount of Olives.  Upon entering the garden, Jesus left eight of his apostles to watch and pray, and he continued up the slope with Peter, James and John.  He then left those three to watch and pray while he hiked "a stone's cast" (Matt. 26:36-39; Luke 22:41) beyond them.

 

            After Jesus' agony in Gethsemane, a multitude consisting of chief priests, elders and soldiers arrived to seek his arrest.  At their head was Judas, who kissed Jesus profusely (according to the emphatic form of the Greek verb used in Mark:14:45), greatly confusing the emotions of the moment with a false display of affection.  When the mob's intention was known, Peter stepped forward, swing his sword, and cut off the ear of the high priest's servant (see John 18:10).  What was Peter doing with a sword?  In the darkness of the night, a sword offered some security as Passover time when many tens of thousands of people flocked to Jerusalem, more than could be housed inside the walls.  Crowds of pilgrims arrived with "lanterns and torches and weapons" (John 18:3), some disciples ventured, "Shall we smite with the sword?" (Luke 22:49), possibly intending to defend themselves or still expecting Jesus to assume the popular role of the Messiah as the one who would overthrow his adversaries and establish a glorious new Jewish kingdom (cf Luke 24:21; Acts 1:6).

 

 

 

 

 

 

         

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