Sunday, February 14: First Sunday in Lent

Luke 4:1-13

Jericho in the Judean Wilderness; Traditional Mount of Temptation

At 1,300 feet below sea level Jericho is the lowest and, with city walls and tower built 10,000 years ago, the oldest city on earth. The primary excavations at Tel al-Sultan were conducted by Kathleen Kenyon between 1952 and 1958 as she developed the nascent archaeological method of stratigraphy, i.e. dating by layers of civilization (she found 23!). The top of the tel (under the canopy where there is seating) provides an excellent view of Mount Nebo to the east from which God showed Moses the Promised Land and Jericho is clearly visible. To the northwest is visible the traditional “Mount of Temptation” where twelfth-century crusaders located Jesus’ temptation by Satan to view and receive all the nations of the world and where in 1895 the Greek Orthodox Church built a monastery which can be reached by foot or using the gondola at the base of the tel. To the south is “Elisha’s Spring” (2 Kgs 2:19-22) which accounts for the existence of the ancient oasis and the lush vegetation you see before you (it can be visited by crossing the street at the base of the tel on the gondola side). Between Mount Nebo and where you are standing, Joshua brought the Israelites into the Promised Land and Jericho was the first Canaanite city they encountered.