The Travelin' Grampa
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The Travelin’ Grampa Touring the U.S.A. without an automobile Focus on fast, safe, convenient, comfortable, cheap travel, via public transit. Vol. 7, No. 12, December 2014 Illustration credits: Jesus Birth, StoriesNow.com; painting by Giotto di Bondone at Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy. Left: After traveling 120 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem, Joseph and Mary arrive at Bethlehem, finding no room the inn pictured. Right: Mary, Jesus and Joseph during their flight into Egypt, a 310-mile trip. First Christmas story is largely about traveling Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus ordered a “census of the whole world” be taken. This required everyone returning to their ancestral homes to be counted. Thus, Joseph, a carpenter residing in Nazareth in Galilee, traveled with his wife, Mary, then pregnant, to Bethlehem in Judea, at least an 98-mile journey. Though the Romans built many nice roads, it’s likely the couple trekked 120 miles over unpaved and often hilly roads, to avoid crossing unfriendly Samaria, where bandits attacked caravans. They likely averaged 20 miles in a day, making their trip a difficult week-long experience. It’s believed Joseph walked while Mary rode a donkey. Well-to-do craftsmen such as Joseph and his father Jeremiah could afford to rent, or even own, a donkey. Mary’s parents, Joachim and Hannah, temple custodians, weren’t exactly poor either. Flight into Egypt a difficult and hectic 310-mile trip Not long after the birth of Jesus, his parents were warned to leave the country, to avoid him being killed by soldiers of King Herod of Judea. Herod heard a pretender to his throne had been born within his kingdom. To get rid of this perceived threat to his or his son’s crown, Herod ordered the slaughter of all males in and around Bethlehem up to age two. So, Mary, Jesus and Joseph escaped to Egypt, the border of which is 100 miles away. From Bethlehem, six miles south of Jerusalem, they likely crossed the Sinai desert to Bubastis on the Tanis branch of the Nile River, about 50 miles northeast of Cairo. They then went to Mataria, near Heliopolis, six miles from Cairo. Bethlehem to Cairo is 201 miles on a map, but 310 road miles. Quite a trip. 1 ========== == = TRAVEL DURING BIBLICAL TIMES = = Biblical-time vehicles: donkeys, camels, boats, slaves Travel in Biblical days was mainly on foot. A favored overland vehicle was the donkey,, ridden bareback or pulling a cart or wagon, the latter mostly to haul goods. Carts had two or four wheels. Boats, powered by sails or/and by rowing, carried passengers and cargo along coasts, up and down rivers, and across seas and lakes. Camels carried valuable goods, up to half a ton, traveling up to 25 miles a day, requiring little food or water. Horses were used mainly by the military. Ditto horse-drawn chariots. Ox-pulled carts and wagons hauled freight and sometimes passengers. Wealthy and powerful people rode on draped padded sedan chairs carried by four, sometimes six, or even eight, slaves. But it was not unusual for someone important to ride a donkey. The Gospel of John says Jesus on Palm Sunday triumphantly rode a donkey into Jerusalem. Roman Empire had 63,000 miles of paved roads By the time of Jesus’ birth the Roman Empire had created a network of land and sea routes throughout the Mediterranean region, including more than 63,000 miles of paved roads, connecting centers of government, culture and power. This network stretched from Hispania (Spain) to Persia (Iran), says the web site of the Village of Nazareth, a tourist attraction in the present city of Nazareth in Israel. “Since Jesus and his followers were not wealthy Roman diplomats or military leaders but mostly a band of low-class fishermen and subsistence farmers,” these modern Nazarenes suppose their forefathers “likely traveled by foot at least 50 miles east to west and 150 miles north to south through present day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.” For more: www.nazarethvillage.com Highways chief was Julius Caesar’s first big job “The Romans were builders and roads were their passion,” writes Elizabeth McNamera in Scripture from Scratch. ”Paved roads leading out from the forum in Rome connected every city. Roman commerce and the military depended on this infrastructure.” McNamera is an assistant professor who teaches philosophy and religion at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana. She also is a sometime archaeologist at Bethsaida, Israel. “Julius Caesar, at the beginning of his career, was appointed Curator of Roads, a very responsible position,” she notes. This was 23 years before he became Rome’s dictator for life in 45 B.C. Unfortunately for him, that lasted less than a year afterward. He was assassinated the following March 15. But roads for which he was responsible lasted for centuries. By the 12th Century A.D. All roads lead to Rome had become a popular saying. “Curators were accountable for keeping the roads in good repair, seeing to the building of bridges and the establishment of staging posts,” writes McNamera. “Local communities could be called upon to carry out the repairs. And while public money was available, many curators paid out of their own pockets to ingratiate themselves to the people. Milestones were inscribed with the services the curator had done. So the traveler was grateful to – or mad at – the curator.” Travel in those days often was difficult and dangerous “Travel in biblical times was fraught with difficulty and danger,” points out Elizabeth McNamera in Scripture from Scratch. ”There was the threat of heat and exhaustion, cold and hunger, peril from wild animals. Bandits and brigands were a constant hazard.” At that time, lions and wild boars still were found in that part of the world. 2 ============= == = TRAVEL DURING BIBLICAL TIMES = = Map credit: The Land Jesus Knew, Dec. 1982,Part 1, at www.LDS.org Holy Family Route from Nazareth to Bethlehem – 120 Miles This shows the usual Jewish route from Nazareth to Bethlehem, about 120 miles. Today, what in Biblical times was Samaria, which Judean travelers usually avoided due to many road bandits, now is called the West Bank and is part of Palestine. What then were Gilead, Perea and Moab east of the Jordan River are in what now is the Kingdom of Jordan. Nazareth is a major city in northern Israel, although its residents are mostly Arab Muslims and Christians. Bethlehem is a town in Palestine, about 10 km from Jerusalem, Israel’s capital. Some commentators mistakenly figure the Nazareth to Bethlehem’s distance as 80 miles, because that’s via the present Highway 60, an almost straight-line route. Mileage calculated by Mapquest.. 3 ============ == = TRAVEL DURING BIBLICAL TIMES = = Map credit: The Land Jesus Knew, Dec. 1982,Part 1, at www.LDS.org Holy Family’s Flight Into Egypt and Return – 662.94 miles Likely routes of flight to Egypt and return to Nazareth by Mary, Jesus and Joseph. Shaded area is where in Egypt there were Jewish communities at that time. Bethlehem to the Cairo area is 309.68 miles by foot or animal-pulled vehicle. Returning from there to Nazareth is 356.8 miles. Travelers in those days typically averaged about 20 miles per day at best. Mileage calculated by Mapquest. 4 ========== == = TRAVEL DURING BIBLICAL TIMES = = Illustration credits: www.TourEgypt.net; blog.TimesUnion,com Left: map shows places in Egypt that claim visitation by Mary, Jesus & Joseph during their flight from Bethlehem. Right: After a brief stay at what's now Maadi, a suburb of Cairo, they are said to have boarded a sailboat and traveled up the Nile River towards southern Egypt, disembarking at the village of Deir Al-Garnous, now the site of a Monastery of Arganos. While in Egypt, Joseph’s family moved from place to place Mary, Jesus and Joseph, after arriving in Egypt by boat or beast of burden were chased from place to place by Egyptian authorities, as a favor to Judea’s King Herod. After Herod’s death, they returned home to Nazareth, a nearly 356.78-mile trip. “The Holy Family, when Christ was an infant, found haven in Egypt for nearly four years after their flight out of fear from the persecution of King Herod,” we are told by Mamdouh El-Beltagu, that country's minister of tourism. In his introduction to The Holy Family in Egypt, he notes that they traveled from Al-Farma in the north east of Sinai to what is now the Al-Muharraq Monastery in the southern Nile Valley. This book pictures and describes each place they stayed, however briefly. All-told, more than two dozen towns, villages and assorted tourist spots claim visitation by this famous refugee couple and son. For more: www.touregypt.net/holyfamily.htm#ixzz3LnFshRH0 Holy Family traveled 357 miles en route home “When Jesus was about age 3 or 4, he and parents Mary and Joseph traveled from Egypt across the desert past Gaza and Joppa, along the Mediterranean Sea to Nazareth, a distance of about 400 miles (643 km),” says Arthur Blesset, an expert on Jesus’ travels through what’s known as the Holy Land. Blessitt is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the human walking the longest distance during a single continuous trip: 40,195 miles (64,686 km), which took him thru 321 countries. All the while, he carried a 12-foot wooden cross. According to The Holy Family in Egypt, the Holy Family returned from that country via a slightly different route than over which they had arrived, crossing Mount Dronka, near the city of Assiut, and thence eventually to Cairo, then called Matariyah, and on to Mahamma, finally “retracing more or less their steps on their outward journey across Sinai to Palestine” and "Nazareth, in Galilee, in the land of Palestine.” It’s thought the 310-mile “flight into Egypt” occurred when Jesus was a toddler, not an infant, because Herod ordered all babies in the Bethlehem area killed up to age two.