The South Pt. 2: The Negev

That picture was taken on the edge of the Maktesh Ramon, the largest erosion crater in the world. It was our last stop on our second day in the South.

Our second day focused on the Negev Desert. Dr. Wright selected five sites to cover. Although the specific sites were unconnected in any sense of narrative, the separate stories each supplemented the character of the Negev.

Beersheba
At first, I got really excited when I thought we might be traveling to the actual site of Abraham's well in Beersheba, but I should have known better. In Hebrew, Beersheba means well of seven or well of the oath. The site where the well is remembered has only Iron Age remains. Nothing from Abraham's time remains, and Dr. Wright speculates that Abraham's Beersheba is probably elsewhere. We walked around a city with casemate walls, storage rooms, four-room peasant houses, a four-roomed governor’s house, and walked through the town's water system. This would hardly be the first time where water come up in our discussion of the Negev. In a desert that the Bible calls "the wasteland," water is the most precious substance possible.

Arad
Our next stop was the ancient city of Arad, which has two sites. One is Early Bronze, and most likely Egyptian-based. The second is a settlement of the Israelites which dates to the time of Solomon. The most interesting aspect of Arad is the Israelite temple, modelled after the one in Jerusalem, and outfitted with some extra accoutrements. There a lot of problems with its existence: first, the Israelites were forbidden to build more than one temple. The only true temple was to be the temple in Jerusalem. However, it is likely that Solomon knew about the existence of this temple. Furthermore, the holy of holies was found to have two standing stones. Text found nearby speaks about "Yahweh, together with his Asherah." Asherah is the Canaanite fertility goddess. Most likely, the Israelites in Arad added Asherah to their worship of Yahweh. Far from from the temple in Jerusalem, they most likely felt they had to bring God to them. Being in the middle of the desert, fertility was a big deal. Fearing the absence of water and abundance, they most likely fel it necessary to add a goddess of fertility to their list of deities to worship.

Avdat
Next was the Nabotean city of Avdat, a world heritage site located on the Incense Trade Route from Arabia. The Naboteans spent months along this route, driving their hundreds of camels laden with expensive spices through the cracked, dry land. The cresting pallid mountains look the same, one after another, yet a few inches off in one direction eventually becomes 300 feet off the wrong path. The prophets used this metaphor to compare the Israelites' decision to follow their own way with leaving the path in the desert. Rainfall is less than one inch a year. In order to protect the routes and towns from outsiders, the Naboteans had only to hide their water sources from others. After Avdat, we travelled to the geographical Sinai, where we hiked another wadi. Comparing God to living water becomes fiercely and desperately beautiful when you have thirsted in the desert long days (even despite handy metal water bottles hanging from carbines just a hand's reach away...)

We finished our day by traveling to the largest Erosion Crater in the world, 25 miles by 8 miles. Jurassic soil was at the bottom! We read, next to it, Psalm 90: Before the mountains were born … from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

It was a beautiful, thirsty day.