Amman #4

Another name for this city, during the time of Jesus, was Philadelphia. (Not the one in Pennsylvania, the first one.) Philadelphia was a part of the Decapolis (the agreement of 10 cities for commerce and power). The Decapolis was run by the Greeks and so they began to build according to their Greek-Roman Architecture. On this very hill you are looking at the ruins of one of the temples for Hercules. If you look really close, you will see the beautifully carved face, and the massive muscular form of this mythological character…He is the one in the red shirt :-)

Amman #3

This is called the citadel. It is a hill that is surrounded by 6 other hills. From an ancient military perspective, this makes a great place to build a city. No enemy could attack you unless they first showed themselves by climbing over the surrounding hills. This place has been used by many people over the years but I will only tell you of two.
The first is Ammon. This is where the Ammonites lived. The Ammonites were among other things, the people that David had sent his army to defeat while he stayed back in Jerusalem. During this time he sinned with Bathsheba. He tried to cover it up, but could not do it, so he had Bathsheba’s husband killed in battle so that he could marry her. Uriah, one of David’s most trusted and loyal soldiers was killed somewhere around this place that we are standing now.

I will tell you more about the second name on the next post.

Amman #2

This picture doesn't seem to show much...it's just a street in Amman right...Wrong. This street is just in front of the Roman Amphitheater that I spoke of in Amman #1. (In the picture you are looking at now, it is immediately to your left.)Underneath this street runs a spring that feeds into the Jabbok River. Some where along the Jabbok River, the Bible says that Jacob "wrestled with God." At the end of this time, God blessed Jacob and later became the father of the 12 sons who would eventually become Israel. Compared to Petra this picture is somewhat unsatisfying, but to realize that somewhere near hear is where much of the history of the Bible took place is overwhelming.
If you were to turn and look down the opposite direction of this street and then up, you would see a very steep hill and pillars where we will be going next.

Amman #1

Today we started off by going to church. It was a neat service. We sang all the songsin Arabic, but a few of them were ones I remembered in English, so I was able to sing along.There were many people from different countries there. One of the groups was fromBrazil (I didn't get to practice my Portuguese).After lunch we ate at a restaurant that has been open for 50 years, 7 days a weekand 24 hours a day. After Lunch we went to the Roman Amphitheater here in Amman.The Theater is so acoustically good that Harvey Stood on one side, Nancy stood on anotherside and I stood in the middle. With only a whisper we could hear each other loud and clear.(P.S. They guy standing in the picture with us is another former student of Harvey's. Heis hear to visit someone else, but joined us for part of the day.)