November 22, 2025

The Garden of Gethsemane

Almost everyone wants to know, “Are any of the olive trees inside the modern garden the same ones from the time of Jesus?” Well, in my best Tevye voice from his memorable quip in The Fiddler on the Roof, “I’ll tell you! I don’t know!”

The traditional site of the Garden of Gethsemane is located in the compound of the Church of All Nations which sits at the foot of the Mount of Olives just across the Kidron Valley from the Old City of Jerusalem. Though usually crowded and loud, the garden is nonetheless gorgeous, picture perfect, and most definitely worth a visit. Could this be the very site where Jesus prayed on the night before his death? Absolutely, for there is good archaeological and topographical evidence to suggest that an ancient footpath passed nearby, leading from the Golden Gate (the eastern gate of the temple), up the Mount of Olives, across its summit and down the eastern slope to Bethany.

The oldest trees in the garden have been dated to no earlier than 1100 A.D., but their root systems could very well date to the time of Jesus, for olive trees can regenerate from ancient roots. There are eight ancient olive trees in the garden with grayish bark and twisted trunks, the biggest being almost five feet in diameter and twenty-six feet tall. You’ll also find several younger, smaller olive trees as well as cypress trees, rose bushes, lavender, geraniums, marigold and ivy.

As you walk along the western side of the garden, don’t forget to look up and locate the Dome of the Rock peeking above the eastern wall of the Old City. You might also want to enter the church to see a rock claimed to be the one on which Jesus prayed.

– Daniel McCabe

Trivia

Which popular voice/video calling app was originally developed in Israel before being purchased by Microsoft?

Scripture Study: Watching Jesus Pray, Part 4

(Luke 22:39-46)

II. Prayer keeps you from sinning (vs. 40, 46).

a. Look at what Jesus says in v. 40, “When He came to the place, He said to [the disciples], ‘Pray that you may not enter into temptation.’”

Do you ever have to repeat things to your customers, your employees or your children? It can be frustrating. In v. 46 Jesus has to repeat himself to the disciples, “Then He said to them, ‘Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.’”

Twice Jesus emphasized that prayer keeps you from sinning. The disciples simply weren’t catching on to the truth of what he was saying.

Let me add as a quick side note that the Bible keeps us from sinning too. In a verse that I learned while growing up in church, King David writes, “Your word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11).

b. Prayer connects you to your Friend. When we are with friends we find strength. If you found a friend to walk with daily, you’d walk more and probably lose weight. If you found a friend to be accountable to about your struggle with sin, you’d probably find greater victory over your sin. We find supernatural strength when we pray.

Daniel McCabe

Scripture and Archaeology: Jericho

Does the Bible Agree with Archaeology? Part 1

It may be the oldest city in the world, and, oh, if those ancient walls could only talk! Every child knows the story of Joshua and how he and the Israelites marched around the city of Jericho, shouted, and watched its walls fall down. There are songs about it. Movies. Even video and board games. But did it really happen the way we’re told in the Bible?

The Bible: “The people shouted … [and] the wall fell down flat” (Joshua 6:20).

The Archaeology: A lower mud brick wall collapsed, fell outward and down.

The Bible: “Then the people went up into the city” (v. 20).

The Archaeology: The fallen brick wall rolled down the hillside, creating a rough ramp up which an invading army could have climbed.

–The Bible: “They burned the city and all that was in it with fire” (v. 24).

The Archaeology: A three-foot burn layer of ash and collapsed roof timbers has been identified.

The Bible: “The city shall be doomed by the LORD to destruction; it and all who are in it” (v. 17), except for Rahab and her family, of course. In other words, the Israelites were to take nothing out of the city except items of gold, silver, bronze and iron (v. 19).

The Archaeology: Storage rooms with jars of wheat were discovered untouched (though the Israelites could certainly have used the wheat for food).

The Bible: a) “The feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water, for the Jordan overflows its bank during the whole time of harvest” (3:15). The level of the Jordan River always rises in the spring, following the rainy season in Israel, which runs from late October through March. Additionally, in early spring the Jordan River rises from the annual run-off of snow atop Mount Hermon, the headwaters of the Jordan. Finally, barley and wheat are regularly harvested in the spring to this day—barley from April to May and wheat from May to June; and

b) “Now the children of Israel … kept the Passover” (5:10), which likewise takes place in early spring.

The Archaeology: The burnt storage jars were filled with wheat, evidently following the spring harvest.

The Bible: “Cursed be the man before the LORD who rises up and builds this city Jericho” (6:26).

The Archaeology: Above the destruction layer was a visible abandonment layer.

The text of Scripture and the spade of the archaeologist are so far in complete agreement.

Daniel McCabe

Scripture Study: Theology Proper-God’s Essence

“Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? It is higher than heaven—what can you do? Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?” These are the words of Job 11:7-8. Even though God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways, let’s make a humble attempt to understand God Himself with a look into the biblical doctrine of Theology Proper.

Have you ever heard of this? Does it mean a “proper” theology? Actually it refers to the person of God, the triune God. In future segments, I plan to discuss the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ (the doctrine of Christology) as well as the Holy Spirit (the doctrine of Pneumatology). I could also write future segments about God the Father (the doctrine of Paterology), but instead I’ll wrap that doctrine into the general topic of Theology Proper, which I’ll break down into several small subcategories. For example, I’ll address God’s essence (who He is), His nature (what He’s like), His attributes, and His relationship with the created order. I’ll walk through several statements and refer to key verses along the way.

Again, this is how I understand Scripture on this theological topic. In my opinion, it’s probably the least controversial in that most people wouldn’t argue much with anything that I’ll share, so this one should be pretty straightforward and simple.

Let’s start with the essence of God, namely, who He is in His being. God is spirit in essence. Jesus says so in John 4:24. God is spirit and He is invisible. We can’t see Him although He has at times been manifested in a physical form to be apprehended by human senses. We see this in Genesis where God walked in the garden with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3; cf. Exodus 19; Judges 2).

1 John 1:1-3 also notes that the disciple John and others beheld God. They touched Him. They saw Him. They lived with Him. Every time that God has been seen, I think that it’s the second person of the Trinity. I don’t think we ever truly see God the Father, and that’s how we can make sense of the aforementioned passages as well as the one in which Moses saw the backside of God (and lived) or the passage in Isaiah 6 in which Isaiah went up and saw God on the throne. I think that in these passages and elsewhere it’s the second person of the Trinity whom Moses, Isaiah and all the others beheld. But in essence God is invisible. He is spirit.

Adam Keim

Greatest New Testament Archaeological Discoveries

#6 in Our Top Ten Countdown of theTemple Inscriptions Part 1 of 2, The Warning

During the time of Jesus, Herod’s Temple dominated the skyline of Jerusalem, built on 35 acres where Solomon’s Temple once stood. Faithful Jews from near and far traveled regularly to Jerusalem to worship in the temple. Gentiles too were permitted to visit the temple grounds, but they could not approach the temple itself. Instead they were forced to stand behind a barrier and merely admire the building from a distance. Although beautifully decorated and standing 4½ feet tall, this barrier bore Greek and Latin inscriptions warning Gentiles not to pass beyond the barrier. A crowd of Jewish worshippers who hated Paul for his teachings once detained him at the temple, falsely asserting that he “[has] brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place” (Acts 21:28-29). So, clearly Gentiles were not allowed to draw near the temple, but how do we know any barrier with signs ever existed? Well, a first-century historian named Josephus described them, and then in 1871 a French archaeologist discovered a complete stone tablet, inscribed with painted red letters that read, “No outsider shall enter the protective enclosure around the sanctuary, and whoever is caught will only have himself to blame for his ensuing death.”

Many see an immediate connection between this warning inscription and Paul’s words in Ephesians 2:13, “But now in Christ Jesus you [Gentiles] who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ,” and it becomes even more obvious when we continue reading v. 14, “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation.” Let’s rejoice that both the torn veil of the temple and the broken barrier surrounding it symbolize free access for all into the presence of God. Step on in! There is no threat of death as we approach—only the promise of life.

Daniel McCabe

Answer to the Trivia

Which popular voice/video calling app was originally developed in Israel before being purchased by Microsoft?

C. Skype