ISRAEL EXPERIENCE 2009
May 11-June 12

Beginning in May 2009, Shorter University will expand its study abroad program to include participation in an archaeological excavation in Israel. This trip is also open to non-students.

Shorter has joined the Kursi Consortium becoming the anchor institution for the excavation at Kursi (ancient Gergesa) in Israel. The Kursi Consortium is the excavation arm of the Jerusalem Institute for Biblical Exploration (JIBE). The Jerusalem Institute for Biblical Exploration is a non-profit association of scholars and clergy, whose goal is to explore the Bible through study of the text and study of the Land. (http://www.jibe-edu.org).

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Dr. Alan Hix, Shorter University
706-233-7257
ahix@shorter.edu

Download the trip brochure - STUDENTS.
Download the trip brochure - NON-STUDENTS.
Download the full schedule.

Application deadline is December 1, 2008.

Dr. Alan Hix

Dr. Alan D. Hix, Associate Professor of Religion at Shorter, and Dr. James Scarry, Assistant Professor of History at Shorter, will lead the program. Dr. Hix has excavated at Sepphoris, Israel with the University of South Florida, and taught courses in biblical archaeology for several years at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary’s Atlanta campus.

Prior to coming to Shorter in 2006, Dr. Hix taught at Louisiana College where he helped to establish the Israel Studies Program at that institution. Recently, Dr. Hix has been appointed and an Associate Director of the Kursi Excavation and as a faculty member of the Jerusalem Institute for Biblical Exploration.

KURSI OVERVIEW
From the Israel Nature and National Parks web site: www.parks.org.il

Excavations revealed the remnants of the largest Byzantine-period monastery in Israel (123 by 145 meters). The monastery and the church inside it were built in the middle of the fifth century C.E. and were apparently damaged during the Persian invasion (614 C.E.). The church was repaired but abandoned in the eighth century and never again used for prayer. In the church, archeologists found a mosaic floor with pictures of animals (chickens, geese, doves, cormorants, and fish), parts of which were vandalized, and pictures of plants such as citrons, dates, pomegranates, and grapes. The mosaic floor in the baptism room has a Greek inscription.

According to the New Testament, Jesus healed a man possessed by demons in Kursi. Mark relates that when Jesus disembarked from his boat, a "man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him." A herd of swine was grazing in the area and Jesus cast the demonic spirits from the man to the swine. The swine then ran into the Sea of Galilee and drowned (Mark 5: 1-20 and with slight variations, Matthew 8:28-33 and Luke 8:26-39). Although the evangelistic stories do not mention the precise place where this miracle took place, Christian tradition has always held that it was Kursi.

Students in the church

In 1980, a small chapel was discovered with its apse built in a cave. Christian tradition ties this cave with the place the possessed man revealed himself to Jesus and where Jesus cleansed him cast the demons into the swine.

SITE SIGNIFICANCE

The healing of the demon-possessed man and his subsequent evangelistic efforts mark Kursi as the beginning of Gentile Christianity in Israel. Immediately following the healing of demoniac, he is asked to leave the area (Mark 5:1-20). But when he returns to this same side of the lake in Mark 7:31-8:10, he is welcomed and great crowds gather.

Mosaics on the chapel floor

The miracle of the feeding of the 4,000 (Mark 8:1-10) is also associated with this same area. The mosaic floor in the chapel has depictions of baskets of bread and fish fins. The baskets found in the mosaic floor are baskets with handles (Greek spuris). The same word is used of the baskets described in the feeding miracle in Mark 8. This specific usage would suggest the area around Kursi as the site of this miracle. In the feeding miracle on the other side of the Lake in Mark 5, the word for baskets is the Greek kophinios, a type of basket without handles which was carried on a person’s head.

The rest of story of Kursi is about not only the faith of a committed Christian community, but also of courage and suffering in the face of persecution and even death. Through literally peeling back the layers of time, Shorter students will have a first hand opportunity to help write that story.

CROSS-CULTURAL EXPERIENCE

On weekends during the excavation, students will tour many of the sites connected to biblical events. Following the excavation, Shorter students will have the opportunity to explore the complex nature of Middle Eastern culture and politics. They will be introduced to the Druze religion at Muhraqa and will spend part of a day at a kibbutz that is a center for the study of the Talmud.
Students will visit a Palestinian refugee camp and talk with representatives of the Palestinian government.

On the flip side of the political coin, they will meet with a representative from the Jewish Government and tour the Holocaust Memorial at Yad Vashem. Students will have the opportunity to visit a school that brings Muslims, Jews, Christians, and Druze together not only for education but also for discovering how to live together in peace. They will also have the chance to worship in a Melkite church, and tour the world headquarters of the Baha’i faith in Haifa.