There are two words that were used repeatedly during our tour of the Holy Land and they were “historical” and “traditional.” At first I did not understand the difference and why it was important. We were in the land of the Bible so every place should be historically accurate of places of the biblical stories. You know places such as the barn and manger where Jesus was born or where he was crucified and buried or even where the Son of God was baptized. I guess not so much, hence the differentiation between the two terms. For instance, the places of his birth, crucifixion and baptism are sites known as traditional sites, which means they are close like maybe 400 feet or 6 blocks or in the neighborhood of the original place. Throughout thousands of years of history, a great many of the important theological sites were destroyed and rebuilt a number of times. There are many sites like the Western Wall in Jerusalem or the recently uncovered synagogue in Magdela, that have been proven to be historically accurate places in the ancient world. Once I was able to understand the difference between these two words, I could truly appreciate the historical places to the fullest. |