Knowing More than Luther...

I could not agree more with the following statement from Paul Maier's "In the Fulness of Time". 

“Any person today can, if he or she wishes, know more about Jesus and the origins of Christianity than would have been possible for the greatest names in Church history, including Calvin, Luther, Thomas Aquinas, or even Augustine.” (Maier 1991:xvi)

Natural conclusion - Come to Israel see the places Luther only read about!

To you - Hazor, Bethlehem, Capernaum, etc. can be more than place names - you can see them, touch them and visualize the narrative that occurred in and around them! 

Miracles and Jericho

Many evangelical biblical scholars recognize the three main periods of miraculous events in the biblical narrative - 1.) The Exodus/Conquest (Exodus-Joshua); 2.) The Ministries of Elijah/Elisha (1-2 Kings ca. 870-800 BCE); 3.) The Ministry of Jesus/Early Church (Gospels-Acts ca. 30-70 CE). Of course there are other supernatural events in Scripture that fall outside of these three specific periods - most of those are acts of divine power without a clear "sign" (e.g. Uzzah and the Ark ca. 980 BCE, Jonathan/Armor-bearer wiping out the Philistine Garrison @ Michmash ca. 1030 BCE, etc.).

Interestingly - Jericho is the only city specifically cited as being the location of a miracle in all three "miracle" periods.

• Exodus/Conquest - The miraculous destruction of Jericho's walls  (Joshua 5-6)
• The Ministries of Elijah/Elisha - Elijah taken to heaven; Elisha turning poison water into sweet water (2 Kings 2); and Elisha making an axe-head float near the Jordan (2 Kings 6 - probably near Jericho "sons of the prophets")
• The Ministry of Jesus - Jesus healing blind Bartimaeus (and associate - see Matt. 20:30) (Mark 10:46-52)

While this is not earth-shattering news it does clearly show that Jericho was a prominent fixture on an important east-west route for over 1500 years of redemptive history.