Blog

We see many news stories about the Israel-Hamas war, but it is sobering to hear firsthand accounts from those living it every day. Yulia and her family, who work as musicians, fled their home after October 7, as their village and livelihood came under siege from Hamas terrorists.

Yulia shares, “The first day when the tragedy began, all our concerts were cancelled. We are completely and entirely in God’s hands. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow.” She adds, “We left our home, the home we love—where our friends are, and our children’s friends.”

Describing their traumatic experience, she recounts, “We lost so many families. Our children received calls, and would find out about friends that were killed. One girl disappeared. Hamas captured her whole family.” With so many losses, where could they turn for help?

Thankfully, friends like you were there for Yulia’s family. Through CBN Israel, caring donors provided much needed financial assistance to help them buy food, clothing, and other basic essentials during their time of evacuation.

Yulia exclaims, “We are very, very grateful for your help! We feel your love for the Jewish people… We had placed our hope in our country’s strength, and now, more hope in God is arising, especially among non-believers. Their hearts are opening to hear about God…”

Your gifts to CBN Israel can bring God’s hope to others who are hurting—including Holocaust survivors, immigrants, and single mothers.

As the war continues, so do the needs. Your support can offer groceries, housing, trauma therapy, and emergency supplies to victims of terrorism, while supplying ongoing aid to those in need who are trying to survive.

Please join us in helping Israel at this crucial time!

GIVE TODAY

By Marc Turnage

The traditional location of the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which sits within the heart of the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The origin of the church goes back to the Emperor Constantine. His mother the Empress Helena on a visit to the Holy Land (326 A.D.) was shown this location by local Christians and identified as the place where Jesus’ crucifixion and burial took place. Upon that site, her son built the first church, which was called the Church of the Resurrection. 

Archaeological excavations within the church have uncovered the history of the site. In the 8^th-7^th centuries B.C., the location of the Holy Sepulchre was a large limestone quarry to the northwest of the walled city of Jerusalem. According to the excavator, the site continued to be used as a quarry until the first century B.C. when it was filled in with soil and stone flakes from the quarry. The site at this time became a garden or orchard that contained fig, carob, and olive trees. At the same time, it developed into a cemetery. Within the complex of the Holy Sepulchre, tombs dating to the first century have been discovered.

One of the challenges for modern visitors to the church is its location within the modern Old City of Jerusalem and its walls. Jesus was crucified outside of the city walls. The modern Old City walls, built in the 16^th century, however, have nothing to do with the walls of Jesus’ Jerusalem. Jews did not bury within the walls of city, but rather outside. The presence of first century tombs within the Holy Sepulchre complex indicates that this location stood outside the walls of Jerusalem in Jesus’ day. 

Jewish tombs in the first century consisted of two types: kokhim and arcosolia. The most common being the kokhim. A kokh (singular) was a long, narrow recess cut into a rock tomb in which a body, coffin, or ossuary (bone box) could be laid. The typical kokhim tomb was hewn into the hillside and consisted of a square chamber. The entrance to an ordinary kokhim tomb was a small square opening that required a person entering to stoop. The height of the chamber was usually less than that of a person, so they often cut a square pit into the floor of the chamber. This pit created a bench on three sides of the chamber where the bodies of the deceased could be prepared. 

After the chamber and the pit were cut, the kokhim were cut level with the top of the benches and perpendicular to the wall of the tomb in a counter clockwise direction, from right to left, in every wall except the entrance wall. One to three kokhim were usually cut per wall. The kokh had roughly vaulted ceilings and were the length of the deceased or a coffin. After the deceased was placed into the kokh, a blocking stone sealed the square entrance of the tomb. Small stones and plaster helped to further seal the blocking stone. The tomb was sealed in a manner that it blended into the surrounding hillside. 

In addition to the kokhim tomb, arcosolia tombs began to appear sporadically during the first century. The arcosolia is a bench-like aperture with an arched ceiling hewn into the length of the wall. This style of burial was more expensive since only three burial places existed within a tomb chamber instead of six or nine, as typically found within kokhim tombs. Approximately 130 arcosolia tombs have been discovered in Jerusalem and over half of them also contain kokhim. Ossuaries (bone boxes) could be placed on the arcosolia benches.

The tomb identified within the Holy Sepulchre as the tomb of Jesus was originally an arcosolium (singular) with an antechamber; however, the centuries of pilgrims and the various destructions of the church have deformed and obliterated the tomb. What visitors see today is a later structure; nevertheless, the tomb originally contained a first century arcosolium tomb. 

The Roman Emperor Hadrian built on top of the quarry-garden-cemetery a raised platform with another platform on it where he built a temple to Venus/Aphrodite in the second century. This pagan temple was removed when Constantine built his church. 

Constantine built a rotunda around Jesus’ tomb. The rock of Golgotha was exposed to the open air in a garden, and on the other side of the garden, Constantine built a basilica church. 

The question arises whether or not the Holy Sepulchre contains the location of Jesus’ tomb. What we can say is this: 1) The site was a cemetery in the first century with first century tombs. 2) From the second century until the arrival of the Empress Helena, the actual tomb had been covered for 300 years. The fact that the local Christian memory remembered this location, where a first century cemetery existed, even though it was covered by the Hadrianic temple strongly suggests the authenticity of the site. 3) When Helena was shown this site, it sat like now within the walled, urban city of Jerusalem, which would have seemed strange to ancient pilgrims as it does to modern. 

Yet, the memory of the local Christian community remembered that this location once lay outside of the walls of Jerusalem. Ten to fifteen years after Jesus’ death and burial a wall was built in Jerusalem that enclosed this area into the city. 

Pilgrims to Jerusalem often wonder if the Holy Sepulchre marks the site of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. The archaeology and tradition of the site support its claims. 

Marc Turnage is President/CEO of Biblical Expeditions. He is an authority on ancient Judaism and Christian origins. He has published widely for both academic and popular audiences. His most recent book, Windows into the Bible, was named by Outreach Magazine as one of its top 100 Christian living resources. Marc is a widely sought-after speaker and a gifted teacher. He has been guiding groups to the lands of the Bible—Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and Italy—for over twenty years.

Website: WITBUniversity.com
Facebook: @witbuniversity
Podcast: Windows into the Bible Podcast

One verse of the Bible that truly captures the emotion of the moment comes from the disciples who encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus: “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32 NKJV)

The excitement, the awe, the amazement shine through their words. They had encountered the resurrected Jesus, who opened the Scriptures to them and set their hearts ablaze. They realized their hope had not died but was resurrected with their Master.

The Gospels spend most of their narratives describing Jesus’ last week before He died. The New Testament highlights the events of His last week as the foundation of the Christian faith. Jesus walked out of the tomb.

For His followers, it offers hope in the midst of despair, light in the midst of darkness, life instead of death. It also provides a model for us of how to submit to God’s will even in the midst of our own suffering, how to forgive even those who perpetrate a horrible crime against us, and how to trust God even when the circumstances seem impossible.

The encounter with the resurrected Jesus set His followers’ hearts ablaze, and they went throughout the known world suffering hardships, ridicule, loss, and even death because they could never forget the reality of the resurrection. That reality consumed them, and they were forever committed to following Jesus. Why? Because He walked out of the tomb.

The empty tomb provided the hope of Jesus’ followers. It gave them an unwavering sense of calling to “go and make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19 NKJV). It offered them the promise of life eternal. It was the foundation of all they did and who they were.

May you realize afresh that He is risen! May you see that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to you and me today. Let’s put our unwavering hope and trust in the God who wants to bring healing, restoration, and transformation to our lives.

PRAYER

Father, You are our hope. Even in our darkest circumstances, You bring light and life into our lives, and therefore we trust You. Thank you for the hope we have in the resurrection. Amen.

By Nicole Jansezian

Even when the number of immigrants to Israel is on an upswing, many times retaining new citizens is a larger challenge than bringing them to the Holy Land in the first place.

That’s why ulpans, otherwise known as absorption centers, are critical to assimilating new immigrants into Israel. This is especially true during times of war.

“Part of the solution to recover from the atrocities of October 7 is Aliyah (immigration to Israel)—having more young adults with energy, with passion, with education to come and help build a better future in the land,” said Danielle Mor, director of Christian Friends of The Jewish Agency.

One such absorption center is in the coastal city of Haifa in northern Israel. Young Russians and Ukrainians mill in and out of classrooms where they have intensive Hebrew lessons and begin making new connections through the social programs.

The program focuses on helping young adults who came to Israel alone leaving behind family and friends.

“We don’t just teach our students but offer psychological support at least twice a month during their program,” said Nastia, the director of the program who was once a new immigrant herself. “Toward the end of their stay with us we also plug them into a social support program.”

The students live in a dorm setting and the intensive language lessons are designed to propel them to a level of Hebrew that is sufficient to get them either into the job market or into higher education.

“We have here a staff that works 24/7 to mentor them to support them and every need they have,” Nastia said. “Whether its emotional or practical, we want to help guide them in their next steps in Israel so they can make a solid network of friends. They come alone; they leave as a community.”

Danielle noted that every immigrant has a challenging time not to mention coming from one war—such as in the Ukraine—to another in Israel.

“Now, when they’re coming from a situation of war, integration is that much more difficult,” she said. “We’re dealing here with about 250 lone young adults that have come to Israel to start a new life.”

CBN Israel has been supporting the Jewish Agency in this effort.

“CBN was doing this work before the war started, and now they are helping these immigrants who need a chance and who need an opportunity to get a good start in their new country and to go into a life of meaning and purpose,” Danielle said. “This is so important for the future, not just of the individuals that CBN touches through the Jewish Agency, but overall, for Israel.”

Nastia said the recent immigrants had to navigate a terrible war and then face the uncertainty of starting over in a new country and in a new culture.

“When the war broke out here, immigrants heading to Israel didn’t know how to react but now we see they still want to come. We also expect more immigrants after the war ends. There will be a new wave of immigration,” she said. “If it wasn’t for CBN’s support we wouldn’t have been able to continue helping and hosting our immigrants so thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Nicole Jansezian is the media coordinator for CBN Israel. A long-time journalist, Nicole was previously the news editor of All Israel News and All Arab News and a journalist at The Associated Press. On her YouTube channel, Nicole gives a platform to the minority communities in Jerusalem and highlights stories of fascinating people in this intense city. Born and raised in Queens, N.Y., she lives in Jerusalem with her husband, Tony, and their three children.

Phima was just three years old when World War II reached his town of Slonin, Belarus. His parents fled to Uzbekistan with him and his two sisters. One day, his father left for work—and never returned. Sadly, 11 years later, the family learned that his father and six others had been abducted and murdered by the Nazis. 

At age 19, Phima joined the Uzbekistan military, attended university after that, and became a history and economics teacher. He and his wife finally moved to Israel to join their adult children there, made Aliyah, becoming Israeli citizens in 1996, and still live there today.

However, for elderly Holocaust survivors like Phima, now 85, and his wife, the October 7 horrors brought back nightmares of the Nazi onslaught they barely survived. And now, this elderly couple struggles to survive financially as well. Where could they turn for help?

Thankfully, friends like you were there. Through CBN Israel’s partnership with the Jewish Agency, a housing program called Amigour offers affordable living for over 27,000 Holocaust survivors and other needy elderly people. Couples and single seniors can live there in comfort and dignity. Plus, donors are building a new assisted living complex to house even more older Israelis. 

Due to their dire financial situation, Phima and his wife qualify to live there. He exclaims, “Amigour is one big family, and no one ever feels lonely!” Almost half of all remaining Holocaust survivors—about 147,000 people—live in Israel, and 25 percent live below the poverty line. Donors are giving them a nice home and a sense of community in their later years. 

This is only one example of how your gifts to CBN Israel can offer care for those in need. You can also provide food, housing, and essentials for war victims, as well as bringing aid to single mothers, immigrants, and other vulnerable Israelis. 

Please join us in extending a hand to others!

By Marc Turnage

Mark and Matthew identify Gethsemane as the place Jesus went with His disciples after eating the Passover within the city of Jerusalem, prior to His arrest (Matthew 26:36; Mark 14:32). These two Gospels provide the only mention of this place within ancient sources; thus, pinpointing its location proves difficult. 

The Gospel of Luke describes Jesus going to the Mount of Olives (22:39), which sits to the east, across the Kidron Valley (see John 18:1), from the city of Jerusalem. Passover pilgrims would consume their Passover meal, which was the lamb offered in the Temple, within the walled city of Jerusalem, but they stayed outside of the city on the surrounding hillsides. 

The name Gethsemane comes from the Hebrew, gat and shemen. A gat typically refers to a “wine press,” but it can refer, as a more generic term, to any pressing installation. Shemen refers to olive oil, which the olive groves on the mountain gave it the name, Mount of Olives. Thus, Gethsemane most likely refers to an olive oil pressing installation. 

Pilgrims to Jerusalem today can visit four different sites, which Christian traditions (Roman Catholic, Russian, Armenian, and Greek Orthodox) have identified as Gethsemane. All reside on the Mount of Olives. The traditions of these sites only date back at the earliest to the fourth century A.D. The most popular is the Roman Catholic site, maintained by the Franciscans. 

This site contains a church built by the Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi and a grove of olive trees. Some of these trees are several hundred years old, but they do not, as some claim, date back to the time of Jesus. The first century Jewish historian Josephus relates how the Roman army that laid siege to Jerusalem cut down all the trees in the vicinity to build their siege engines (War 6:1). 

While we do not know the precise location of Gethsemane, its location on the Mount of Olives offers an important geographic window into Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane. The Mount of Olives sits on the eastern watershed of the Jerusalem hill country. Beyond the mountain’s ridge, the land drastically falls away toward the Jordan River Valley and the area of Jericho and the Dead Sea. This wilderness served bandits and refugees for centuries as it provided natural concealment to those hiding from authorities. 

When Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, He physically stood at the door of escape. He could have walked less than an hour and disappeared from Caiaphas and Pilate. This heightens the tension of His prayer, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). In that moment, He turned His back on the door of escape to face God’s will that lay in front of Him, the cross. 

This is something that can only be truly appreciated when one stands in this geography and realizes the choices that lay in front of Jesus: how easily He could have saved Himself, yet He submitted to His Father’s will.

Marc Turnage is President/CEO of Biblical Expeditions. He is an authority on ancient Judaism and Christian origins. He has published widely for both academic and popular audiences. His most recent book, Windows into the Bible, was named by Outreach Magazine as one of its top 100 Christian living resources. Marc is a widely sought-after speaker and a gifted teacher. He has been guiding groups to the lands of the Bible—Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and Italy—for over twenty years.

Website: WITBUniversity.com
Facebook: @witbuniversity
Podcast: Windows into the Bible Podcast

“And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left” (Luke 23:33 NKJV).

The crucifixion of Jesus was intended to be an outright mockery of Jewish hopes of redemption. The Jews had just celebrated Passover, the festival of liberation and freedom.

So why did Pilate need to crucify anyone during Passover? This brutal act was his deliberate way of reminding the Jews in Jerusalem who, in fact, was in charge. His message was clear and simple: You may have celebrated redemption, but Rome still rules.

Jesus likely wore the plaque for the cross around His neck as He went from Pilate’s tribunal to the place of execution. It provided the crime for which He was executed: “This is the King of the Jews” (verse 38). Its mocking effigy not only ridiculed Jesus; it also taunted the Jews as they celebrated Passover, hoping for redemption.

The Roman soldiers also mocked Jesus, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself” (verse 37), a refrain that appears throughout the Passion story on the lips of Pilate and his soldiers, which carries a very anti-Jewish attitude.

Even the chief priests, the ones who brought Him to Pilate and cried for Him to be crucified, mocked Him. They had won. They used Pilate to carry out their dirty work. They had effectively protected their wealth and power, both of which were given them for their collaboration with imperial Rome.

And, as Jesus hung on the cross, subjected to the most cruel and painful torture ever designed by man, humiliated and mocked by those in power, He said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (verse 34).

The one who commanded His followers to, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27 NIV), did just that. He walked the path that He expects each of His followers to walk.

Then, when the moment of Jesus’ death came, He uttered the words of every faithful Jew upon their death bed, “Into Your hand I commit my spirit” (Psalm 31:5 NKJV). Like His Jewish contemporaries, Jesus’ citing part of the verse pointed to the larger context of the psalm, which is trusting God as the hope for redemption.

Everything about that awful day screamed that evil had triumphed. The ridicule, the humiliation. The pain, the cruelty. Hopes and dreams lay in tatters as Jesus hung on the cross. Yet, in the moment when He breathed His last, He uttered a profound confession in a faithful Father who had not abandoned Him.

Jesus went to the cross believing that His Father would not forsake Him but would raise Him from the dead. He never wavered. When the people mocked Him, He asked God to forgive them.

With His final breath, He affirmed His hope in a just and loving Father who would not abandon Him to the grave. He trusted that through His death and sacrifice on the cross, God’s redemption would be extended to all people.

When we find ourselves in the midst of chaos, with broken and shattered hopes, mocked and humiliated, do we give into despair? Jesus could have. In such moments, trusting God seems next to impossible.

The fear, the hurt, the pain, the loss, and the sheer devastation of these moments can overwhelm us. Jesus found Himself in such a moment on the cross. He was not rescued from the pain, the torture, the humiliation, or death. Yet He trusted in His Father.

Jesus not only perfectly represented God’s nature through the entirety of His trial and execution; He also showed us how to go through these moments of pain, suffering, and oppression as a human being. He forgave those who did this to Him, and He never lost faith in His Father.

PRAYER

Father, even in our darkest hour, may we be like Your Son Jesus, who when reviled, He forgave, and trusted in You. Amen.

By Julie Stahl

“Mordecai recorded these events and sent letters to all the Jews in all of King Ahasuerus’s provinces, both near and far. He ordered them to celebrate the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar every year because during those days the Jews got rid of their enemies. That was the month when their sorrow was turned into rejoicing and their mourning into a holiday. … For Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them. He cast the Pur (that is, the lot) to crush and destroy them. But when the matter was brought before the king, he commanded by letter that the evil plan Haman had devised against the Jews return on his own head and that he should be hanged with his sons on the gallows. For this reason these days are called Purim, from the word Pur” (Esther 9:20-22, 24-26 HCSB). 

Purim celebrates the Jewish people’s rescue from and victory over a wicked government minister who wanted to destroy them thousands of years ago as recorded in the book of Esther in the Bible. And although it’s the only book in the Bible where the name of God is not mentioned at all, His fingerprints are all over it! 

“The book of Esther is kind of about the end of the world—Jerusalem’s destroyed, there are no more prophets, God has stopped speaking to people, and you can’t see Him anywhere. The kingdom is gone, the armies are gone, the glory that was Jerusalem and Israel is gone, and the Jews are scattered throughout the Persian Empire,” says Yoram Hazony, author of God and Politics in Esther. 

Haman—an evil advisor to King Ahasueres (Xerxes) with a desire to wipe out the Jewish people—conspired to kill the entire Jewish population throughout the ancient Kingdom of Persia (modern-day Iran) on a single day. Since the King trusted Haman, he agreed. 

But, unknown to the King, his beloved Queen Esther was Jewish. She and her cousin Mordechai exposed the plot and turned the tables. So the Jews were rescued and instead became victorious over their enemies. This is what we celebrate at Purim. 

Hazony says there’s a deep lesson here.

“We all like favor, we all like political favor; we love it when people love us and Esther does, too. She loves being queen,” says Hazony. “But the question is when it comes down to it and you need to do something to throw away that favor, throw away political favor in order to do the right thing, do you have it in you?” 

At the Western Wall and in synagogues in Israel and around the world, Megillat Esther, or the scroll of the Book of Esther, is read on Purim. But this reading is unlike any other. Parents and children dress up in costumes. At one time, this ritual was to imitate the biblical characters, but now it includes popular costumes, too. They cheer when the names of heroes Mordechai and Esther are read—and boo and use noise makers when the name of Haman, the villain of the story, is mentioned. 

According to Rabbi Welton, there are two possible reasons for the costumes: to symbolize how Esther concealed her identity until the last moment or how God was a “concealed force behind the salvation of the Jews.” 

Sending financial gifts to the poor and food gifts to others are traditions. Some Jews have a Purim feast. A special treat called hamentaschen (“Haman’s hat” in Yiddish) or oznei Haman (“Haman’s ears” in Hebrew) is a triangular cookie filled with dates, chocolate or nuts eaten at the holiday. 

In most Jewish communities, the holiday is celebrated on the 14th of Adar, but in walled cities or those that were at one time like Jerusalem, the holiday is celebrated a day later and known as Shushan Purim. 

Hazony summed up Purim like this: “The Persian Empire. One Jewish Woman. Guess Who Wins?” 

Holiday Greeting: Hag Purim Sameach! (“Happy Purim!”) 

Julie Stahl is a correspondent for CBN News in the Middle East. A Hebrew speaker, she has been covering news in Israel for more than 20 years. Julie’s life as a journalist has been intertwined with CBN—first as a graduate student in Journalism; then as a journalist with Middle East Television (METV) when it was owned by CBN from 1989-91; and now with CBN News’ Middle East Bureau in Jerusalem since 2009. She also plays an integral role in the weekly CBN News program, Jerusalem Dateline.