Jerusalem

Church of Mary Magdalene, a Russian Orthodox Church
near the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem

If you believe the story of Noah and his Ark (not to be confused with Jonah and the Whale) to be history rather than allegory, then Noah's family tree would be ancestors to each and every one of us.

How about that, Cousin?

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Adam is
purportedly buried directly below where Jesus was
crucified,

Before you dismiss God's flooding the world as religious claptrap, perhaps you would find it helpful to substitute the term "Climate Change," and assume that the "sins of the world" were some ancient euphemism for pollution.

Or, in the current day, substitute "God" for "Climate Change," and perhaps you'll at least find tolerance for whatever morality tale you previously scoffed at.

Church of All Nations Mural
of Jesus at Garden of Gethsemane.

You also could find rationalization in thinking of the flood as a more localized event, wiping out every place Noah, who lived in an age before cars and jets, probably knew of existing or at least had ever visited in his lifetime.

An apocalyptic destruction of his world, perhaps along the lines of the civilization-ending event for the Minoans in Crete, would seem like the entire earth must have been covered with water.

In any case, for the sake of this narrative, let's assume that we all must have descended from Noah, who incidentally was the tenth generation down a family line of Adam and Eve.

Noah had three sons: Ham, Shem and Japheth.

Julie at Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed after
partaking in the Last Supper with his disciples.

Several generations later, in about 4,000 BC, some descendants of Ham established a civilization in the country we call Egypt, which of course became quite an amazing civilization.  About the same time or maybe 1000 years later (what's a few hundred years when you're having fun?), other descendants of Ham established a city called Jebus, the city that would become Jerusalem.

The Church of All Nations beside the Garden of Gethsemane.

The tenth generation of Noah's descendants down the line of Shem included Abraham, who had a few interesting adventures that I won't go into here.  Several generations later came Moses, who became step-royalty to the Pharoah in Egypt before leading his people on an Exodus to the Promised Land, which became Israel.

After conquering their new homeland and settling in, the Israelites decided they wanted a king, despite the fact that God told them He would guide them through His prophets.

Mural of Jesus Praying at
Church of All Nations

They chose Saul, a Schwarzenegger-like man who stood head and shoulders above the rest of the Israelites.

One day, an army of Schwarzeneggers, the Philistines, showed up in the Valley of Elah (a valley we saw on our way into Jerusalem) and made camp on one hillside, taunting King Saul and the Israelites on the opposite side of the valley with threats of their impending violent, merciless attack.

The Philistines challenged Israel to send out their greatest champion, who most Israelites would have thought to be Saul, and let only those two men fight to decide who would rule the Promised Land, saving the obviously inferior fighting force of Israel from being utterly slaughtered by the superior Philistine fighting force.

The Philistines sent out their greatest champion, Goliath, who was an intimidating giant in full battle regalia.  Just the sight of Goliath was so frightening that no Israelite, including Saul, would come forward.

A humble shepherd boy named David, who was in the fourteenth generation of Abraham's heirs, happened to be there.

Embarrassed by this humiliating spectacle of neither the powerful king nor any other Israelite warrior coming forth, David stepped forward with the belief that God, to whom he sang Psalms of praise daily while tending his sheep, would stand with him, just as David protected his flock. He knew that with God's help, anything was possible.

We all know the story.  As he walked toward the giant who wielded the most gruesome weapons of that age, David pulled out the sling shot used to fend off predators who would otherwise ravage his lambs.

Ancient Olive Tree in Garden of Gethsemane

As Goliath laughed at this mere boy sent to combat him, David put a rock in his sling shot and landed a stone right between the titan's eyes, and Goliath fell forward like a felled tree.  David took Goliath's huge sword, almost too heavy for the boy to hoist, and cut off the giant's head.  At least that's the way I learned the story.

Ceiling at the Church of All Nations

The Philistines ran away upon realizing how powerful this God of David and his ancestor Abraham must be, if a mere boy could defeat their hero.

David became a great fighter and then general in Saul's army, greater even than Saul himself.    Despite not being Saul's heir to the throne, David was selected by the Israelites to be king.  What was the first order of business for King David?

Gateway to Jerusalem

"David and all the Israelites marched to Jerusalem (that is, Jebus). The Jebusites who lived there said to David, “You will not get in here.” Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion—which is the City of David....

"David then took up residence in the fortress, and so it was called the City of David.  He built up the city around it, from the terraces to the surrounding wall, while Joab restored the rest of the city.  And David became more and more powerful, because the Lord Almighty was with him."

---1 Chronicles, Chapter 11 Versus 4, 5 and then 7 through 9

Like all Jews, Jesus came to Jerusalem for all high holidays.

In the Temple as a boy, He amazed Hebrew religious leaders

with his wisdom.  As an adult, He overturned tables of
money changers who took advantage of poor worshipers.

King David's palace in Jerusalem (location unknown) became the site of much drama.

One night, restless and unable to sleep, David went up to the roof of the palace for some fresh air.  He happened to see a gorgeous woman bathing nearby on what I imagine was a hot summer's night.

We walked Via Dolorosa, the route Jesus took to Calvary.

King David sent a servant to find out about the babe, Bathsheba, and learned she was already married to Uriah, a soldier who happened to be out of town on a military campaign.

The king, accustomed to having anything his heart desired, becoming less in tune with God, and so he sent for Bathsheba and...yada yada yada...."I'm pregnant!"

Church of the Holy Sepulchre marks the spot where Jesus was
crucified and also the place where He was entombed and then
finally resurrected, which we celebrate on Easter.

David sent for Uriah in order to get the soldier home from war and into bed with his wife, so that Uriah wouldn't think something's fishy when his wife has a baby almost nine months later.

But Uriah turned out to be a dedicated soldier, so devoted that he refuses to go to see his wife.

David took it a step further with a deadly cover-up.  As commander-in-chief, he ordered his general to send Uriah to the fiercest fighting against the Ammonites, hoping Uriah would be killed.

Julie enters the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Mission accomplished.

David made Bathsheba his wife, and she gave birth to their son.

However, God knows all and sees all, so He sends the prophet Nathan to speak to David on His behalf.

Worshipers pray at a hole that is purportedly
the exact spot where the cross of Jesus stood.

"I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the Word of the Lord by doing what is evil in His eyes?"

David confessed his sin and begged forgiveness, and Nathan, still speaking for God, told David that God would take away his sin and that his life would be spared.  However, Nathan went on to say that the son of David and Bathsheba would die.

David donned sack cloth and prayed that his son's life might be spared, sincerely contrite for his sins, but seven days later, his son died.

Eastern Orthodox Representation
of Jesus on the Cross

David had hoped God might change his mind as He had with Ninevah after they repented following warnings from Jonah (not to be confused with Noah), but no such luck.

David went to comfort the grieving Bathsheba, and....yada yada yada...about  nine months later a new son, Solomon, was born.

David then undertook finishing the war against the Ammonites in which Bathsheba's first husband Uriah had fought, and you may be surprised to learn that they won, bringing back plunder to Jerusalem and forcing all the Ammonites to slave away making bricks, apparently in preparation for a building boom.

David and Bathsheba's second son grew to become Wise King Solomon, whom the Lord loved greatly.

The Wailing Wall, or Western Wall, is the only remainder of

the 2nd Temple of Jerusalem, built on the site of the 1st

Temple constructed by King Solomon in about 1000 BC.
A 3rd Temple on the same spot is blocked from construction
by presence of the Dome of the Rock mosque,
which bans non-Muslims visitors.

King Solomon built the first Temple in Jerusalem in about 1000 BC.

What do you make of that story?

I'd say the Lord works in mysterious ways.

Jews controlled Jerusalem for 300+ years before being overrun by the Assyrians.

Slab where the body of Jesus
was anointed in olive oil.

About a hundred years into Assyrian rule, Babylonians won control of Jerusalem and carried the Israelites into exile.  This was fourteen generations after King David.

Other kingdoms came and went over the millennia.

Roman Empire rule, which lasted in one form or another for over 700 years, began when Pompey the Great besieged Jerusalem in 63 BC.  Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar, Julius Caesar's great-nephew, ruled at the time of the birth of Jesus, followed in 14 AD by Augustus's stepson Tiberius Caesar, who ruled at the time of the crucifixion.  The life of Jesus in Jerusalem, by the way, is covered in the separate narrative accompanying our photos herein. The Roman Empire continued into the early 300s AD and morphed into the Christian Byzantine Empire under Emperor Constantine.  The Byzantine designation is one made by historians; the Byzantines thought of themselves as Romans.

The Byzantines ruled until 637 AD, when following Mohammed's ascent, Arab Muslims took over Jerusalem, until Crusaders recaptured it a few hundred years later.

Old City of Jerusalem behind Suleimann-built wall.

In 1517, Suleimann the Magnificent (not to be confused with Wise King Solomon) took control of Jerusalem for his Ottoman Turks.  The Ottomans held Jerusalem for 400 years, until the end of World War I when the Brits took over.  We would definitely be crossing historical paths with the Ottomans throughout this trip, culminating in Istanbul where we were amazed by their treasures.  For his part, Suleimann, the greatest Ottoman sultan of them all, built Jerusalem's still-impressive city walls, among many other civic improvements which helped preserve the city for posterity.

Modern West Jerusalem on left, and East Jerusalem on right.

Today, 3,000 years after King David and the Israelites captured Jerusalem from the Jebusites, the descendants of Ham and Shem (and most likely Japheth too) continue to contend over control of Jerusalem and its holy sites.

Shortly after Israel declared its independence in 1948, Jordan annexed East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and Israel took control of West Jerusalem. Barbed wire divided the city in two.

The Jordanian side included the old walled city, with most of its holy sites, and an armistice agreement promised to allow Jews free access to those sites, but it was not honored.

Under the Rotunda, the tomb of Jesus

and a piece of the stone that covered
it are housed in the Edicule, built by

 the Greek Orthodox Church in 1810.

In practice, Muslim sites received maintenance while sites cherished by Jews did not, and that became the norm for 19 years.

In 1967, against the warnings of Israel, Jordan joined with Egypt (United Arab Republic was actually Egypt's name at the time) and Syria in an alliance against Israel.  

With the much larger nations amassing overwhelming forces on their borders, tiny Israel's vaunted secret service, Mossad, learned the exact time for the scheduled all-out assault by the Arab alliance, and thirty minutes before that time, the Israeli Air Force took to the skies.

Like David shocking Goliath with a rock to the forehead, Israeli jets mercilessly bombed Egyptian air fields, destroying almost their entire air force.  With that gambit, Israel had gained air superiority for the entire war.

Tomb of Joseph of Arimathea,
who donated a tomb for Jesus.

The United Arab Republic's military forces were built for offense, not defense.  How could they imagine a tiny country would dare to attack them?

Israel further surprised the alliance by invading the Egyptian-controlled Gaza Strip and also the Sinai with ground forces, inflicting heavy damage on all they encountered, capturing territory like my son Jay with hot dice in a game of Risk.

Israel did not want to open a war front against Jordan, but Syria and Jordan followed Egypt's lead and attacked.  Israeli forces surrounded East Jerusalem, but they did not attack for a number of reasons, including probable negative international reaction.  Despite Israel's warnings, Jordan continued firing artillery barrages from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, so two days into the war, on June 7, General Moshe Dayan gave the order to attack, and following heavy fighting, Israeli troops captured East Jerusalem.

The Woman's side of the Wailing Wall.

During the Six-Day War, Israel won control of East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt.

Unlike many of the post-World War II policing actions by the United States and its allies in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, where we've tried to rebuild countries and give them back to their citizens, a truism of war throughout history has been: "To the victors go the spoils."

Shrine in Edicule.

In keeping with this tradition, Israel kept the territories it won, although according to our guide Miki, they'd like to give Gaza back to Egypt but the Egyptians are too smart to accept that constant headache.

The conquered territories to the east, on the other hand, provide an essential buffer to allow Israeli's defenses a chance to respond if attacked.

Did you realize that even after Israel added all of this territory captured in the Six Day War, the combined Islamic countries surrounding Israel are 640 times the size of the Jewish homeland?

Israel is the sliver of red, and Islamic colors are in green.

Can there not be one small sliver of land in the Middle East for a constitutional democracy in which everyone, whether Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Baha'i, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Taoist, Algore-ian Druid or WOMAN, has the same fundamental freedoms of religion, speech, the press and elections as the United States?

Our tour bus had a toilet stop in the outskirts of Jerusalem at this Elvis Gas Station,

 a shrine to the King of Rock and Roll   Despite a constant drum beat of serious

threats, Israelis retain their sense of humor.

The Wailing Wall

The Dome of the Rock Mosque

Location of the Crucifixion

Newer Mosaic of Jesus being lowered from the Cross
at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Greek Orthodox Edicule housing the empty tomb of Jesus.

Jesus in Jerusalem

The Church of All Nations in Jerusalem

For the past twenty years or so, Julie and I have walked rather than drive whenever feasible, and since she retired, we make a point of a dedicated 2 to 4 mile walk every day, which on a cool morning on the beach can be exhausting.  As such, after riding long distances on an air-conditioned tour bus through rugged desert terrain, we're quite impressed to think of these distances being covered on foot by Jesus and His contemporaries.

The Sea of Galilee 

 In the years before He walked 40 miles to the Sea of Galilee region to begin His ministry, Jesus and His family, like all Jews, were required to make several pilgrimages each year from Nazareth to Jerusalem for specific holidays and ceremonies to make sacrifices in the Temple.

According to Killing Jesus, which I read prior to this cruise, the direct route would have been too dangerous, so they had to take a somewhat circuitous route to get there, making the trek even longer.

Old Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives

When Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem for purification, as required under the Law of Moses, an old holy man, Simeon, declared upon seeing young Jesus, that he could die in peace, because he had seen "salvation."  An old prophet, Anna, upon seeing Jesus declared He would be the "redemption of Jerusalem."

Jesus was obviously no ordinary boy.

Ancient Coins at Bergama Museum near Izmir, Turkey

Joseph and Mary sacrificed “a pair of doves or two young pigeons” as required under the law, but because it would have been close to a hundred mile trip from Nazareth, they would've had to buy them at the Temple from a vendor selling sacrificial animals.

To further complicate matters, only Jewish shekels could be used in the Temple to buy the doves, but the official currency of the Roman Empire used in everyday life were Roman denarius.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem

It was on these coins that Emperor Caesar August was declared "son of god," promoting the fact that he was the adopted son of Julius Caesar, who had been deified after his assassination.

The justification for the money changing in the Temple was that most coinage bore "graven images," the profiles of monarchs who saw it as a way to increase their prestige, much as current politicians use junk mail trumpeting their greatness using government funds.

The West Wall, all that remains of the Temple of Jerusalem

The money changers took a large fee for their services, and then the sacrificial animal merchants also took sizable profit margins on their wares.  In addition, the impoverished Jews also had to tithe to the Temple using shekels purchased with denarius.

Nonetheless, young Jesus loved the religious philosophizing at the Temple, and when He returned with His parents for Passover at the age of twelve, He amazed the religious scholars with His brilliant insights and deep understanding of the scriptures.

Alley Cat in Jerusalem

Being almost an adult, Jesus was allowed to wander around the big city on His own, and when it came time for their caravan to head back to Nazareth, Joseph and Mary assumed He had gone ahead.  Not seeing Him anywhere in the among their friends heading to Nazareth, they eventually panicked and doubled back to Jerusalem.  After a frantic search, they finally found the preteen boy in the Temple and, like any good parent, asked Jesus how He could treat them like that.

"Why were you searching for me?" He asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”

For the first thirty or so years of His life, Jesus lived in Nazareth, apprenticing with His father and eventually becoming a carpenter, with that daily life punctuated by a day of worship on Sabbaths and long journeys to the Temple in Jerusalem for religious celebrations.

Murals Within Church of All Nations in Jerusalem

Over the years of His youth, Jesus became outraged by the commerce within the Temple, which bled what little money Jewish peasants had left for subsistence after Roman taxes.  He saw high priests, Sadducees, living large under the guise of religiosity, while the average Jew struggled to get by.  He understood those wealthy priests took cuts of the money changing and merchandise sales in God's Temple as well as being supported by the mandatory tithes (10% of everything earned) paid to the Temple.

Entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Just to be clear, we didn't actually return to Jerusalem after visiting Nazareth, but this seemed too long for a preamble to a post about the River Jordan.  While here, let's jump ahead and tie up the story line of Jesus in Jerusalem.

Years later, after He had been baptized by John the Baptist and embarked on His ministry, Jesus returned to the Temple for Passover and the outrage at what He saw boiled over, motivating Him to overturn the tables of money changers, scattering stacks of coins all across the ground, and open the cages to release the sacrificial animals.

At the Church of the Holy Sepuchre

"My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves."

The next verse after that in Matthew states, "And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple; and He healed them."  No doubt He was shaking up the status quo.

Of course, eventually Jesus would enter Jerusalem on a young donkey, share the Last Supper with His disciples, be betrayed by Judas, and endure a moment of doubt in the Garden of Gethsemane, after which He would be tried, tormented and crucified.

Upon arising from death, Jesus would become known throughout the world.

Knights of St. John in Rhodes, Greece

Situated on a beautiful Greek harbor, the well-preserved Medieval walled fortress of Rhodes offers plenty of photo ops.

As the day warms, quaint bistros and shops within the ancient walls progressively open, and arriving tourists find many tempting offers on refreshments and souvenirs among the inviting storefronts.

Early morning chalk board signs advertise 2 euro  beers and 6 euro lunches at scenic sidewalk cafes, while shops offer tee shirts, lovely jewelry and colorful scarves at similarly reasonable prices.

However, we had enjoyed a great breakfast on board, so the aroma of fresh brewed coffee and breakfast specials didn't entice us, while shopping rarely does.

We  actually spent a lot of time exploring nooks and crannies away from storefronts.

The joys of a morning stroll through this historic village are subtle but quite satisfying.

Despite the reasonable prices and quaint cafes, we headed back to the ship when lunch time rolled around.

On our way there, we saw our Toronto friends Joanne and Stan, who were heading into town for the first time, probably to get lunch at one of those scenic restaurants.

After saying, "See you later," we never did.

We had actually planned to get together with them in San Diego in January, but we hadn't exchanged information up to that point, so that was not to be.  I mention this as a cautionary tale for when you meet new friends anywhere.

We went to the poolside grill, where they had a great selection of European sausages to go along with grilled burgers.  There was also a menu of items prepared in the kitchen, but bratwurst with a beer sounded  perfect to me on this sunny day.

Following lunch, we headed back into town, where a friendly host coaxed us to take seats at a lovely sidewalk cafe across from a fountain.

Prices had seemed so universally low on our morning walk that we didn't ask for a menu.

I ordered a beer, and the waiter smilingly asked if I wanted the large one, to which I said no.  He returned with a gigantic beer, and unfortunately it wasn't very good.  Still, the giant size made me laugh, so I kept it.

I drank maybe a third of it, and when I received the bill, it was something 11 euro just for mine, plus 6 for Julie's wine, which I guess isn't terrible, but we could have had lunch elsewhere for that price.

That bill was the only downer of the day, and even then, it came after a nice time watching the world pass by and accessing free wifi.

Before lunch, we had enjoyed visiting the Palace of the Grand Masters, a castle which the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem made their headquarters from 1309 to 1522.  

The modest admission fee was money well-spent.

During their two centuries ruling Rhodes, the Knights of Saint John became essentially Christian corsairs, sailing under the banner of the cross to wage war against the Muslim Barbary Pirates.  Of course, one king's pirate is another king's privateer, but the Christian warrior monks fought for what I personally consider to be the good guys.

We did not take an excursion or hire a guide along with our admission tickets to the Palace of the Masters, which according to at least one book is among a list of 100 of The World's Must-See Places, of which we actually saw eight on this trip alone (and I counted 40 total for my lifetime).

However,  while wandering through the fascinating castle, Julie and I frequently found our paths temporarily blocked by guided tour groups following English-speaking guides, from whom we would pick up dribs and drabs of information, none of which could could be clarified immediately with questions, because we obviously weren't in the tour groups.

"...this intricate Hellenistic and Roman tile work actually came from buildings in nearby Kos..."  (I assumed at the time she referred to Kas, because we'd just been there, but upon further research once back home, it now seems likely she meant the Greek Isle of Kos.)

"...the first stop of Crusaders..." (Possibly for some of them, but certainly not the Knights of St. John.)

"...also called the Knights Hospitallers..."  (This was a bread crumb that definitely demanded further research.)

The Knights Hospitallers had their origins in about 600 AD when Pope Gregory I commissioned a hospital to be built in Jerusalem to care for Christian pilgrims visiting the holy sites.  At that time, the area was still part of the Roman Empire, which had become Christian about three centuries earlier beginning with Constantine.

Persians briefly displaced the Romans from 614 to 629, destroying the hospital.  Roman's rebuilt the hospital when they briefly regained control of Jerusalem, but in 638, the first Caliphate of Arab Muslims took control.

The Muslims of this period were apparently tolerant of Christianity, and the Muslims allowed the hospital to continue serving Christian pilgrims.

In fact, in 800, Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne added a library and expanded the hospital.  And Jerusalem prospered.

During the Middle Ages (5th to 15th Centuries), hospitals were run as ministries of churches in the Christian world.  They also doubled as inns (and if you are interested in the topic of priory hospitals, read Ken Follett's excellent novel,  World Without End, though it is set mostly in England), making them essential to Christian pilgrims visiting the Holy Lands in an age before cruise ships and hotels.

Monks would guide pilgrims to the holy sites, and events occasionally required these monks to act as protectors.  They carried weapons, beginning the tradition of warrior monks who became known as Knights Hospitallers.

On September 29, 1009, exactly 1006 years before we boarded Azamara Journey for our Holy Lands cruise, an Islamic zealot, the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim destroyed the original Church of the Holy Sepulchre, kicking off the destruction of churches, synagogues, Torah scrolls and other non-Muslim sites and religious artifacts, including the hospital.

The desecration spread throughout Syria during subsequent years.

All non-Islamic sacred buildings and artifacts were completely annihilated.

As a result, western historians and literature often refer to al-Hakim as the Mad Caliph (though certainly not as lovable as Mad Ludwig).

On the other hand, he became a revered figure for Shia Muslims.  In 1018, the Druze of the Levant declared al-Hakim to be the incarnation of god.

And there you have it.

That stark, diametrically opposed division ---crazy evil or godlike --- is what the Crusades were all about, and it is that same type of incompatible schism --- Is a suicide bomber a homicidal nut job or a saint with an express pass to heaven? --- remains at the heart of Western Civilization's current conflict with neo-Nazi Islamic Extremists (which neither explicitly means nor implies all Muslims, as some like to contend).

Over the last half decade, popular western culture has overwhelmingly chosen to deride Crusaders as cruel, greedy Christians trying to impose their wills on peaceful Muslims in a land far from Europe, taking the "flawed protagonist" concept from fiction to the extreme where Christian Knights have become villains.

In 1023, wealthy merchants in Salerno and Amalfi, Italy, petitioned the Caliph of Egypt for permission to restore the hospital in Jerusalem.

They were granted the right to re-build their hospital on the site of the Monastery of Saint John the Baptist.

About fifty years later, persecution of Christians heated up again, and in 1095, Pope Urban II, pushed past the metaphoric brink, called for a Crusade to re-capture Jerusalem and the Holy Lands.

For the next four years, Knights led armies of serfs from Western Europe to fight for God and glory in the Holy Lands, and in July of 1099, they re-captured Jerusalem.

The Hospitallers were chartered by the Pope as the Order of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, and given the responsibility to care for and defend the Holy Lands.

The military arm of the Knights of St. John and the Knights Templar (DEFINITELY click this hotlink to see a great video about the Knights) became the most formidable fighting forces in the Holy Lands.

As I'm sure you have surmised, the Muslims did not go quietly into the night, and in 1287, they re-captured Jerusalem, which they held until it fell to British control in 1917, after the Islamic, historically-powerful Ottoman Empire sided with Germany in World War I.

Following the fall of Jerusalem in 1287, the Knights of St. John withdrew from Jerusalem to Tripoli, but in 1291, that fell to the Muslims, too, and they were forced off the mainland to Cyprus.

Meanwhile, the Knights Templar, who had accumulated massive wealth in the Holy Lands, whether through plunder, taxing trade, arbitrage, protection money, industrious work, discovery of treasures, banking or some combination thereof, became power brokers in Europe, even financing governments and royalty, including King Philip IV of France who borrowed heavily to conduct his 10-year war with England.

On Friday the 13th in October of 1307, the French King, motivated by the prospects of erasing his own debts and capturing all that legendary Templar wealth for himself, ordered all the Knights Templar arrested, not unlike a modern day gang sweep.

The Knights Templar were tortured into confessions of everything from heresy to homosexuality to financial corruption to idolatry to fraud to secrecy to recanting their vows.

King Philip IV was Catholic, so his allegiance was to Pope Clement V, who had to be convinced to issue the warrants to arrest the Knights.  So, Philip had to split Templar cash and treasures with the Church, probably attributing his take to something like administrative expenses.

In 1312, the Pope gave the Knights Templar's other tangible assets to the Knights of St. John, who were then forced to pay a high annual tribute.

The Knights of St. John  had already successfully established rule over Rhodes in 1309.  They maintained power in Rhodes until 1522, when 400 ships and 100,000 men under the command of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (not to be confused with Wise King Solomon), besieged the 7,000 Knights of Rhodes, forcing their surrender after six months.

They withdrew to Sicily and bounced around Europe until King Charles I of Spain, who was also King of Sicily, gave them the island of Malta, where they wielded power until Napoleon arrived in 1798.

Post Script:

While in high school, I was a very lax student when it came to social studies homework.

Too much reading.

I would answer the assigned questions at the end of the chapter by skimming back and looking for key words, so I guess I was a cut above being a total slacker.

Unlike newer generations of boys who, according to lamenting fathers and mothers, won't take time away from video games to put their names homework papers and turn in cursory passes at answers, I understood that getting zeros on homework would make earning more than a "C" an onerous task requiring perfect scores on tests, because I was committed to an easy "B" and possible "A."

I loved going to school to see my friends, and because my parents also strictly enforced a rule that if I was too sick to go to school, I was too sick to do anything fun like play outside, I had close to perfect attendance.

I generally found that if I paid attention in class, I could do pretty well on tests.

Study for exams?

I don't think so.

I was too busy hanging out with my friends, which was a lot more fun.

Because I mathematically understood the impact of zeros, I would always do assigned reports, usually starting on the evening before the due date.

What does all that have to do with the Knights of St. John?

Not much, actually, but sometimes I just have to write something or I won't start a project, just like in high school.  While I never believed I enjoyed writing reports, I must have, because I frequently go through essentially the same process when writing this blog, which is certainly not mandatory.

I have also found that when I take a narrated shore excursions on a cruise, it is very much like attending class between fun times with friends as it was in school, where I have enough informational foundation to figure out the rest.

Because it really has little to do with the subject matter, I cut this from the beginning and pasted it at the end, just in case anyone cares what I was thinking when I started this post.

Besides, I took lots of marginal photos, and having some kind of copy next to them makes them look somewhat less unnecessary.

Just in case you can't tell how big the
Palace of the Masters is, that's me entering.