Category Archives: Bible Study

Comments by tour members

At the close of the Ancient Crossroads tour, I asked any of our tour members who wished to write a brief comment about the tour. As I was catching up and cleaning my desk today I ran across these comments. There may have been others that I have misplaced. We are blessed with some really fine people and good Bible students and teachers who travel with us.

“We feel so blessed to have been a part of the tour these two weeks. To have traveled in the footsteps of Paul provides an insight into Scripture never before realized. Thanks so much Ferrell.” (Mike and Peg, Alabama).

“The houses, churches, and shops carved from the formation of tufa were so unique and unusual and the balloon ride over the area [of Cappadocia] was a real highlight. Discovery of the Roman road was great! Walking along and reflecting that Paul and others probably walked that way was very moving. And speaking of moving — to be where they were first called Christians — Antioch!” (Dave and Marge, California).

“Seeing the areas where the apostle Paul lived and preached extremely rewarding. We feel confident our travels will now heighten our appreciation for Paul and his work. Great trip.” (Larry and Joan, Kentucky).

“Wonderful trip to a fascinating country. Visiting the sites where Paul and others spread the gospel makes a unique connection to the first century Christians. The most memorable [unanticipated] stop was the native [nomad] girl caring for the camels. But also the Roman road. Fantastic! And the friendly and hospitable people of Turkey. Thanks Ferrell and Elizabeth for all your efforts to help us grow.” (Doug and Linda, California).

“We appreciate so much the attention that was given to relating the places we have visited to the biblical text. And the special effort that you make to show us the people and places, such as the Roman road, added to our understanding of first century life.” (Olen and Jane, Alabama).

“This has been our fourth trip to the lands of the Bible (Israel, Steps of Paul and John, Egypt, and now the Ancient Crossroads). Each trip has been different and extremely helpful in better understanding God’s revealed word. This trip has made us more acutely aware of the hardships that Paul and his brethren faced as they endeavored to carry out God’s instruction to preach the gospel in Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world. Somehow it makes our burdens a little lighter!” (Jackie and Donna Jo, Alabama).

“I cannot describe what a blessing it was to listen to brother Jenkins as we traveled through Turkey. Ferrell is a man of incredible ability and his knowledge of life in Bible times would be hard to beat! He is truly a “scholar and a gentleman.” I consider it a great honor to count him as my friend.” (David, Illinois).

How Much is My Blog Worth?


My blog is worth $564.54.
How much is your blog worth?

“A good name is to be more desired than great wealth,
Favor is better than silver and gold” (Proverbs 22:1 NASBu).

Mission Accomplished — Turkey is done

This morning we left the hotel in Kahta about 10 a.m. and headed back toward Mount Nemrut to visit the Karakus Tumulus. This site was built in 36 B.C. by King Mithridates II as a burial mound for three female relatives. This, like Nemrut, was part of the Kingdom of Commangene. From here we had a nice, distant view of Mount Nemrut. This photo shows the mound at Karakus. Nemrut is the high pointed peak.

Karakus Tumulus. Mount Nemrut in distance. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

We continued a few miles to see a Roman bridge over the Cendere River that was built in the 2nd century A.D. in the time of Septimius Severus. Some of the limestone blocks in this bridge we made from columns that once surrounded the Karakus Tumulus.

Then we drove to the Gaziantep airport to wait for our flight to Istanbul. Lord willing, tomorrow morning we will depart for home.

I am writing this blog in a restaurant in the airport while eating spaghetti.

During the Ancient Crossroads tour the group traveled 1953 miles by coach. On the excursion to Eastern Turkey we drove 1376 miles. That’s a total of 3328 miles. We did not see an accident during the entire 3 weeks. It is also significant that we did not encounter anything unpleasant except for kids at some locations who tried to become our guide.

David Padfield says that Ferrell drives surprisingly well for a man of his age. Is that a slam, or what?

We did not expect the hotels in the East to be as good as we have used in the western and central part of the country. Our hotels ranged from the less than desirable one at Mount Ararat to a 5-star hotel in Gaziantep. Every hotel (for the three weeks had wireless Internet available except for the one at Mount Ararat. This was very nice, and allowed me to keep this blog fairly current every day. It is time consuming. Most nights I only got about 6 to 6 1/2 hours sleep. I need to get home and rest a while!

We are thankful to the Lord for the safety of our travel. We are thankful to have been able to make this trip and to have shared it with you. We hope to be able to share it with our brethren in many ways in the coming years.

We arrived safely in Istanbul and are now in the Airport Hotel. We have to be up at 3 a.m. to make the flight to the USA.

Gaziantep Museum, Mayberry, and Mount Nemrut

This morning we visited the Muze in Gaziantep. This museum contains many of the mosaics and some statues from the Roman city of Zeugma. Zeugma has been covered by the waters of the Euphrates River due to one of the dams built by the Turkish government to provide hydro-electric power and water for irrigation for southeastern Turkey. Archaeologists worked diligently over a period of years to preserve as much of the material as possible. The small mosaic below had been called Gypsy Girl. I think it would rival the Mona Lisa.

Gypsy Girl from Zeugma in Gaziantep, Turkey, Museum. Photo by Ferell Jenkins.

By 11 a.m. we headed for Mount Nemrut. We stopped at a gas station in Bezni for a comfort break. The locals who were sitting around talking did their best to communicate with us. Everyone we meet is friendly. I call this photo “Mayberry, Turkey.”

“Mayberry” Turkey. Ferrell with men at Besni. Photo by Gene Taylor.

After checking in at the Zeus Hotel in Kahta, we arranged for transportation to Mount Nemrut. In 1995 I drove to the parking lot in a rental car, but decided that it would be best to leave the driving to someone else. It took about 1 1/2 hours to get to Nemrut Dagi. This mountain is part of the Anti Taurus range and is more than 7000 feet above sea level. This area was known as the Kingdom of Commangene in the three centuries preceding the Christian ear. It served as a buffer between the Seleucids and the Parthians in the third century B.C. In the first century B.C. it served as a buffer between the Romans and the Parthians. The most famous ruler was Antiochos I Epiphanes (ruled 64-38 B.C.). In 72 A.D. Vespasian made the Commangene part of Roman Asia. Being away from home I have relied on LonleyPlanet Turkey (April, 2007) for some of the facts. The sunset was not very brilliant this evening. In fact we left a little early because of an approaching shower. The tumulos was made of loose stones in the form of a pyramid. Antiochus ordered this built as a burial site for himself and some relatives. The remaining tumbled statues of rulers and gods are impressive. Some of the heads are between 6 and 7 feet tall. Take a look at the people beside one of them. The site overlooks the Euphrates River to the East.

Mount Nemrut (Nemrut Dagi). Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

By 8:30 our driver had us back to the hotel and we enjoyed the evening meal. We thought Leon would have arrived in the USA, so we called him to tell him that this was the best day of the tour!

Regarding Your Emails; Euphrates River.

Even though we are in a very nice hotel in Gaziantep, the wireless connection has been less than ideal. That gets time consuming and a bit frustrating. Thanks for writing about tours and other things you want me to take care of. I would like to do so but do not have the time. This is a study tour and we stay busy.

If you have written about one of the future tours I will keep your Email and respond when I can back at home.

Here is a photo of the Euphrates River that I made yesterday. Read an article I have written on the Euphrates with a photo of the river I made in 1971 near the Persian Gulf. Note the difference in the color of the water in the mountainous region and in the flat area in the south of Iraq.

Euphrates River in southeastern Turkey. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

Today we are going to Mount Nemrut (Nemrut Dagi) after a visit to the Gaziantep Museum.

We had a good visit to the museum and have now arrived at Katha. At 4 p.m. we will begin the trip to Nemrut Dagi in time for sunset photos.

In Gaziantep

We arrived in Gaziantep in time for Leon to make his flight to Istanbul. He plans to return home tomorrow. I have had some problems with the wireless connection in the hotel tonight. Will have to wait till later to post about our visits to Sanliurfa, the Euphrates River, and Carchemish. Here is a photo we made at Carchemish. The tell is in the middle, about 1/2 mile behind us. I know the photo is a little corny, but we are out, standing in our field.

 

Future Tours

We have a Best of Scotland tour planned for September 10-20.

For next March (2008) we are planning a tour of Israel and Jordan.

In May (2008) we are planning to repeat the Steps of Paul and John tour that visits the area of the Seven Churches in Turkey (plus Hierapolis, Colossae, and Miletus), Greek islands of Patmos, Rhodes, and Crete, and Athens and Corinth in Greece.

If you have interest in receiving further information about these tours please send us an Email to fjtours [at] gmail [dot] com. I am sure you understand to replace the [at] with @, and the [dot] with . I have written it this way to avoid robots picking up the address.

Van and the Urartuans

Lake Van is a large inland body of water of about 1400 square miles at an elevation of 5737 feet. The lake is fed by a number of rivers and is highly alkaline. It is said that folks sometimes wash their clothes in the lake. Our hotel is located on the lake side and the view is beautiful.

In Assyrian records this area was called Urartu. In the Bible it is called Ararat. The English term Ararat is a transliteration of the Hebrew term. The four references where the term appears are Gen. 8:4, 2 Kings 19:37 = Isa. 37:38, and Jer. 51:27. The King James version uses the term Armenia in 2 Kings 19:37 and Isaiah 37:38 because that is what the territory was later called. The Septuagint uses Armenia only in Isaiah 37:38.

The photo below shows the castle or rock of Van.

The Castle or Rock in Van, Turkey, once the Urartuan capital called Tushpa. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

Tushpa, the ancient city of the Urartians, was built on this rock, which provides a commanding view over the lake, and at the base of the rock. At the beginning of the 20th century the city of Van was built over the ancient ruins, but was destroyed by the Russians in 1916. The area now is nothing more than a grassy knoll. On the side of the rock and at the top there are inscriptions, the tombs of eighth and ninth century B.C. Urartian kings, and ruins of a temple. A short distance from Van is another site called Toprakkale which marks the Urartian fortress of Rusahinili.

Here is a photo of some Urartuan pottery from the Museum at Ankara.

Urartuan Pottery in Ankara Museum of Anatolian Civilization. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

Tomorrow night we will be staying at Batman. Really!

In Eastern Turkey

I saw our group off at the Istanbul airport early yesterday morning. Elizabeth informs me that everyone made it to New York safely. A few hours later I left for Van in Eastern Turkey with Leon Mauldin, David Padfield, and Gene Taylor. We will be visiting numerous OT sites in the east. In Van we picked up a rental vehicle and headed for Dogubayazit. This is the small town closest to Mount Ararat. This entire area of Turkey is the ancient Urartu, the land of Ararat. The Bible tells us that the ark landed in the mountains of Ararat (Genesis 8:4). The specific peak is not mentioned and there are several contenders for the mountain of the Bible. Mount Ararat is the one best known.

On the way north from Van we stopped at the Muradiye falls. The terrain you see in the photos if typical of that area of Ararat. Here is a photo of the falls.

Muradiye Falls in Eastern Turkey. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

My only other trip to this area was in 1995, so I am excited about the possibility of getting hi-res digital photos of the area.

Between Muradiye and Dogubeyazit we reached an elevation of about 8,000 feet, saw lots of snow still on the mountains, and encountered a little rain. There were shepherds with sheep all through this area. When we arrived our hotel facing Mount Ararat the mountain was totally covered in dark clouds. Within two hours we were able to go out and made wonderful photos of the mountains. We even saw a rainbow. No kidding! The photo below iS of Greater Ararat. We never saw Lesser Ararat completely cloudless. We drove to the check point at the border with Iran. I was surprised to find about 3 tours groups at the hotel. The last time I was there my companions and I were the only ones in the hotel. Here is one of the photos I made yesterday.

Mount Ararat in Eastern Turkey near the Iranian border. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.

 This morning we made more photos and visited a few places nearby.  In the afternoon we drove back to Van. We went to the museum but it was closed for restoration. We did make photos of some items in the courtyard. We also visited the Rock in Van. We are now at our hotel on the shore of Lake Van.

Wonderful Day in Istanbul. The tour is completed.

We had a great day visiting the sites of Istanbul. The city is important in secular and church history. A few of us spent almost the entire day in the marvelous Archaeological Museum. I made more than 500 hi-res digital photos today. Tonight at dinner we celebrated a birthday and an anniversary. Not enough time to post any photos, but will plan to do that later.

As the group returns home I will be departing for Eastern Turkey with three friends. We will spend a week in that part visiting some of the important Old Testament sights.

We probably will not have Internet access tomorrow night from Mount Ararat, but we may have access the following night. I will post some notes whenever possible. Keep checking back.