Jaffa, the Old Joppa

This blog is a continuation of the recent entry on the Tour of Israel in late May to early June 2014 (Read here). 

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After Mount Carmel, our bus moved downhill to Haifa, moving along Highway 2 by the coastline through Carmel Beach, then to Tel Aviv and finally to Jaffa which is a mere 2.5Km from Tel Aviv.

Jaffa, a cosmopolitan city of modern Israel is once an old port city by the Mediterranean Sea. Out of the current 46,000 inhabitants, two third are Jews and the remaining Arabs. 

Joppa, its old name evokes a couple of Biblical incidences. King Solomon used to import cedar trees cut from Lebanon and transported in floats by sea to Joppa before they were moved to Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 2:16). Jonah instead of going to Nineveh as directed by God chose to flee from Joppa to Tarshish by a ship (Jonah 1:3). Simon Peter stayed in the house of Simon the Tanner when he was in Joppa (Acts 9:43).

Skyscrapers at Tel Aviv, visible from the seafront of the new Jaffa.

Old buildings at the old Jaffa.

An Orthodox Jew.

Left photo: A newly married Jewish couple were happy to have a photo taken with us. Right photo: A lone kid found seated on a low retaining wall.

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In Jaffa, we were led to the front gate of a building with the inscription, " House of Simon the Tanner". Whether it is the restored house or an entirely new house built over the purported site, I am uncertain. But Simon Peter did stay in a Tanner's house and he did quite a fair bits of things in Joppa. It was in Joppa that Peter raised a dead woman called Tabitha back to life (Acts 9:36-43). 

But it was in Joppa where Peter had a vision in a roof top that caused him to decide to share the Gospel with the non-Jews (Acts 10: 9-18).

A recent photo of the front door of the Tanner's House
captured from Google Map.

Front door of the Tanner's House taken on
29 May 2014 during our visit.

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Joppa, being a place associated with Simon Peter, it is unthinkable that there wouldn't be a Church named after him. We visited the St. Peter Church with a commanding view of the Mediterranean Sea. This is a Roman Catholic Franciscan Church of Baroque architecture. The original Church built in 1654 was dedicated to St. Peter. The Church was twice destroyed and rebuilt twice in the 18th century. The current Church was built between 1888 and 1894 and most recently renovated in 1903.

A recent photo of St. Peter Church
captured from Google Map.

A closer view of St. Peter Church
captured from Google Map.

A recent photo of the interior of St. Peter Church
captured from Google Map.

The following three photos were taken when we were led to see the interior of St. Peter Church.