Chapter 2865: Secret in the well
"What you see now is the bronze statue of **** and Saint Catherine. Saint Catherine is also known as St. Catherine of Alexandria. He is a Christian saint and the Orthodox Church salutes him as the ‘Great Marty’..."
In the church of St. Catherine’s Monastery, Father Harris is introducing the church and the interior of the church.
Compared with the earth-yellow, unusually simple, old and mottled city walls that everyone has seen before, this church inside the St. Catherine’s Monastery looks magnificent and dazzling.
The walls, pillars, and the upper vaults and gates of this church are all engraved with lifelike portraits of ancient emperors, Christian sages, and many frescoes derived from biblical stories.
Especially the altar in front of everyone, which is inlaid with a lot of gold and gems of various colors, is extremely dazzling. The bronze statues of **** and Saint Catherine are lying on this golden altar.
At this moment, everyone looked solemn and listened attentively to Father Harris's explanation. The bishop of Kent and others kept drawing crosses on their chests and praying silently.
Ye Tian, who was also on the scene, admired the two statues, and at the same time, he secretly saw through this ancient church, including the altar, walls, vaults, and the depths of the ground, without letting go of a corner.
In some of these places, he did find some hidden secrets, such as valuable antiques and so on.
But these antique relics all have a very strong religious color. Once discovered, they will definitely be left in St. Catherine's Monastery. It has nothing to do with Solomon's treasures and the ark, and it has nothing to do with him!
Under this circumstance, Ye Tian would not be stupid, and would not please thankfully reveal these hidden secrets and contribute to St. Catherine's Monastery!
Due to the limited time, everyone visits the St. Catherine’s Monastery at a very fast pace, which is basically equal to watching the flowers.
After visiting the magnificent church, under the leadership of Father Harris and others, everyone came to the library of St. Catherine's Monastery.
This is a well-known library in the Western world and the second largest Christian library in the world after the Vatican Library. It has a collection of more than 3,000 rare handwritten books.
Among all the books in this library, the most precious is a Greek manuscript of the sheepskin bible written in the fourth century AD, the "Sinai Manuscript", which is the oldest surviving "Bible" in the world.
It is a pity that St. Catherine’s Monastery currently only has twelve pages and forty fragments of the original manuscript. The rest are in Russia, England, and Germany. They were forcibly borrowed or bought by these countries, and they were never returned!
Another important classic is a rewrite of the ancient Syriac manuscript of the Bible in 778 AD, and its original writing dates back to the fifth century AD.
The monastery also contains some ancient manuscripts written on papyrus, as well as ancient scrolls in Arabic, Turkish, and ancient Greek.
For Christianity and the Western world, all these manuscripts and books are precious spiritual treasures given to mankind by God. They have witnessed the unfailing monastic life and firm belief of the monastery after 17 centuries.
When visiting this famous Christian library, Ye Tian didn't forget to see through it secretly.
In the process, he also discovered some unknown secrets, such as manuscripts sandwiched in the cover of an ancient book, or rare ancient books that were tightly wrapped and hidden on the wall.
It is a pity that these manuscripts and rare ancient books were either written in ancient Greek, or ancient Latin and ancient Arabic, or ancient Hebrew and Syriac. He did not know them at all.
When the group of them came out of the library, the sun also rose, flooding the ancient monastery with golden sunlight and shining on Mount Sinai!
In the morning sun, a sound of Bible recitation rang from the monastery and reached the ears of everyone at the scene.
Needless to say, this is the morning prayer of the monks of St. Catherine's Monastery.
With the sound of prayer, the atmosphere in the monastery suddenly became solemn and somewhat sacred.
Ye Tian and the others all stopped, standing on the spot with solemn expressions, and Father Harris, Bishop Kent and others followed in low prayers.
After the prayers were over, everyone started again and walked to another historic building not far away.
This is the museum of St. Catherine’s Monastery. The scale is small, but almost every one of the antique relics and works of art displayed in this museum are top-notch items of invaluable value.
Since its establishment, St. Catherine’s Monastery has received more than 2,000 ancient paintings, colored paintings, and various other antique cultural relics and artworks donated by successive emperors and royal nobles in various European countries.
Because the Byzantine building used as a museum is very small, only 150 authentic works are on display in the St. Catherine’s Monastery, and the rest of the top antique relics and artworks are stored in the warehouse.
The ancient paintings on display are mostly works from the 6th century to the 15th century AD, reflecting the religion, history and life of the past dynasties in Europe, and each one is a treasure.
One of the paintings of two saints, Salqius and Bachs, dressed in Byzantine uniforms and riding side by side on war horses, is an artistic gem of the study of Byzantine culture.
In the process of visiting the museum, Ye Tian not only admired the top antique cultural relics and works of art on display, but also the treasures collected in the warehouse. He did not let it go, and looked through them one by one!
Not only that, he also took this opportunity to absorb some spiritual energy, strengthen his strength, and make himself stronger.
In addition, he also found something in this museum, but he can only appreciate it secretly, and cannot tell these findings!
In an instant, nearly half an hour passed.
The tripartite joint exploratory team has visited several major buildings, and then under the leadership of Father Harris and others, they came to another famous holy site in St. Catherine’s Monastery, the Well of Moses!
At this point, before Father Harris started to explain, Joshua, Isaiah, and several other Israelis all knelt down in unison and began to pray devoutly.
The Bishop of Kent and several other representatives of the Vatican also prayed in a low voice, with a cross painted on their chests, but they did not kneel on the ground.
Seeing this scene, Ye Tian and David immediately looked at each other, and then stepped back two steps together, silently waiting for Joshua and the Bishop of Kent to finish their prayers.
For the Israelis and Judaism, Moses saved the entire Jewish nation, brought the Jewish nation from Egypt to Canaan, his hometown, and founded Judaism. He was the saint of Israel.
Because of this, Joshua, Isaiah and the others came to the Well of Moses to have this performance.
Not only them, but any other Jew who came here, they would have such behavior.
For Christianity, Moses is not only a Jewish saint, but also a Christian saint, so the Bishop of Kent would pray here.
In the Iraqi religion, Moses was also regarded as a true prophet, and he was admired by people throughout the Iraqi world!
After a while, Joshua and the others finished their prayers and stood up from the ground one after another.
Only then did Father Harris begin to explain.
"What you see now is the famous Well of Moses, which existed long before the completion of St. Catherine’s Monastery and the earlier St. Helena’s Church.
It was beside this well that the saint Moses met his wife, Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, the Midian priest. The two knew each other and fell in love, and they eventually became husband and wife.
Although the Well of Moses has gone through thousands of years~www.wuxiaspot.com~, it has never dried up. It is still the main source of water supply for St. Catherine’s Monastery, but now it is drawn through a modern pump...
While Father Harris was explaining, Ye Tian and the others were also observing this well.
From the outside, it looks like an ordinary well, nothing special.
The only thing that is amazing is the stability of this groundwater source. Although it has gone through thousands of years, it has never dried up!
Because Moses met and fell in love with his wife here, this gave this well a layer of mythology and made it a holy place in the hearts of the Israelites!
Because of this, many religious patterns and texts were engraved around this well, including symbols of Judaism and Jewish culture, six-pointed stars, and some ancient Hebrew texts.
After roughly observing the situation around the Moses Well, Ye Tian came to the well and looked into this well.
Almost as soon as his eyes were cast into this well, a hint of surprise suddenly flashed deep in Ye Tian's eyes. It was fleeting and no one noticed it!
