Jerusalem in Georgia - Can't make it to the Holy Land? This place will make you feel like you're there

Bob Sims | By Bob Sims |
on February 21, 2009 at 7:26 AM, updated February 21, 2009 at 7:30 AM

Jim Fleming, who just returned from leading a tour group to Israel and Egypt, will be at Trinity United Methodist Church, 1400 Oxmoor Road in Homewood, on Sunday for the Harry Elliott Bible Conference. He will speak in the worship services at 8:45 and 11 a.m., and to Sunday school classes at 10:10 a.m.

For those who can't make it to the land where Jesus walked, archaeologist Jim Fleming has replicated discoveries from the Holy Land by creating a museum in the Bible Belt.

After decades working on digs in the Middle East, Fleming founded the Explorations in Antiquities Center in LaGrange, Ga.

Fleming planted olive trees and created replicas of ancient temples, using Alabama limestone to mimic the rock structures of ancient Israel. In 2006 he opened with an exhibit on the life of shepherds and has since added vineyard and village scenes. The museum features a black goat-hair tent and sheep pens like those common in the time of Jesus. A vineyard features grape vines grown with ancient methods, and storage vats based on those used in the time of Christ.

There are replicas of rock tombs based on Christian catacombs, with copies of frescoes found on the catacomb walls.

So far, the transplanted olive trees are doing fine in Georgia.

"The olive is a sturdy tree, a symbol of endurance," Fleming said. "You can cut it off at ground and it will grow back. The date palms aren't doing so well."

The idea is to allow visitors to walk through a recreation of what scenes described in the Bible may have looked like.


From 5 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Fleming will speak on the arrest of Jesus. From 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., he'll talk about Roman trials and crucifixion.

Fleming went to Israel in 1969 as a graduate student, then returned later to teach at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and at the Vatican's Ecumenical Institute for Advanced Theological Studies.

He has helped organize 14 archaeological digs in the Holy Land, matching American graduate students with Israeli scholars working on excavations. "A lot of my personal journey has been sensitive to the Jewish roots of Jesus, living and working with Jewish scholars," Fleming said.

One Jerusalem tomb he helped excavate included the discovery of a scroll featuring a priestly benediction from Numbers 6:24-36, dating to 700 B.C. There also was a silver Persian coin, one of the oldest ever found.

Fleming features replicas of the finds in his non-denominational Antiquity Center.

The museum also has a succession of replicas of four houses of worship, a Canaanite temple, an Israeli shrine, a synagogue and a Byzantine Christian church. People can see what an early Christian baptistery looked like.

Since the Protestant Reformation, arguments have raged over the proper method of Christian baptism.

"The method of baptism never divided early Christians," Fleming said. "There were three rules of early church fathers on baptism: Cold water was preferred over warm; running water was preferred over standing water; immersion was preferred over pouring. But in the desert, that was difficult at times. So if you didn't have cold, running water to immerse in, pour some water over the head."

With Ash Wednesday approaching on Feb. 25, marking the start of Lent for most Christians, Fleming will be addressing issues surrounding Jesus' last supper, arrest, trial and crucifixion.

Christians who have gotten bogged down in arguments about transubstantiation miss the point that early Christians emphasized in re-enacting the Last Supper, as Jesus commanded by saying, "Do this in remembrance of me," Fleming argues.

"When you remember something it becomes alive and changes your life," he said.

"A community remembering someone makes that presence real and it changes their lives," Fleming said. "It's hard to underestimate how truly present Christ is in a community remembering. They believed Christ was truly present with them, but not in the sense of that there was a chemical change (of wine to blood and bread to flesh)."

Tree used in crucifixion?:

Fleming says traditional artistic depictions of the crucifixion of Jesus have probably warped the impression of how it happened.

The historian Josephus writes that the Romans executed as many as 2,000 people in one day by crucifixion, using rooted trees by the side of the roads, Fleming said.

"All the trees lining all the roads became crucifixion posts," Fleming said.

Fleming believes that the crossbar Jesus carried probably resembled a rough log more than the milled lumber depicted in European art, and that it was probably nailed to a rooted tree, not far off the ground.

In Deuteronomy 21:22-23, there is a verse that says those nailed to a tree are cursed. So the Romans would have been adding humiliation and insult to injury by their method of execution. "The image of it being a cursed death is much more vivid if it looked more like a tree than you would picture," Fleming said.

Christian theological interpretations of an exalted cross have emphasized a finely defined vertical and horizontal cross.

"It's interpreted as higher for theological reasons," Fleming said. "The sponge with sour wine on a stick raised up to Jesus' mouth was on a hyssop stick; a hyssop is a reed that doesn't get much more than four or five feet long."

The depiction of Pontius Pilate and the Romans has been softened by history while anti-Jewish sentiment was hardened by translations of the Greek New Testament that emphasized the word "Jews" instead of "Judeans," which would have been just as accurate a translation, Fleming said.

He said Pilate shouldn't be allowed to skirt responsibility in sentencing Jesus.

"Most Christians think of the image of Pilate washing his hands," Fleming said. "If he really believed Jesus was innocent, he would have released him."

Historical accounts reveal Pilate as a brutal tyrant, he said.

"Josephus says Pilate was the most corrupt procurator," Fleming said. "His first week in office, Pilate erected Roman flags of pagan gods. The procurators before and after him never carried them. Pilate knew it was offensive, but he put one on each street corner. Five thousand Jews marched to his residence to protest. He took down the flags. Enough people without power united can make people with power nervous."

That's why Jesus was arrested in secret, Fleming said. "Jesus was popular with the crowds," he said. "If they arrested him in a public place there could be a revolt."

For more information on the Explorations in Antiquity Center, see the Web site

Admission for the museum is $10, $7 for children. For church groups, the museum also offers a biblical meal based on ancient recipes, depicting customs such as how bread was dipped. The tour with meal is $30.