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their heads. I would keep looking, expecting to see the basket or
jug fall off---but never once of the hundreds of women I've seen
carrying freight on their heads have I seen one get the slightest
bit out of balance! It seems as if these baskets are nailed onto
their heads! They turn around, turn their heads this way or that,
at will---but never do the things they balance on their heads
become the slightest bit unbalanced. This was a deep mystery to
me. But it was so in Jesus' day!
Their houses and cities are built more on the European
style, which is that of the ancient Middle East. Houses are built
out of mud, adobe, mud-bricks, or stone, depending on location and
accessibility of materials. In Egypt, buildings in cities were of
stone, but in rural districts mostly of mud, adobe, or mud-brick.
In Jerusalem, it is nearly all stone. Houses are built one
adjoining another, with inside courts---no lawns---no space between
houses. Along the country-side we will see a green valley down
below, with green trees and vegetation, while the city where the
people all live will be up on a barren hill---all the houses flush
against one another, narrow streets barely wide enough for one
automobile single-file and no side-walks---and not a single tree or
shrub or plant in sight.
Of course in Jesus' time the cities all were surrounded
by very thick high walls---25 to 35 feet high. These walls were
their defense against invasion. Consequently they huddled their
houses close together, and made their streets very narrow, for
space was at a premium. The European custom has followed this
ancient manner, tho without the walls.
As a matter of fact, Jesus seldom if ever spent a night
in the city of Jerusalem. When there He usually made His abode
down at Bethany, almost at the base of the Mount of Olives, and
south-east of Jerusalem. One can walk from there up into Jerusalem
in a matter of not too many minutes.
The one difference between these people we saw in these
Bible lands today, and those of Jesus' day is this: Today the
people populating this territory are Arabs, who are more or less
degenerate. In Jesus' day they were mostly Jews, who were on a
higher level of intelligence and culture. And besides there has
been general degeneration constantly among all peoples.
I will have much to tell you---on the air, in The PLAIN
TRUTH, and future letters, and I will speak of these things as they
come to me.
But now about the WORLD CRISIS of the moment.
As you know, Jerusalem and this new nation called
"Israel" is right now the seething trouble-spot of the world. Not
more than about an hour's drive from where we are, there have been
border shots and provocative incidents just during the past three
or four days that are keeping New York, Washington, London, and the
capitals of the world in a state of jitters.
For a while it looked as if war was breaking out, and we