wfn.org | Monks Fear Tourists Will Be Tempted to Where Jesus Withstood Satan

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

27-September-1999 
99316 
 
    Monks Fear Tourists Will Be Tempted to Site 
    Where Jesus Withstood Satan 
 
    Cable car access will likely create flood of new visitors 
 
    by Ross Dunn 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
JERICHO - The Mount of Temptation is about to become a major tourist 
attraction.  Much to the dismay of monks at the mountain's monastery, just 
outside Jericho, in Palestine, entrepreneurs have invested millions of 
dollars to tempt tourists to the site where, according to ancient Christian 
tradition, Jesus resisted the enticements of Satan. 
 
    Courtesy of a new cable car, visitors can be whisked in five minutes to 
a point alongside the monks' sanctuary, which overlooks the entire Jericho 
area. 
 
    The developers hope that pilgrims will prefer this fast option to the 
walking path, which takes about 30 minutes. 
 
    And unlike Jesus, who, according to the gospels of Mark (1: 13), 
Matthew (4: 1-11) and Luke  (4: 1-13) fasted for 40 days here before or 
during the encounter with the Devil, patrons will be able to feast in two 
restaurants serving Arab-French cuisine.  One restaurant is at the base of 
the mountain and the other is built into the side of the mountain, adjacent 
to a series of ancient caves, where Christian hermits lived from the 12th 
to the 14th centuries. 
 
    A short walk upwards from there is the main attraction, the Greek 
Orthodox Monastery of Temptation, which clings to the cliff.  It was built 
between 1874 and 1904 on the ruins of a 12th-century church. 
 
    Inside is a cave venerated as the place where Jesus is said to have 
refused Satan's invitation to turn a stone into a loaf of bread.   People 
worship before the rock on which Jesus supposedly sat during the 
confrontation with the Devil. 
 
    Satan's offer to Christ of power over all the kingdoms of the world was 
said to have been made at the top of the mountain.  The summit is now 
officially off-limits, although some visitors have been granted permission 
to reach it through a rear door of the monastery. 
 
    The monastery's three resident monks remain hospitable, but feel 
increasingly under siege as they prepare for a record number of tourists. 
 
    Ahillios, one of the monks, told ENI that putting in the cable car 
meant that everything would change.  "It is good for the Palestinian 
economy, but we must keep the holy places.  A monastery is a monastery," he 
said, adding that the emphasis on monastic life was at risk.  "I don't want 
to say more about this." 
 
    The Greek Orthodox Church acquired the site in 1874 and most of the 
monastery was reconstructed by 1895.  Half of the building is cut into the 
cliff, while the other sits on the edge.  The magnificent panorama includes 
Jordan , the Dead Sea and the arid landscape of the desert,  contrasted 
with green oases of irrigated banana and date palm plantations.  In the 
distance is a new casino and, immediately below, the ruins of  ancient 
Jericho, the walls of which fell at the sound of Joshua's trumpets, 
according to the Old Testament. 
 
    For many years the monks have been serving refreshments to handfuls of 
grateful pilgrims who have made the trek, often in the searing heat of 
summer.  But if the cable car operates at full capacity, the monks will be 
receiving countless more visitors.  The system can transport up to 625 
passengers an hour. 
 
    A cable-car ticket costs $8, with discounts for organizedgroups, 
children and students. 
 
    Amir Dajani, operations manager of the new complex, known as 
Teleferique and Sultan Tourist Centre in Jericho, admitted to ENI that 100 
years of relative solitude at the monastery had come to an end. 
 
    He forecast that about 500,000 tourists would travel on the cable car 
every year. 
 
    "The monastery traditionally didn't receive the numbers that we are 
sending up into the mountains today," he told ENI.  "Today it is becoming 
more crowded for them. 
 
    "Effectively it is a new phenomenon, but I think the monks will have to 
adapt and adjust to the new environment." 
 
    Tourists will also be able to stay overnight at a three-star hotel, 
next to the base station of the cable car, and buy handicrafts from a 
series of souvenir shops. 
 
    The owners, the Snukeret family of Hebron, have put about $10 million 
into the project.  One monk, who has lived at the monastery for 15 years, 
told the family that if Jesus had climbed the mountain path 2000 years go, 
then tourists could do the same.  But Kamal Snukeret, vice president of the 
center, reportedly replied that if Jesus were to come to Jericho today, he 
would use the cable car. 
 
    Ziegfreid Reidmann, a German Lutheran pilgrim to the mount, told ENI 
that the development would be welcomed by visitors who now had easier 
access to the site.  But, he added, it would also shatter quiet 
contemplation for resident monks. 
 
    "I think it is a positive development for the tourists, who like to 
come up and see the monastery," he said.  Reidmann said the project would 
bring economic benefits to a depressed area, which is now under the control 
of the Palestinian Authority.  But it would make it harder for some people 
to imagine the original setting, which played a critical role in the life 
of Jesus. 
 
    "The whole development in the future will go in the direction of 
Disneyland and tourist attractions, and so it goes further away from the 
original story, as it happened to Jesus," he said. 

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