Joppa (Jaffa), Israel

Overview

Israel’s Old Testament seaport was Joppa, and one can visit its modern location in today’s Jaffa. Jaffa is hard to separate from the urban sprawl of modern Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv was established near the historic port of Joppa and both were separate cities. But due to the rapid development of the new conurbation Jaffa was incorporated into the southern part of Tel Aviv.

Modern Jaffa is a seaside resort filled with restaurants, art galleries, and parks that host evening concerts.

Behind the modern façade is one of the oldest functioning harbors in the world, although the sights, sounds, and smells of this working class port in the first century would have been very different from those you will find in the relaxed atmosphere of the harbor today. The bobbing fishing boats offer the only hint to the way this natural harbor might have felt and appeared when it bustled with activity.

The natural harbor of Jaffa, located near a defendable hill, was in use in the Middle Bronze age, some 4,000 years ago. The Canaanite seaport city became an important stronghold with the valuable access to the Mediterranean sea.

This seaport was vitally important to King Solomon and the building of the first temple. As he planned for the substantial building projects in Jerusalem, including the temple, Solomon needed access to a lot of quality building material that was not locally available. This kind of timber was available in the Lebanon Mountains within Phoenicia, Israel’s neighbor to the north. Consequently, Solomon made arrangements with the Phoenician king, Hiram of Tyre, to harvest and float massive log rafts south on the Mediterranean Sea from Phoenicia. Once they arrived at the seaport of Joppa, workers broke down those log rafts and dragged the timber to Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 2:16). Ezra made similar arrangements when he secured building materials for construction of the second temple (Ezra 3:7).

Another well-known reference to Joppa relates to the story of the reluctant prophet Jonah. Jonah attempted to flee the Lord's command to preach to the people of Nineveh by sailing to the distant city of Tarshish from the port city of Joppa (Jonah 1:3).

In the New Testament, Joppa witnessed a miracle performed by Peter as he raised Dorcas (Tabitha) from the dead (Acts 9:36-43). Also of significance, Acts 10:10-23 relates that Peter was in Joppa when he received a crucial vision that changed his mind about accepting Gentiles into the early Christian Church. Peter was staying in the seaside house of a tanner called Simon and went up on the roof to pray. He fell into a trance and saw heaven opened and a sheet lowered, filled with all sorts of animals, which he was told to eat. When he protested that some of the animals were unclean, a voice told him, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” Realizing that “I should not call anyone profane or unclean,” Peter accepted an invitation to visit a centurion named Cornelius at Caesarea, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) up the coast, and accepted Cornelius as the first Gentile to convert to Christianity.