Tonight I am thinking about a few signs that I saw in Joppa when I was in Israel last year.

In this first sign you see one of the alternate spellings of the name. In an English Bible we usually see it spelled Joppa, but Jaffa is a better transliteration of the Hebrew name Yafo.

I took a picture of the French and German side of the sign as it had a better background. I do know a little French and German and the title of the signs points out that the city is 4,000 years old. Of course, opinions differ on the actual age of the city and some put the date of occupation much further back. We will not be discussing that here 🙂

The other thing that I like on this sign is the line drawing at the top. You see the skyline with it dropping down to the harbor. This of course is the harbor where Jonah would have sailed from when he was running from God.

In this picture you also see the diagram of the city skyline near the bottom. This sign tells about a Wishing Bridge that is near the high point of Jaffa. I looked through my pictures and find that I didn’t even take a picture of the bridge. But I got a picture of the sign.

An ancient legend holds that anyone boarding the bridge, holds its zodiac sign and looks at the sea – their wish will come true.

I found this hand written sign above the door of the house quite interesting. This site was first identified in the Middle Ages as the location of the House of Simon the Tanner. Whether this location is actually where the house was or not is not important, but it would most likely have been in this area. The house was near the sea. As our guide would often say, “If not here, then here.” Of course you need to see the hand signals 🙂

The sign does make me think of the vision of Peter and the opening of the gospel to the Gentiles.

This is actually the picture that set my mind wandering toward Joppa tonight. Here is my friend Oliver standing with an interesting statue. The statue is holding a sign that says Historical Site. I am thinking of my friend Oliver tonight as he is in the hospital and getting ready to have surgery. Keep my friend Oliver in your prayers.

I hope you enjoyed this look at signs in Joppa.

Steven

For a beautiful sunset picture from Joppa, click on: The Shephelah

For other signs in Israel, click on: Signs in Israel