Secret City #3 - the Reveal

Where Did the 2,000 Pigs Run into the Sea?

The gospel writers gave us two regions into which Jesus and Co. entered on the east side of the Sea of Galilee, typified by their cities: Gerasa and Gadara. They are both in the region of the Decapolis (Ten Towns), but Gerasa was 26 miles from the sea, and Gadara was 6 miles from the sea. Someplace closer is required for the incident of the pigs.

Fanciful Recreation of the Pig Stampede.

 

The theologian Origen proposed the village of Gergesa as the site, but there was no city nearby, and Gergesa was not a Roman Polis. It was probably under the authority of Herod Philip, who was building a city north of the lake, near the fishing village of Bethsaida. Plus, the rocky outcropping near Gergesa was unimpressive. (Note: the Greek word used in the Gospels can be translated either as a "cliff" or as a "steep slope.")

The people of a city near Jesus and Company's foray came begging him to call up his disciples and leave, for the stampeding pigs episode had frightened them. But what Roman city is near the site?

  

Hippos on its Hilltop, Viewed From the East

The answer is a city called Hippos (Greek) or Sussita (Aramaic)--both words meaning "horse." It was a small fortress city, a Roman polis of the Decapolis. Its populace was known as "sworn enemies" of the Jews. Its size was kept small by its lack of a water supply. Water was collected on rooftops and stored in cisterns until some hundreds of years later when the Romans built an aqueduct. 

  

The Fortress of Hippos Overlooking the Sea of Galilee, Viewed From the Northeast.

Mark and Luke's gospels report that there was a very large herd of pigs grazing on the hillside. Mark says that there were about 2,000 of them. Matthew says the pigs were "some distance away" from them. This fits the location of Hippos, which lies 1.2 miles from the Sea of Galilee, and 350 feet higher than the lake level.

 

The Hill of Hippos Overlooking the Sea

From this spot near the sea it is easy to imagine a large herd of pigs feeding on the steep hillside of Hippos, and stampeding for about a mile, down and across the shore and into the sea.

  

So we can safely erase from our minds the image of 2,000 pigs rushing over a steep precipice and falling into the sea. On the other hand, this view gives us an image of 2,000 pigs stampeding directly toward us. 

The Secret is Solved. The Gospel writers did not want to use the name of a small, little-known city for their story. It was more important to use the name of a Rome-allied city well-known to their readers.

Secret City #3 - Part 3 of 4 parts

Where Did the Stampede of Pigs Drown?

Does Mark and Luke disagree with Matthew?

There is no disagreement, because these three Gospel writers do not care to give us this unimportant detail. Instead, they name particular regions of people for THEOLOGICAL REASONS.

The Oval Gathering-Place in Gerasa

Mark and Luke highlight the region of Gerasa, as a stand-in for the people of the Decapolis (Ten Towns) generally. These pagan lovers of Roman Government and all things Roman reject Jesus, therefore rejecting their own salvation. This will not change until God sends the Christians into the pagan and Jewish sectors of Asia Minor.

The Ruins of the City of Magdala

Matthew highlights the region of Gadara, which was deeded by God to the Hebrew tribe of Gad, after the conquest of Canaan. This situation will not be corrected until the return of Jesus to rule his kingdom on earth.

But some of our Bibles have a third location -- Gergesa. How did that happen? Here is a map which gives Gergesa's easterly location.

The Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights

Christian scholars have found the reason for this corruption of the Bible text--an interesting story indeed. We begin with a look at an early Christian scholar and theologian, Origen of Alexandria (a huge city in Egypt), also known as Origen Adamantius, who lived from 184 to 253 AD. Origen had available a team of secretaries to copy his works, making him one of the most prolific writers in all of antiquity. He was a father of the Church, one of the most imortant Christian theologians of his time.

But here we relate one of Origen's failures. Origen was taveling throughout the Holy Land, using the Gospels as if they were an atlas--a tourist guide, so to speak. (This opposes the Gospel writers, who were writing about the Good News, not geography.) He was looking for the place where Jesus sent a huge herd of pigs crashing into the Sea of Galilee. He encountered Gerasa in the Gospels of Mark and Luke, but considered that impossible, for Gerasa was 26 miles from the lake. Likewise in the Gospel of Matthew, he encountered Gadara, but that city was 6 miles from the lake.

He set out to search for the "true" location of the pig stampede, examining the shoreline of the Golan Heights for a cliff over which the pigs may have fallen. The closest he could come was the nondescript village of Gergesa. Here is a wide-angle view of the general area:

Luke writes that "A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside." The above view could readily fit Luke's description. 

Here is the "cliff" that Origen found, looking north toward the village of Gergesa. Let's take a better look, looking from the lake eastward toward this rocky outcropping:

The Steep Slope South of the Village of Gergesa

Here is that outcropping that faces the sea. Now Mark's Gospel says "the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned."

I'm trying to imagine two thousand pigs hurtling over this outcropping. Perhaps they lined up and took turns--but that would take quite a while.

In any case, Origen's belief that this was the site for the pig stampede eventually made it into the text of some of the Gospel manuscripts, when over-zealous copyists attempted to "correct" the original text of the Gospels. 

Next week I will share some of the reasons I don't believe Gergesa was the site of the pig stampede, and I will reveal the more likely "Secret City" where all this took place.

Secret City #3 - Part 2 of 4 Parts

The Bible is  never wrong, but we can ask the wrong questions of it. Three different cities may be found in the Gospels identifying the kinds of people that Jesus met after he caused a huge herd of pigs to hurdle into the sea. So here's the wrong question again: "Which city did Jesus visit, when he sent the herd of pigs crashing into the Sea of Galilee?" Let's take another look at the Bible, looking into the best and most ancient texts of the Gospel of Matthew:

Matthew 8:28 - "Jesus came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes." 

Ruins of the City of Gadara

Not the Gerasenes, as found in Mark and Luke. Why would that be? Gerasa is identified closely by its following of the Roman way of life. In Jesus' day, Gadara also had Roman features, including large horse stables (above) and the requisite stadium (below).

The Stadium in Gadara

But Gadara also had a strong Hellenist (Greek) background. In the centuries before Jesus, the region around Gadara passed in and out of the control of the kings of Syria and the kings of Egypt, both of them Hellenist in culture. Gadara was famed for its Hellenist poets and philosophers, and was once called the City of Philosophers. 

In 63 BC, when the Roman general Pompey placed the region under Roman control, he rebuilt Gadara and made it one of the semi-autonomous cities of the Roman Decapolis (Ten Towns), and fortified it to guard against Arab expansion. Then the city was given to Herod the Great, and after Herod's death in 4 BC it became part of the Roman province of Syria.

That is how we find it in Jesus' day, but was that where the stampeding pigs came from? An aerial view of the land will be helpful.

The See of Galilee abutting the Golan Heights

Gadara lays six miles from the Sea of Galilee, and south of the Golan Heights. Let's see what that looks like from Gadara.

The Sea of Galilee as Seen From Gadara

As we can see, the Sea of Galilee lays on the other side of the valley of the Yarmouk River from Gadara. This doesn't seem like a good place for a six-mile stampede from Gadara to the Sea.

But remember, Matthew is referring to the kinds of people that live in the region. And he may have picked Gadara as a centerpiece based on his extensive knowledge of Israeli history, as read in the Hebrew Scriptures.

You see, Matthew knows that the name "Gadara" is descended from the city of Gad, a possession of the tribe of Gad as assigned by God. And he knows that this region, stretching from the Golan to Damascus, will be restored to its rightful owner -- the tribe of Gad -- when Jesus comes on the Day of the Lord to put all things right. Matthew has used Gadara as his regional identifier for theological reasons.

So where exactly did Jesus set off the stampede of pigs? We have we have one more place name to examine, before we come to the answer that I believe locates the actual physical place where Jesus came ashore. 

Stay tuned for next week, Part 3  of 4 Parts!

Lastw

Secret City #3 - Part 1 of 4 Parts

Secret City #3 - 

Three Proposals, All Wrong?

The Oval Plaza in Ancient Gerasa

The Bible is  never wrong, but our interpretation of it is wrong too often. Here's the wrong question: "Which city did Jesus visit, when he sent the herd of pigs crashing into the Sea of Galilee?" Let's look at the Bible, Starting with the best and most ancient texts of Mark and Luke:

Mark 5:1 - "They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes."

Luke 8:26 - "They sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee."

Matthew 7:28 has "Gadarenes," in two places. We will deal with Matthew's version next week. Some less ancient texts have "Gergesenes." We will deal with those in two weeks. Three weeks from now, I will reveal my choice of the secret city that actually saw the stampede of pigs. (Can you wait that long?)

But which one is the correct answer, Gerasenes or Gadarenes? The answer? Both are correct. The gospel writers are not talking about cities, but of the regions under the influence of the cities. And their concern is not even the regions, but instead the kind of people that live there. These people live within the Decapolis, translated as ten towns.  A map would be useful right now:

The Ten Towns of the Decapolis.

The Ten Towns, from south to north, are Philadelphia, Gerasa, Pella, Scythopolis, Gadara, Raphana, Hippus, Dion, Canatha, and Damascus. Several of them are cities in their own right. Each of them is a Roman Polis, a self-governing city under the jurisdiction of Rome. 

Notice that Gerasa lies some 26 miles from the Sea of Galilee. It is hard to imagine a herd of pigs on a 26-mile stampede to drown in the Sea of Galilee. Some sources, perhaps informed by  our scripture, claim that the boundary of the sphere of influence of Gerasa stretched all the way to the Sea of Galilee. Looking at the map, that is hard to imagine.

Stadium in the Ancient City of Gerasa. (Modern Jerash in the background)

The point is this: Jesus has landed in a foreign land. The people are not only Gentiles (non-Jews), but Gentiles who love Rome. The gospel writers are letting us know that the local residents may react differently to message of Jesus. Damascus had a substantial Jewish population, but Gerasa stood as the epitome of Roman Culture in the Middle East. Both Mark and Luke have chosen to highlight Gerasa as the identifier of the type of people who would be reacting to the miracles of Jesus, and to the stampede of pigs downhill to drown in the sea.

The Arch of Hadrian, Built in AD 131 or 132.

A century later, the people of Gerasa built Hadrian's Arch, in celebration of the emperor's visit to Gerasa and his largess in the development of a completed pagan temple complex, and a hoped-for expansion of the city (which failed to happen).