Gerasa, Gadara, Gergesa: Where did Jesus Land?

ANSWER: NONE OF THE ABOVE.

Matthew 8:28 (KJV): "region of the Gergesenes"
Mark 5:1 (NASB): "region of the Gerasenes"
Luke 8:26 (KJV): "region of the Gadarenes
But there's more to it than that: See below.

Fanciful Conception of  the Swine Stampede

DITCH THE CLIFF:

First of all, there is not and never was a cliff overhanging the Sea of Galilee. The Greek word kremnou does stem from a root that means "overhang," but it is used in Greek just as often for a "steep hill" or "steep bank."

Nevertheless, one of the earliest church scholars and theologians, Origen Adamantius, toured the Holy Land in the Third Century using the Bible as an atlas, intending to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. There are plentiful hints in both Mark and Luke as to where Jesus might have landed when he was confronted by the two demonized men. (Mark and Luke are interested in only one of them, the one who wanted to follow Jesus.) 

But Origen was dissatisfied with the locations he found in the gospels, and stayed tightly focused on the supposed overhanging cliff. The best he could find was a location near the almost unknown village of Gergesa. This is the first clue that Origen had a hand in the confusion of scholars over the place where Jesus landed. Here's what the banks above the Sea of Galilee look like:

A Steep Bank Above the Sea of Galilee

DITCH THE TOWN

Starting with Origen and down through the ages--even today--scholars have made the same mistake. They think that the writers of the Gospel are trying to teach us geography, when they had something much bigger in mind. The Gospels are about the coming of the Son of God to bring salvation to the world.

GERASA: Mark was probably the first to write about this in the Greek language, and his version of the locality was followed also by Luke's Gospel. They wrote, "They came to land in the region of the Gerasenes." Notice that they are talking about people not places. These people are fans of Roman rule, benefiting from the Pax Romana which brought peace, order, and dependable laws. Each of the towns of the region were granted the status of a polis, sort of a Roman city-state with its own people in charge of the laws.

Gerasa was the most notable of the Ten Towns, in recognition of their steadfast loyalty to Rome. One hundred years after Jesus passed through here, Gerasa's citizens supported the Romans in their many wars and enforcement actions against the Jews of Galilee and Jerusalem. After the victory of Rome, the visit of emperor Hadrian to Gerasa was preceded by the building of a commemorative Arch, which never fell down completely and now has  been restored. It stood well outside the city, perhaps in hopes that the city would be expanded to reach it.

The Arch of Hadrian at Gerasa

Where is Gerasa?

But there's a problem for these scholars that I mentioned: Gerasa is south and east of the Sea of Galilee, THIRTY MILES AWAY! This was especially a problem for Origen, who found it referenced in the Gospel but thought it the least likely of the three places for the miracle of the swine. He complained, "Gerasa did not border on either sea or lake."

But for the two evangelists--Mark and Luke--the important point to make was that Jesus' ministry even extended  to hard-core Roman-loving peoples, and highlights their focus on the demonized man that was not only freed from a legion of demons but also carried the salvation message of Jesus back to his home town and his own people.

GADARA

The Gospel of Matthew, whose focus was on evangelizing Jews and showing the Old Testament support for Jesus as the great Messiah, expands his story to include both of the demonized men who rushed Jesus, but then drops many details which applied to the man featured in the other two Gospels. And instead of identifying the people of the area as being "of the region of the Gerasenes," he changes it to "Gadarenes."

Referring to Gadara, Matthew highlights the Old Testament background for the area. Gad was one of the twelve tribes of Israel, and the city of Gad (later Gadara) was the northernmost reach of land assigned to this tribe by Moses. Instead of sending in an evangelist to the local residents, Matthew reminds his Jewish readers that the land already belongs to them, as assigned by Moses.

Where is Gadara?

Good news: Gadara is not thirty miles from the Sea of Galilee. Bad news: Gadara is six miles from the Sea of Galilee. It's not like Jesus and his disciples would be immediately noticed by a city six miles away.

However, the historian Josephus refers to Gadara as possessing territory which lay on the border of the Sea of Galilee. Also, ancient coins bearing the name "Gadara" will often portray a ship on the coin, unlikely if there were no seashore within Gadara's territory.

This was not good enough for Origen, who found "Gadarenes" in some of the Gospel manuscripts he had access to. Here's what Origen said about this:

Having  been "on the spot to trace the footprints of Jesus," argued Origen, "the Evangelists, men who had a careful knowledge of the Geography of Judea, would not have uttered a lie that is so evident and easy to refute."

Note: If you guessed Gadara as the correct location, you get a half point. If you selected Gadara because you were familiar with Josephus' description of it, you get two points. But again, Gadarenes are mentioned by Matthew for their theological import, not for the geographical curiosity of his readers.

GERGESA

This obscure village is too small to be a Roman polis, so it would have to be in the general Decapolis territory to accommodate Mark and Luke's stories. The nearest polis is Hippos, many miles south. Today's Bible maps often show the northern border of Decapolis extending to Gergesa, but this may be influenced by the mention of Gergesa in some Bible versions. It is just as likely, and much more administratively logical, that Gergesa was within the territory of Herod Philip, who had charge over nearby Bethsaida.

But Origen thought that Gergesa was the best fit, primarily for the steep banks he found, but also for the meaning of the word Gergesa itself, "the dwelling of those that have been driven away." Origen wrote that the name "contains a prophetic reference to the conduct shown the Savior by the citizens... who besought him to depart out of their territory."

So, how did "Gergesa" end up in some of our Bibles? Scholars have been pointing a finger at Origen himself. With the encouragement of Origen, some manuscripts were transcribed with Origen's "correction" to the most likely locale (in his opinion), and the descendants of these manuscripts, copied by others, corrupted many more documents over the centuries.

To add to the confusion, many of the ancient copyists were uncomfortable with having three different Gospels pointing to two or three different "regions," and tried to harmonize on a single name rather than several. Thus we have ancient manuscripts which show all three locations variously contained in all three synoptic Gospels.

The science of "Lower Criticism" is the name of the methods used by scholars today to sort through such variants in ancient manuscripts, using a set of simple tools. One tool, that may seem to be contra-indicated, is to favor the "most difficult reading." This stems from the habits of copyists, who are more likely to smooth out a "difficult" reading than they are to take an "easy" reading and make it more difficult. Another, applicable to this case, is the tendency of copyists (intentionally or unintentionally) to "harmonize" readings found in more than one Gospel.

DITCH GERGESA

However well-intentioned the third-century Origen may have been, he did much damage to the handing down of the Gospels. Not only did he add to the confusion of multiple location-names for a single event, he obscured the original lessons included by the writers of the Gospels.

Pigs Don't Fly

WHERE DID JESUS LAND?

We don't know the answer, but as I mentioned above, there are some clues that favor a particular location, namely the Roman polis of HIPPOS (Latin for "horses"). The Aramaic name is Sussita.  Let's look at Mark's story, beginning at Mark 5:1.

1. The man with the unclean spirit "had his dwelling among the tombs." While it is possible that this is an ancient and unused graveyard, it is more likely that it serves as the active graveyard for a nearby town--or at least it did so before this violent man took it up as his dwelling.

2. The people of the area know this demonized man well. He had "often been bound with shackles and chains." Again, why would the people be going far into the wilderness to seek out a dangerous individual? It is more likely that these tombs were near to the dwellings of the people involved--a village or city--perhaps even a polis.

3. "Constantly night and day he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones." Someone is hearing these screams. There is mountainous territory nearby.

4. The herdsmen of the swine "ran away and reported it in the polis and in the country." Ah. It is a polis  that is nearby to the location. Although the use of this Greek word does not require that the town is an official Roman polis, the likelihood is there.

5. The people came to see what happened. The nearness of a town is suspected here.

6. Jesus said to the man, "Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you." This man had a home. He had relatives. He may have been a resident of Hippos.

Hippos/Sussita was situated on a small mountain-top near the Sea of Galilee, in the southern part of the eastern shore. The only other polis by the Sea of Galilee was Philoteria neat the southern tip of the lake near its outlet into the Jordan, but there are doubts as to whether it was still inhabited during the time of Jesus.

The shoreline below the mountain-top polis of Hippos is the most likely location for the landing-point of Jesus, when he encountered two demonized men rushing towards him. However, I do not recommend changing any of your Bibles to reflect this.

Hippos