Mark 3:7-12<\/a><\/p>\nCompare Matthew 4:24-25; 12:15-16; Luke 6:17-19<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The accounts of healings given in the passages cited above mention people coming from Galilee, Idumea, Tyre and Sidon, \u00a0the Decapolis, Jerusalem, and Judea, and from what used to be called Transjordan (that is, the area across the Jordan River, in what is today the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which was itself known as Transjordan even into the twentieth century). \u00a0\u201cHis fame spread throughout all Syria,\u201d says Matthew 4:24.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m map-obsessed. \u00a0And I hope that you are, too. \u00a0At least a little bit.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maybe you know all these places already. \u00a0But let\u2019s go through them, starting in the north:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Phoenicia runs along the Mediterranean coast, where the two cities of Tyre and Sidon are still major urban areas (in the country of Lebanon) to this day. \u00a0Inland, to the east, is the area known as Galilee, of crucial importance for the ministry of Christ and the biographies of his apostles. \u00a0The most obvious feature in Galilee is the large freshwater lake that\u2019s often called, for obvious reasons, the Sea of Galilee. \u00a0Both Nazareth, where Jesus was raised, and Capernaum, where he established his base of operations (to the extent that he had one), are in Galilee.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Jordan River flows roughly to the southwest from its source at Caesarea Philippi, up in Batanea (toward Syria), at the foot of Mount Hermon. \u00a0It feeds into the Sea of Galilee at its northern end, and then flows due south from the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee to the northern tip of the Dead Sea. \u00a0It divides Judea from Perea, and, today, divides Israel from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to the east.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
To the southeast of the Galilee is the area known as the Decapolis (Greek for \u201cten cities\u201d). \u00a0They didn\u2019t constitute a formal league or anything of that sort, but were more or less autonomous city-states grouped together for geographical and cultural reasons. \u00a0The standard list of the ten cities that were included within the Decapolis is as follows:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
1. \u00a0Gerasa (modern Jordanian Jerash, an extraordinarily impressive archaeological site and tourist destination, modern location of a famous annual cultural festival)<\/p>\n
2. \u00a0Scythopolis or Beth-Shean (located in modern-day Israel, the only city of the Decapolis situated west of the Jordan and, again, an extremely impressive set of ruins that tourists often visit [come with us this April!])<\/p>\n
3. \u00a0HIppos (in modern Israel, on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee [we\u2019ll point it out as we drive by])<\/p>\n
4. \u00a0Gadara (in modern Israel; think of the \u201cGadarene swine\u201d)<\/p>\n
5. \u00a0Pella (in modern Jordan)<\/p>\n
6. \u00a0Philadelphia (modern-day Amman, the capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which was known in Old Testament times as Rabbath-Ammon)<\/p>\n
7. \u00a0Capitolias (in modern Jordan)<\/p>\n
8. \u00a0Canatha (in modern Syria)<\/p>\n
9. \u00a0Raphana (in modern Jordan)<\/p>\n
10. \u00a0Damascus (the capital of modern Syria)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jerusalem and nearby Bethlehem are roughly in the hilly center of Judea to the south, and Idumea is south of Judea.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Classically, the entire area covered by today\u2019s Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Israel was often known as Syria. \u00a0That\u2019s why Matthew 4:24 says that Jesus\u2019 fame spread throughout all of Syria.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Mark 3:7-12 Compare Matthew 4:24-25; 12:15-16; Luke 6:17-19 \u00a0 The accounts of healings given in the passages cited above mention people coming from Galilee, Idumea, Tyre and Sidon, \u00a0the Decapolis, Jerusalem, and Judea, and from what used to be called Transjordan (that is, the area across the Jordan River, in what is today […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>