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Around the Sea of Galilee 6 282 The Testimony, July 2003 indeed add up to 666 using the Greek numerical fully Latinised over the next 500 years. As a con- system: sequence of the establishment of Latin as the L = 30, a = 1, t = 300, e = 5, i = 10, n = 50, language of the papal system, all the kingdoms o = 70, s = 200. under its sway then became known as Latins.10 As an alternative, the Greek phrase He latine Another fitting suggestion regarding “the basileia, meaning ‘the Latin kingdom’, also adds number of his name” concerns the Latin title for up to 666. These suggestions are very apt be- the Pope, Filii Vicarivs Dei, which is inscribed on cause Latin became the official language of the the Pope’s triple tiara. This title, having the mean- Roman Catholic Church in all countries where it ing ‘The Vicar of the Son of God’, also adds up to was established, even those with a very different 666 when using the Latin numerical system. It native tongue. should be noted that in this case the letters ‘F’, Starting with the decree of Pope Vitalian in ‘A’, ‘R’, ‘S’ and ‘E’ have no numerical value. 666 A.D., which made the Latin language the (Concluded) religious tongue of the Roman Church, all as- pects of the church, its services, decrees, coun- cils, communications, etc., eventually became 10. Ibid., pp. 410-11. Around the Sea of Galilee 6. A tour round the lake (Part 1) Tony Benson E CONCLUDE this series with a two- Where Legion was healed part look at several other sites of Bibli- From En-Gev we set out northwards, going round Wcal interest around the lake, taking an the lake in an anticlockwise direction. The east imaginary circular tour, beginning on the east side of Galilee is relatively thinly populated com- side at Kibbutz En-Gev, with its popular guest- pared with the west, most of it being part of house. Syria until the Six-Day War of June 1967. From En-Gev itself is overlooked by a prominent En-Gev it is about three miles northward to a hill on which are the unexcavated ruins of Hip- site now bearing the name Kursi. This appears to pos, now generally referred to as Susita, the two have been the place where Jesus carried out one names being the Greek and Aramaic words re- of his most famous miracles, recorded in Mat- spectively for ‘horse’. Here in the time of Jesus thew 8:28-34, Mark 5:1-20 and Luke 8:26-39, the there was an important city, not mentioned in restoring of health to a man ravaged by mental the Gospels. illness. Only Luke records that the man’s name It was one of the cities of the Decapolis (Greek was Legion, and only Matthew records that there for ‘ten cities’), a league of ten cities given a were in fact two men who were healed. degree of independence by the Romans, and Each Gospel refers to Jesus and the disciples mentioned three times in Matthew and Mark in arriving by boat at “the country of . .”, and then connection with the preaching of Jesus. As it is the record varies. Some texts say Gerasenes, some the closest of the ten cities to the Sea of Galilee, it Gadarenes and some Gergesenes, and this is the is likely that he visited it at least once, on the case for all three Gospel records. occasion when he “came unto the sea of Galilee, Three different places are indicated by these through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis”, as names. Gerasenes indicates the inhabitants of recorded only by Mark (7:31), in what seems to Gerasa, a city of the Decapolis, now in Jordan have been a miniature mission to the Gentiles. and today noted for its Roman remains under Perhaps it was this prominent hilltop city that the name Jerash. It is situated about forty miles Jesus pointed to across the lake when he said, “A from the Sea of Galilee, so it cannot be the place city that is set on an hill cannot be hid” (Mt. where the miracle occurred. Gadarenes indicates 5:14), in exhorting his followers to display openly the inhabitants of Gadara, another city of the to their fellow-men a life in accordance with Decapolis and situated on the south side of the God’s will. Yarmuk river, about six miles southeast of the The Testimony, July 2003 283 The likely site for the miracle of the healing of Legion. The hill on the right has many tombs, and this is the only place on the east side of the Sea of Galilee where there is a steep slope down to the sea. lake. It is presently in Jordan, but just over the evening. It is clear from the three Gospel records border into Israel are the remains of a magnifi- that they went from a scene of hectic activity and cent Roman baths complex which belonged to returned to the same place, and the indications the city. The Gospel records do not say that the are that this was Capernaum. The journey is de- miracle occurred in a city, but rather in “the scribed as being “to the other side” (Mt. 8:28), country of . .”, and it could be that land adja- and Kursi is opposite Capernaum. The remains cent to the lake belonged to the city, with the of a jetty have been identified here, and there are miracle occurring there; but no suitable location the unexcavated remains of a city just inland. exists at the foot of the lake. Gergesenes would Offshore is shallow water, which provides excel- indicate the existence of a place called Gergesa, lent fishing grounds, noted especially for large but no such place is known from ancient sources. shoals of freshwater sardines. The disciples must It is the site called Kursi which best fits the have known it well. details of the miracle given in the Gospels and is But it carried its perils, for at this point a likely to be the place called Gergesa. A similar valley runs down from the Golan Heights above, name occurs several times in the Talmud, and and it is down such valleys that sometimes the may relate to this place. Kursi is Arabic and may wind suddenly rushes, turning the waters of the have been derived from Gergesa, which may in lake into a turmoil. As all three Gospels record, turn have come either from the Girgashites, one this is exactly what happened as the disciples of the Canaanite nations which occupied the land and Jesus crossed from Capernaum. But Jesus before Israel (Gen. 15:21, etc.), or from Geshur, a had the power to calm the external turmoil of small Syrian kingdom which ruled this area in the wind and the waves, just as he had the power Old Testament times (2 Sam. 3:3). But why do to calm the inner turmoil of the crazed Legion we have these three names in various manu- when he arrived. scripts? The only explanation I can offer is that Behind the remains of the city is a rocky hill later copyists, unaware of the existence of Ger- slope, where there are caves used as tombs. To gesa/Kursi, thought that in the manuscript they the south the hills come closer to the sea than at were copying the name had been misspelt, and any other place along the eastern shore of Gali- ‘corrected’ it to one of the two similar names of lee; the road here rises up from the level ground towns in the Decapolis. over the shoulder of the hill (see picture). Here, The miracle occurred when Jesus and the dis- and nowhere else on the east side of the Sea ciples went by boat across the Sea of Galilee one of Galilee, the elements of the landscape fit the 284 The Testimony, July 2003 description of the miracle: a rocky hillside with Lower caves used as tombs and a steep slope leading Galilee Lower down to the sea. We have to use our imagina-Galilee GaulanitisGaulanitis tions to see the astonishing spectacle of 2,000 Bethsaida snorting pigs rushing headlong down this slope Julius ? to drown in the sea. Although this place was not Chorazin Jordan River one of the cities of the Decapolis, it was part of CapernaumCapernaum Bethsaida the territory ruled by the ten cities, and so Mark Julius ? records that the healed man “departed, and be- BethsaidaTabgha ? gan to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him” (5:20). A sixth-century account of the travels of a monk, Sabas, in 491 refers to him visiting a church on the site of this miracle, and there are later accounts of others doing the same. In 1970 theMagdala Sea of Galilee Kursi Israelis were building an access road here to the (Gergesa) Golan Heights above, having taken the area from the Syrians in 1967. Ancient remains were dis- covered and the line of the road changed to avoid them. On excavation they were found to be those Tiberius Hippos of a large monastery dating back to the fifth century, the biggest yet discovered in the coun- try. On a prominent rock above were the re- mains of a small chapel, evidently covering what was thought to be the site of the miracle, though there is no evidence for it being at that particular spot. The monastery seems to have been de- stroyed by the great earthquake of 746 and never rebuilt; by then the Muslim Arabs had conquered the land and few pilgrims visited.
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