Buried Cities and Bible Countries

by George St. Clair

Chorazin, 2 miles north-west of Tell Hum, is called Kerazeh, a name easily confounded with Khersa, in the Gadarene country east of the lake; and this mistake Willibald appears to make.

The question is much discussed whether there were not two Bethsaidas; and those who believe there were, call the second one “Bethsaida Julias,” and place it on the eastern side of the Jordan, not far from the north end of the lake. Josephus says that Bethsaida was a village raised to the dignity of a town by Philip the Tetrarch, who rebuilt it and changed its name to Julias in honour of the daughter of the Emperor. Philip built himself a tomb there, and was buried there.

The question between Tell Hum and Khan Minyeh as the site of Capernaum has been made to turn partly on the presence of synagogue ruins at the former place and their absence from the latter. But this can have little or nothing to do with the decision, for the best judges believe that the synagogues date only from the second century A.D.

Nevertheless, the existence of synagogue ruins in Galilee is a very interesting fact; and it is probable that those erected in the second century would be modelled after the pattern of those which preceded them and in which Christ, in so many instances, read and taught. The synagogue ruins at Tell Hum are a shapeless heap, but the stones have been carefully examined and measured, and it becomes possible theoretically to reconstruct the building. Similar ruins are found at seven or eight other places in Galilee, and some of them—especially those at Kefr Birim—are in a better state of preservation. (See Frontispiece.) Examination shows that the Jewish synagogues were not the plain barn-like structures some people had imagined. The building faced the south, looking towards Jerusalem, the holy city. Four rows of columns ran from one end to the other, dividing the building into five aisles. At Kefr Birim one synagogue was furnished with a porch. A smaller building, at a little distance from the village, has two lambs sculptured on the lintel of the door, and beneath them is an inscription in Hebrew. The inscription has been thus read by Renan, “Peace be to this place, and upon all the places of God. Joseph the Levite, the son of Levi, put up this lintel. A blessing rest upon his work.” At the synagogue ruins of Nebartein, north-east of Safed, on the lintel of the main entrance, is a representation of the seven-branched candlestick, similar to those in the catacombs at Rome and on the rocks in the wilderness of Sinai. Here, again, is an inscription in Hebrew. During the excavations at Tell Hum synagogue a lintel of one of the side entrances was found, and on its face a vase—perhaps the pot of manna—and on either side a rod or reed. Along the head is a scroll of vine leaves and grapes. The dimensions of this synagogue were 74 feet 9 inches by 56 feet 9 inches. The material was white limestone, brought from a distance, while the stone used at Kerazeh was the hard black basalt of the neighbourhood.

As already remarked, Kerazeh (Chorazin), north-west of Tell Hum, has sometimes been confounded with Khersa, which was on the eastern side of the lake. Khersa is Gergesa, where Christ was met by the two demoniacs coming out of the tombs (Matt. ix. 1). It is situated on the left bank of Wady Semakh, and at the point where the hills end and the plain stretches out towards the lake. Sir C. Wilson is of opinion that there is only one spot where the herd of swine could have run down a steep place into the lake. It is a place about a mile south of Khersa, where the hills, which everywhere else on the eastern side are recessed from a half to three-quarters of a mile from the water’s edge, approach within 40 feet of it, and there do not end abruptly but descend in a steep, even slope. Some time after Sir C. Wilson’s survey, the eastern coast was carefully examined by Mr Macgregor in his canoe, and he came to exactly the same conclusion.

A difficulty has arisen with regard to this locality in consequence of the different readings in the three Gospels. In Matthew Christ is said to have come into the country of the Gergesenes; in Luke and John into that of the Gadarenes. The old MSS. do not give any assistance here, but the similarity of the name Khersa to that of Gergesa is, as Dr Thomson points out, in “the Land and the Book,” a strong reason for believing that the reading of Matthew is correct; and we have also the testimony of Eusebius and Origen that a village called Gergesa once existed on the borders of the lake. Perhaps the discrepancy may be explained by supposing that Gergesa was under the jurisdiction of Gadara. Gadara itself, now Umm Keis, is a good two hours’ distance from the lake, else here we find rock-hewn tombs which are actually occupied by fellahin, while there do not appear to be any such at Khersa. To meet the difficulty which might be felt from the absence of tombs at Khersa, Sir C. Wilson has suggested that the demoniacs may have lived in a tomb built above ground, like one still existing at Tell Hum, a rectangular building, capable of holding a large number of bodies, and which appears to have been whitewashed within and without. It is possibly this description of tomb to which our Lord refers in Matt. xxiii. 27, where he compares the Scribes and Pharisees to “whited sepulchres,” beautiful in outward appearance, but within “full of dead men’s bones.”

Dr Merrill, speaking of Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum, and other places now desolate by the Lake of Galilee, remarks that the contrast between the present and the former condition of this region is painful to one who knows its history. Nevertheless, he says, “this region is to me one of the most sacred and delightful on earth. No place that men have consecrated brings me so near to Christ as a day spent in walking and meditating on these lonely shores.”

“Christ also visited Perea, the country east of the Jordan. Doubtless he followed the main road to the hot springs on the Yarmuk, and thence to the beautiful city of Gadara, on the mountain above them. He may have gone a little farther east, past Capitolias and Dium, cities belonging to the Decapolis, and turned south through a densely populated region to Geraza, whence, by one of the two routes before indicated, he would return to the valley after his mission had been accomplished. It was in Perea that the ‘seventy disciples’ were commissioned to labour, and their welcome and success must have been unusual, for it is reported of them that they ‘returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject to us through thy name’ (Luke x.). The connection of our Saviour with this region opens up an interesting field of inquiry. He may have foreseen that in its rich cities, and among its throngs of human beings, his Gospel was soon to triumph in a remarkable manner, for it is true that in Bashan, a country which we are now accustomed to speak of as a desert, Christianity, in the early centuries of our era, had one of its most important strongholds.”

Jesus Christ at one time, either for quietness or for safety, went away into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and there entered into a house and would have no man know it (Mark vii. 24). A similar reason may have led him to visit Cæsarea Philippi (ancient Paneas and Dan) at the extreme north-east corner of the Holy Land, where the Jordan springs forth a full-grown stream, under the slopes of Hermon. It is generally accepted now that Hermon, and not Tabor, was the Mount of the Transfiguration (Luke ix. 29). Hermon was once Shenir, the “Shining,” a name made appropriate by its cap of snow; and some writers imagine a connection between this and the raiment that became white and dazzling.

There is one remarkable natural peculiarity of Hermon still to be noticed (says Conder) namely, the extreme rapidity of the formation of cloud on the summit. In a few minutes a thick cap forms over the top of the mountain, and as quickly disperses and entirely disappears. In the accounts of our Lord’s transfiguration, we read that whilst staying at Cæsarea Philippi, he retired with his disciples to “a high mountain apart,” and there can be but little doubt that some part of Hermon, and very probably the summit, is intended. From the earliest period the mountain has been a sacred place; in later times it was covered with temples; to the present day it is a place of retreat for the Druzes. This lofty solitary peak seems wonderfully appropriate for the scene of so important an event; and in this connection the cloud formation is most interesting, if we remember the cloud which suddenly cleared away, when they found “no man any more, save Jesus only, with themselves” (Mark ix. 8).