5. It was a year of opposition. Nearly all the people had now forsaken Jesus and turned against him. Note the attitude of the Pharisees. (Matt 12. 23, 24, 38, 39; 23. 23.) The Sadducees, who were the office-holding class, are mainly referred to in John 11. 47, 48, 53. The attitude of the people. (John 6. 66.) Jesus was now rejected by the rulers, the leaders of the religious class, and by the people.
II. The Localities of the Period. Beside the five provinces, Judea, Samaria, Galilee, Bashan and Peræa, two other lands or districts are named:
1. Phœnicia, called in the gospels "the borders of Tyre and Sidon," narrow strip of territory between Mount Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea, northwest of Palestine.
2. Decapolis. The word means "ten cities," and refers to a region, partly in Bashan and partly in Peræa, wherein were ten important cities, not Jewish but Gentile.
In addition to the above we meet with names of eight cities:
3. Cæsarea Philippi, at the foot of Mount Hermon, in the province of Bashan.
4. Bethsaida, on the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.
5. Capernaum, on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee.
6. Bethabara, in the Jordan Valley, east of the river, south of the Sea of Galilee.
7. Jericho, in the Jordan Valley, west of the river, near the head of the Dead Sea.