The
Decapolis in Jordan
In
the New Testament period, northern Jordan
was the region of the Decapolis ('ten
cities' in Greek), where Jesus taught
and performed miracles (Matthew 4:25;
Mark 5:20). The New Testament records
that, "...there followed him great
multitudes of people from Galilee, and
from Decapolis and from Judaea and from
beyond Jordan" (Matthew 4:25). All
the Decapolis cities except for one are
located today in northern Jordan or southern
Syria, on the eastern side of the Jordan
River Valley.
The
Decapolis city of Gadara (modern Umm Qays),
with its spectacular panoramic views overlooking
the Sea of Galilee, is the site of Jesus'
miracle of the Gadarene swine, where he
sent demented spirits out of a man who
lived in tombs at the entrance to the
city. Jesus sent the spirits into a herd
of pigs that ran down the hill and drowned
in the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 8:28-34;
Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:26-39). A rare five-aisle
basilica from the 4th century AD recently
was discovered and excavated at Umm Qays.
It was found to be built directly over
a Roman-Byzantine tomb, with views into
the tomb from the interior of the church.
It also was located alongside the Roman
city gate on the road from the Sea of
Galilee. This distinctive arrangement
of a church above a tomb clearly was designed
to commemorate the very spot where the
Byzantine faithful believed that Jesus
performed this miracle.
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Several
other Decapolis cities in Jordan are easy
to visit by car. Philadelphia (modern
Amman), still sports two theatres, a Roman
temple and several Byzantine churches.
Amman Archaeological Museum has one of
the finest collections of ancient artifacts
in the Middle East, including some of
the Copper Dead Sea Scrolls and the famous
plastered skulls from the late Stone Age
town at Jericho.
Gerasa
(Jarash), the most complete and best preserved
Graeco-Roman city in the Middle East,
is included in the Bible's mention of
"the region of the Gerasenes"
(Mark 5:1; Luke 8:26). At a fountain within
a large ecclesiastical complex, the city's
Byzantine citizens annually celebrated
the miracle of Jesus' turning water into
wine. This "Fountain Court"
in Jarash is a favourite destination for
modern pilgrims who want to re-enact the
travels and teachings of Jesus in the
splendid 1st century AD cities of the
Decapolis.
Pella
(Tabaqat Fahl) nestles exactly at sea
level in the northern Jordan Valley foothills,
with its antiquities from the Old and
New Testament periods. Persecuted early
Christians from Jerusalem fled to Pella
for safety. Pella also may be the site
of Old Testament Penuel, where Jacob wrestled
all night with God in the form of a man.
Ghost-like
Umm al-Jimal in northeastern Jordan is
a Classical era provincial town built
totally of black basalt stone, and is
particularly noteworthy for its numerous
Byzantine churches. It is not mentioned
as a Hellenized Decapolis town, but for
most of its eight centuries of life was
an indigenous Nabataean-Arab town on the
frontier of the Decapolis. Today it offers
pilgrims and tourists a powerful example
of the provincial towns in the Graeco-Roman
period that Jesus and His Disciples and
Apostles would have visited during their
ministry.
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During
the time of Jesus and the Apostles, one
of the East Mediterranean's greatest commodities
emporiums was located in the southern
Jordan city of Petra, the largely rock-cut
capital of the Nabataean Kingdom. The
site flourished during Nabataean rule
from the 3rd century BC to the early 2nd
century AD, when it was occupied by the
Roman Emperor Trajan. Petra seems to have
been mentioned in the Old Testament under
several possible names, including Sela
and Joktheel (2 Kings 14:7). Petra was,
almost certainly the last staging post
of the three kings who took frankincense,
gold and myrrh to honour the baby Jesus
in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:1-12). The King
Aretas mentioned in 2 Corinthians 11:32
was a Nabataean king who ruled from Petra.
After
Jesus' days, the Apostle Paul would have
passed through northern Jordan on his
route from Jerusalem to Damascus. Paul's
years in Arabia after his conversion on
the road to Damascus were spent in the
Nabataean Kingdom that dominated Transjordan
at that time (Galatians 1:17). Thus the
land of Jordan was a significant setting
for the formation of early Christian theological
doctrines that thereafter would define
the new Christian faith and church.
Another
critical moment in the history of the
new movement that ultimately would become
known as Christianity occurred east of
the Jordan River in the 1st and 2nd centuries
AD, when Nazarenes, Ebionites and other
early Jewish-Christian groups fled Roman
persecution in Jerusalem and found refuge
in the eastern bank of the Jordan Valley.
Byzantine writers of the 4th century AD
record that in particular these groups
settled safely in or around Pella, where
archaeological excavations have uncovered
distinctive coffins and artifacts associated
with these first Christians.
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