GLOSSARY OF TERMS

To which city did the original account refer?


Scholarly conclusions supporting each of the six options

1. Gadara


2. Gerasa


3. Gergesa


4. Khersa


5. Somewhere in the Decapolis


6. Completely inconclusive


Dictionary descriptions/conclusions regarding Gadara and Gerasa

Harper’s Bible Dictionary

edited by Paul J. Achtemier (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1985)

You are strongly recommended to add to your library the excellent revised edition of Harper's Bible Dictionary titled, The Harper Collins Bible Dictionary, Revised Edition [book review], edited by Paul J. Achtemeier, with the Society of Biblical Literature (NY: Harper Collins, 1996). It is currently the best one-volume Bible dictionary in English, and it is available at Border's Books, Christian Science Reading Rooms, http://www.borders.com, or http://www.christianbook.com.

Gadara (inhabitants: Gadarenes, site (modern Umm Qeis) of Jesus’ healing a demoniac (Mark 5:1-10); one of the hellenized cities of the Decapolis in which Jesus is reported to have ministered (Matt. 4:23-25; Mark 7:31). It lies about six miles southeast of the Sea of Galilee. A number of Cynic philosophers, orators, and poets are associated with the city. One of the love poems of Meleager of Gadara (first century b.c.) mentions the Jewish Sabbath: ‘If your love is a ‘sabbath-keeper,’ no great wonder. Not even love burns on cold Sabbaths.’ The city was granted to Herod by Augustus. In an inscription from the Hellenistic period it calls itself ‘cultivator of the arts.’ There seems to have been only a small Jewish population in the city.

Gerasa (modern Jerash), one of the three greatest cities of Roman Arabia. It is thirty-three miles southeast of the Sea of Galilee in the mountains of Gilead. Hence Luke’s identification of it with Jesus’ healing of the demoniac (8:26) cannot be correct. The city was administered by an appointee of the legate of Syria and officially known as ‘Antioch on the Chrysorrhoas.’ Excavations have revealed extensive remains of public buildings from the first and second centuries a.d. The city wall, gates, and towers, several main streets, the forum, as well as remains of the hippodrome, theaters, triumphal arch, and temples of Zeus and Artemis have been found. A coin from the reign of Commodus attests that the city was founded by Alexander the Great. The earliest dates for the city come from the second century b.c. Josephus, a Jewish historian, reports that the Jews living in the town were spared by the Gentile population when the city was attacked by Jewish rebels during the Jewish revolt (War 2.480).


Oxford Dictionary of the Bible

by W.R.F. Browning (NY: Oxford University Press, 1996)

Gadara. A city of the Decapolis, 9.6 km. (6 miles) DE of the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus healed two demoniacs in Matt. (8:28), and one demoniac in Mark (5:2). (The best Greek MSS of the corresponding passage in Mark (5:1) gives the place as 'Geresa' which is 48 km (30 miles) from the lake, and therefore geographically less plausible.) Gadara was a Gentile city and a centre of philosophical speculation. Whereas Mark (5:19) records Jesus' instructions to the demoniac to tell his friends about his cure, this is omitted by Matt. This may possibly be because Matt. intends to show that the Church's mission to the Gentiles is yet to come; it will take place, but later.

Gerasa. An impressive city of the Decapolis in NT times rebuilt by the Romans with theatres and forum. It lies between the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee and is alluded to in Mark 5:1. It was incorporated into the province of Syria in 63 BCE.


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