Pt1-19-"GREECE OVER JORDAN":

"GREECE OVER JORDAN":
A STUDY OF THE DECAPOLIS

"And there followed Him great multitudes of people, from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judæa, and from beyond Jordan."--Matthew 4:25.

"And he (the man who had been possessed with demons) departed, and began to publish in Decapolis, how great things Jesus had done for him."--Mark 5:20.

"And again departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon He came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis."--Mark 7:31. IN the New Testament, the name Decapolis appears in the above passages only. One word is likely to mislead the modern reader. "Coasts" to-day suggests territory bordering on the sea. But the word so translated means "boundaries ", and was used like the Latin fines to signify "region" or "territory". It so happens that part of the region called Decapolis bordered on the Sea of Galilee, but that is not the reason for the use of the term "coasts". Where, then, was Decapolis? The name itself is suggestive, and indicates a direction of enquiry. It is a Greek name implying a region of ten cities. In an article in A New Standard Dictionary, the writer says: "The name applied in Roman times to a region E. of the Jordan including parts of Gilead, Golan, and Ammonitis, with Scythopolis (W. of the Jordan). The boundaries of Decapolis were never defined geographically, as it was not a geographical unit with connected territory, but consisted of city districts, most of which were contiguous."

Ancient authorities vary somewhat in their descriptions of the Decapolis. Eusebius the historian speaks of the region as "lying in the Peræa, round Hippos, Pella and Gadara". Pliny in his Historia Naturalis names the ten cities as Scythopolis, Hippos, Gadara, Pella, Philadelphia, Gerasa, Dion, Kanatha, Damascus and Raphana. Ptolemy, a geographer of the second century, perhaps speaking of a later period in the history of Decapolis, gives eighteen cities, "omitting Raphana, and adding other nine, mostly towards Damascus". Josephus, who makes several references to the cities, does not include Damascus.

How did the Greek influence reach the region "over Jordan"? "The oldest Greek settlements in Eastern Palestine," says George Adam Smith, author of The Historical Geography of the Holy Land, "were Pella and Dion, which, as their Macedonian names suggest, were probably founded by Alexander’s own soldiers." Other cities soon sprang up. Jewish princes gained control, until the great Roman general Pompeius freed the Greek cities in 63 B.C., and placed them under the Syrian Legate. Herod, who had Hellenic sympathies, received Hippos and Gadara as gifts from the Roman Emperor, Augustus. Under the Roman Republic, and under the Empire, leagues of Greek cities were common. The cities of the Decapolis were leagued to promote commerce and Greek culture, and probably to resist Semitic influences. "In the time of Christ the Decapolis was a great intellectual and commercial centre, Greek being everywhere spoken."

Space will not allow a detailed treatment of the Greek cities, but a general statement may be of interest. There is evidence that from Scythopolis on the west of Jordan three roads led across the river into Eastern Palestine, and that the cities were for the most part situated on these roads. On one of these a Roman milestone was discovered. H. V. Morton writes, "The roads that brought the life-blood to the cities of the Decapolis have vanished long ago. Sometimes you see a marble pillar standing bravely on a hill, or you see an ancient paving running off at any angle into nowhere, and you realise that such are the last signs of the great roads which brought life to the old cities." There is also evidence that in the cities along these roads was a flourishing Greek civilisation, including the usual buildings of a Greek city of the Roman period. Stately temples, fifty to seventy feet long and thirty to fifty feet broad, with double rows of columns in front, were centres of pagan worship. Graceful arches spanned the paved roadways, and bridges of Roman design crossed the waterways. Chariots clattered along the streets, their wheel-ruts being still visible. The forum or agora was a centre of social and business intercourse, often enlivened by philosophical discussion or impassioned oratory. Colonnades offered shady retreats for leisured conversation. Vast amphitheatres cut from the rock contained lofty tiers of benches for the thousands of spectators who witnessed the athletic games or the gladiatorial fights. Plays were acted in great theatres, the one at Philadelphia having accommodation for seven thousand people. Amusement was also provided by the Naumachia, a sham seafight produced at great cost. Aqueducts and drains bore testimony to the engineering skill of the period, and huge baths added to the comfort of the citizens. Epigrams carved on ruins bear testimony to a great literary activity. Philosophers, epigrammatists, rhetoricians, satirists, and tutors flourished. Such is a glimpse into the life of the Decapolis.

What bearing has this on the New Testament narratives? While it is true that the direct references in the Gospels are vague, certain claims can be advanced with some confidence. It seems evident that Palestine was not in a remote corner, but was in close contact not only with Roman but also with Greek life. The Local Colour of the Bible, by Budden and Hastings, has the following statement: "We must bear in mind the fact that it was in the midst of a great industrial centre that Jesus delivered His message. The coasts of Gennesaret were girdled with populous towns, with wharves, docks, factories, synagogues and temples: Herod’s palace at Tiberias; the colonnaded baths at Emmaus; at Tarichæa a hippodrome; at Gadara an amphitheatre, with the acropolis above--towns with paved streets, stone houses, and triumphal arches, an environment of Greek cities and Roman camps." This proximity of Greek culture gives support to a claim which has been made by reason of recent discoveries concerning the widespread use of the "Koine", namely, that Jesus knew and made use of the Greek language as well as the Aramaic. Sir Frederick George Kenyon, Director and Principal Librarian of the British Museum, has written: "Palestine, at the time of Jesus Christ’s life in it, may probably be described as a bilingual country. The native tongue was Aramaic, akin to Hebrew but different from it. . . . The second language generally known in Palestine was Greek. As the result of the conquests of Alexander, Greek became the common language of the East, known not only by the highly educated, but by all who were not illiterate." Dr. Simpson has also stated, "With Greek as the international language, with Roman roads and Roman organisation of means of communication, East and West were coming closer to each other than ever before". This was surely all to the good for the spread of a gospel which was for all mankind.

Some light is thrown upon the narrative concerning the demoniac (Mark 5:1-20) and concerning the prodigal son. Swine-keeping was unlawful to the Jew, and could not have been practised on so large a scale in more Jewish regions, but in the neighbourhood of Decapolis such a business could thrive because of the mixed population. According to a writer on New Testament archæology, the "far country" in the parable of the prodigal was a reference to the luxurious cities of the Decapolis, which would enable the young man easily to spend his all in riotous living.

It may be that the Greeks east of Jordan heard the message of Christ from the man who had been delivered from demons, and even from Christ Himself. H. V. Morton says, "I like to imagine that when Jesus ’came through the midst of the coasts of the Decapolis’ He entered these stately Greek cities, sought the shade of their lovely colonnades, listened to the talk in the forum, and, with His kind, charitable eye, saw something good there which had escaped the attention of His fanatical contemporaries." Whether this was so or not, at least we know that Christianity found a contact there, for during the siege of Jerusalem some Christians found shelter in Pella, a city of the Decapolis, and in another city the ruins of a Christian basilica bear silent but potent witness that the gospel is the power of God "also to the Greek".