Christianity – Birding Boomers

The Gates of Hell

July 23, 2022joannie65351 Comment

Series: Israel 2022 – Caesarea Philippi

“Who do you say that I am?”

Jesus asked the question of his apostles – those closest to him during His ministry on this earth – as they traveled thru the towns around Caesarea Philippi in northern Israel. (Mark 8:27-30; Matthew 16:13-20; Luke 9:18-21)

Caesarea Philippi. This was not a Jewish town or religious center. I’m not even sure that there was a synagogue in the area at that time. (There are old ruins of a synagogue nearby but I was not able to find a date for the ruins.) This was not a place you’d expect the Messiah or even a prophet to visit. It was known throughout the region as a pagan worship center of the Gentiles in Hellenistic times called Paneas. It was a “high place” set aside for worship of the god, Pan. (In Arabic, the name is Banias; hence, the name of the park today.)

Caesarea Philippi is a beautiful park today in Israel’s Golan Heights at the foot of Mount Hermon. It is set aside as an archaeological site and nature preserve.

When we arrived, we took a walk through a wooded area to the Lebanese Restaurant for lunch. It was a lovely sunny day, and the park was filled with families enjoying the afternoon. Lunch was excellent, by the way. If you ever visit Banias, do try to have a meal at the restaurant. The setting along the stream is lovely and the food was very good.

^{Lebanese Restaurant in Hermon Stream Nature Reserve}
^{(Photo from Google Maps)}

After lunch, we headed up to the old sanctuary walking along the stream, Nahal Hermon in Hebrew and Banias River in Arabic.³ It was so unexpectedly peaceful that I fell in love with this place and hoped we’d stay so I could just wander around for the rest of the day. (Alas, we did not.)

We arrived at Paneas at the headwaters of the spring that fed the stream and is also one of three tributaries that feeds into the Jordan River. I was just amazed at the sight.

^{Paneas at Caesarea Philippi – First Look}

In front of us, the ancient Bamah or, “high place”, worship site.⁸ This had been a cultic sanctuary since the beginning of time, I suppose. There was a red and tan and black colored cliff right in front of us that is 230’ (70m) long by 131’ (40m) tall. On one side is a large cave that is 66’ (20m) wide by 49’ (15m) tall. Along the front of the cliff is an elevated terrace about 263’ (80m) long on which were built temples and altars for worship of the gods. The cliffside was carved with niches that had once held statues and idols.

In front of the cave was the rushing waters of the spring. In the past, that spring had gushed forth from the mouth of the cave which may have been much larger and even more impressive than it is today.

According to Josephus, the Jewish historian from Roman times:

“… the place is called Panium, where is a top of a mountain that is raised to an immense height, and at its side, beneath, or at its bottom, a dark cave opens itself; within which there is a horrible precipice, that descends abruptly to a vast depth; it contains a mighty quantity of water, which is immovable; and when any body lets down any thing to measure the depth of the earth beneath the water, no length of cord is sufficient to reach it …” ⁷

During the time of Christ, it was a site dedicated to the Greek god Pan. Paneas had been established by the Greeks sometime after Alexander the Great had conquered the area in the 3rd century BC .¹ But the Hebrews had also worshipped Baal Gad (“Master Luck” or god of good fortune) at the site in the past.¹ Joshua 11:17, 12:7, and 13:5 references a high place in the valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon.

^{The Court of Pan & the Nymphs –
The carved niches would have held statues of the pagan gods.}

The place must have been quite ominous in ancient times. To the first Greeks who came here, the site resembled the legendary River Styx, the boundary between the earth and the underworld. They thought this must be a place of death and it came to be thought of as the “Gates of Hades” or, “Hell”.¹⁰ In the 3^rd century BC, the Ptolemaic kings built a cultic center here and as noted, the Hellenists replaced all the local deities with Pan and the cave itself was dedicated to him.

^{The Grotto of Pan During Biblical times, the cave was much bigger and the spring waters would have gushed out of the mouth of the cave. The ancient Greeks in the area saw this as the entrance to the underworld, Hades.}

^{A closer view of the large rock inside the Grotto of Pan that was possibly used for sacrifices of goats to the god.}

You may remember studying Pan during those mostly boring classes in high school on Greek mythology and culture. There were so many that I got them all confused but I thought Pan was the funny one – you know he was the half-human, half-goat that played a flute and hung around with nymphs, one in particular called Echo. He was a god of wild places much revered by shepherds (well, he was part goat after all). I always think of Pan drinking lots of wine and carousing around. But I read he was a troublemaker and our word, pandemonium, comes from Pan’s name.⁴

^{Statue of Pan – This photo was taken in Maryland (USA) at Ladew Topiary Gardens}

That’s pretty much all that was happening here for a few centuries – lots of pilgrimages being made to the cave and lots of goats being sacrificed. Greek empires faded and, ultimately, the Roman empire came on strong.

During the time of Christ, the area had been placed under Herod the Great’s rule. When Herod the Great died in 4 BC, his “kingdom” was divided into a tetrarch and split between his three sons. One son, Philip II, inherited governance of the northern areas and founded the city called Caesarea Philippi. After Philip II died in 34 AD, his nephew Herod Agrippa I assumed rule over Caesarea Philippi. Enough history.¹

^{A view of what the site would have looked like at the time that Jesus visited.}

I keep asking myself why Jesus would come here? Why travel this far north from Galilee where there were not too many Jewish communities? There are ruins of an old synagogue nearby but I’m not sure it was there during the 1^st century AD. According to Google Maps, the distance from Capernaum on the Galilee to Caesarea Philippi is about 54 kilometers (33.55 miles) and would take about 12 hours straight-up walking…. maybe 2-3 days if you’re eating and sleeping along the way. That’s quite a distance. Scripture tells us that Jesus made one trip to Caesarea Philippi, and it was from here that He began His last trip to Jerusalem (which is another 180 kilometers/111.84 miles to the south).¹⁰

^{Screenshot from Google – Galilee to Caesarea Philippi}

Was He here just to see this place famous for pagan worship?

^{View of the remains of the Temple of the Goats. The temple was a low flat-topped building. Sacrifices of goats would have been made on top of the building in front of the niche which would have held a statue of Pan. Goats’ bones and other offerings were placed in the low cubicle like openings at the bottom left.}

Many Gentiles came here to worship and make offerings to Pan but why would a Jewish teacher come here? He spent very little time in Gentile cities overall. So, why here? If you’re looking for an answer, I do not have one. It puzzles me. But it was against this backdrop that Jesus posed that question to Peter.

“Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 6:15)

Peter answered,

“You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16)

Standing there looking at the cliff with all the niches carved out to hold pagan idols, I wondered what Peter and the other apostles thought about knowing they were standing right there in the presence of God… the real one. No silly half-goats or wood nymphs playing flutes and causing trouble…. but the actual Messiah, the one who came to heal and to save all of mankind was there with them. For three years, He had traveled around teaching, healing the sick, calming storms, and even raising the dead. And now He was nearing the end of His ministry. Why had He come here?

Scripture tells us that Jesus held these conversations with the apostles in/around Caesarea Philippi. (Matthew 16:13) I do not know exactly where He stood when He called Peter “the stone” and told his followers that He would build His church on “the rock”. (Matthew 16:18) But, right where we stood looking at that awesome cliffside where the pagans made sacrifices to save their souls thinking that the cave was indeed the entrance to the underworld…to Hades, I can imagine Jesus telling the apostles that the “Gates of Hell” would not prevail against His church…the Church that He would build on the foundation of His own broken body.

The temples and altars at Caesarea Philippi are all gone. The spring no longer gushes out of the mouth of the cave but flows out further down the hill. The niches no longer hold idols. No more offerings are made to false gods. No one anywhere thinks of Pan as anything but a little made-up creature from the Greek myths they studied in high school.

But the church that Christ raised up…the church that He built…that church remains strong and continues to grow even today. Indeed! It will prevail for it is built upon the rock that is Jesus Christ himself and will continue forever and ever.

^{In the 3rd century AD, a Byzantine Church was built over the Temple of Augustus in front of the Cave. This photo is a detail of the floor mosaics from the church. Note the crosses in the circles in the mosaic design.}

Sources for Historical Information About Caesarea Philippi:

Caesarea Philippi – Wikipedia
Baal – Wikipedia
Banias River – Wikipedia
Banyas – Archaeology in Israel (jewishmag.co.il)
Banias – Wikipedia
Altar Dedicated to Pan Unearthed in Golan Heights – Archaeology Magazine
Banias Temples – Sanctuary of Pan – BibleWalks 500+ sites
High Places, Altars and the Bamah – Biblical Archaeology Society
Banias Springs – Israel Travel Centre
The Holy Land for Christian Travelers, John A. Beck, 2017, Baker Books, Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, MI, www.bakerbooks.com , USA, Caesarea Philippi, pages 179-181(This book can be purchased on Amazon.com)

ICYMI (In case you missed it) – Previous blogs in the Israel 2022 series:

Israel 2022: Pinch Yourself – April 4, 2022

Israel 2022: Caesarea Maritima – April 11, 2022

Israel 2022: Contested on Mount Carmel – April 20, 2022

Israel 2022: In This Valley – April 30, 2022

Israel 2022: Sea of Galilee – May 9, 2022

Israel 2022: A Very Old Boat – May 31, 2022

Israel 2022: A Blessing & A Curse – Capernaum – June 20, 2022

Israel 2022: One Little Boy Named David – July 5, 2022

A Blessing & A Curse – Capernaum

June 20, 2022joannie65353 Comments

Series: Israel 2022 – Continuing our adventures in Israel in Feb/Mar 2022

Jesus chose a sleepy fishing village on the Sea of Galilee as the central location for his ministry. Not much there really…. then or now. The town itself was established by the Hasmoneans in the 2^nd century before Christ was born (BC or Before the Common Era, BCE, if you prefer) and lasted until sometime in the 11^th century after His death (AD or CE) when it was abandoned after a second major earthquake.¹ (The first major earthquake was on January 18, 749 AD and destroyed much of the surrounding cities and towns. That very precise date comes from Wikipedia. The second major earthquake which resulted in Capernaum being abandoned was about 1049 AD – they weren’t so sure on the date here.⁴)

Well, I suppose in terms of the history of this country (USA), more than 1300 years would be quite something for a town, but in terms of Israel and the ancient near east, it wasn’t such a long span of time at all. Even though it lasted many years, I think (IMHO – In My Humble Opinion) Capernaum’s heyday and time of great fame had to have been those few short years when Jesus was teaching there, healing the sick, and casting out demons in the name of God, the Father. It was only about three years but, make no mistake, He did quite a bit of healing in that short time with crowds following Him day and maybe even night all over the place…sometimes just to get a glimpse of Him or sometimes just to touch the hem of his robes.

^{Ancient olive press – a reminder of the passage at Luke 17:2 – “It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.”}

At one point, Jesus fed 5000 men (not counting the women and children) and at another 4000. (Matthew 14:17-21 and Matthew 15:4-39) Whether you believe (like I do) that He did this with just a few fish and loaves of bread is one thing…. the fact that so many could be fed at all is pretty miraculous. Ask any caterer how much preparation goes into feeding a couple hundred tired hungry people, let alone 5000 plus, on short notice! Twelve apostles passed out food and gathered the leftovers in baskets…. consider how many wait-staff a caterer would need to serve 4-5000 people!

^{View of the Franciscan Monastery from the ruins.}

But, notwithstanding any of that, Capernaum, “the village of comfort”, was estimated to have had about 1500 people living there at the time of Christ. It is amazing to think of the population being increased by 5000+ people for even a short period of time. That’s quite a boost in population that would strain on the local economy for any small town. But it is recorded in the scriptures that they came and kept coming. They came to see this new teacher, to hear His words, and to be healed…. both physically and spiritually….and many became His disciples.

We also came to this place…. to see the ruins of this village that is mentioned so prominently in the four Gospels of the New Testament. Not only did Jesus adopt this town as His own (Matthew 9:1), but it was also the place where He called Peter, Andrew, James, John, (Matthew 4:18-20) and, later, Matthew to come and follow Him. He promised the four fishermen that He would make them “fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19 and Mark 1:17) and He did. Five of the twelve apostles coming from one small village is also quite amazing to me.

^{The large wall in the background was built by the Franciscans in the 1800’s to protect the site from treasure hunters seeking gold and from developers looking for building materials.}

Capernaum wasn’t what I had expected. I’m not really sure what I expected at this point. Israel so far had been so much more than I had thought it would be. And I was finding that, the more I saw, and the more I learned about this land and its relationship with God, the more I wanted to know. This feeling has stuck with me, and I find myself doing more and more research as I go through my photos and work on these blogs. As my mama would say, Israel has sorta gotten stuck in my craw and I gotta keep working at it until I get it all figured out.

^{Column header showing an engraving of a menorah.}

The ruins of Capernaum (Kfar Nahum to the Romans) were excavated as part of Tel Ham (Arabic Talhum)¹. From the 11^th century until the 19^th century, it had been lost. There was tradition and stories about where it was but no archaeological evidence.

Briefly, in a nutshell:

1838 Synagogue Ruins found by Edward Robinson

1866 Site was finally identified as being Capernaum by Charles William Wilson

1894 Site was purchased by a Franciscan Friar, Giuseppe Baldi, Naples

1905 Study of the synagogue & an ancient octagonal church nearby begun by Heinrich Kohl & Carl Watzinger

1968 The apostle Peter’s house was discovered by Virgilio Corbo and Stanislao Loffreda¹

Peter’s house – that’s what I really wanted to see. I had no idea there was a synagogue there that was important. Maybe I could have assumed that there would be a synagogue in a Jewish town, but it had not really crossed my mind to think about it. (Of course, now, having been to Israel, I would certainly realize that every town of any size would have a synagogue.)

As you enter the compound, you first pass a Franciscan monastery on site and then move into the ancient ruins. The first thing you see is the modern church/training center that looks like a gigantic flying saucer come to roost on top of the ruins. It was built in 1990¹. Not that I want to offend anyone, I really have to ask “why?” Why build right on top of the ruins? I didn’t particularly like contrast of the ultra-modern building hovering over the ancient ruins and I really didn’t like that it covered the very thing I wanted to see! I understand that there is a glass floor and that you can sit and contemplate the ruins underneath looking through the floor (if the building is open to visitors). That really doesn’t change my opinion.

^{The Franciscan Church/Training Center located just over the ruins of “Peter’s House” in Capernaum.} ^{Doesn’t it look a bit like a spaceship?}

The ruin that has been identified as Peter’s house from the 1^st century is there – under the building. Here’s what tradition and some of the archaeology cites say about the site. Peter lived there at the time of Jesus who may or may not have stayed with Peter when He [Jesus] was in Capernaum. We know from scripture that Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law at home (Matthew 8:14), and it has been assumed that she was at Peter’s house at the time. Sometime, in the latter part of the 1^st century AD, the house became what is referred to as a “domus ecclesia”, i.e., house-church ¹. It was no longer used for living quarters but was used for worship ². It was known traditionally as Peter’s home where Jesus stayed, and early Christians went there to worship. In the 4^th century, an octagonal basilica was built over the main room of the “house” and, later, in the 5^th century, that smaller basilica was dismantled and replaced by a larger octagonal basilica ^1&2. It is believed that the two octagonal churches were built over Peter’s house to preserve and memorialize the site. The octagonal church was known to medieval travelers & pilgrims who visited the area ².

^{Inscription on a statue of Peter by the Franciscan monastery.}

When Peter lived in the house (if he did – I’m still a bit skeptical), it was made of rough basalt stone which is plentiful in the area with a roof made of wooden poles covered with thatch. It is referred to by the Franciscans as “sacra insula” or “holy insula” described as a block of rooms around a central courtyard. ¹ When the “house” became a “church”, it was upgraded to have plaster on the walls of the larger main room and a more permanent roof and floor was added. The plastered walls in the main room were decorated with mosaics. And there is graffiti – some crosses – a even a prayer or two, “Lord Jesus Christ help thy servant” and “Christ have mercy” ².

But, of course, I couldn’t see any of that. The archaeologists who excavated the site reported it, but I couldn’t see anything that even looked like a house or a church or anything…. just what looked like roughly made rock walls up under that big memorial disk. The trouble with ruins is that you only have bits and pieces, so you really have to use your imagination.

^{As close as I could get to the ruins identified as Peter’s House (the roundish ruins in the center). Note the octagonal walls of the two basilicas built over it.}

In my photos, I can see that the walls form an octagon, and I can see a smaller octagon inside and a circular wall (room?) inside that although I could not see all the sides of the octagon from where I stood. There is a better photo in Wikipedia that shows the site without obstruction which must have been taken prior to the construction of the memorial disk-shaped building on top. ⁶

^{This is looking in a bit further to the smaller octagonal walls and the squarish circular walls in the center. The inner circle is what is believed to be on top of the remains of the larger room of Peter’s house.}

So, is that Peter’s house? I don’t know. There does seem to be quite a bit of circumstantial evidence that the house that was covered/marked by those two octagonal basilicas was an important place for the early Christians. And Peter did live somewhere in Capernaum, so I suppose the possibility is good that Peter lived in that house and Jesus visited Peter’s house while at Capernaum.

Now, about The synagogue. The ruins are beautiful, and you can clearly see that it was an important building in town and a place of worship for the Jewish people. While the rest of the town was seemingly built of the black basalt, the synagogue was built of limestone brought in from a quarry possibly at Taybeh¹. Odd, maybe, but not unusual for a prominent and special building in a village or town.

The synagogue was built on a platform that raised it up higher than the rest of the town as was the Jewish tradition. One would have to enter using several steps on the southwest & southeast corners of the building. The synagogue included a prayer hall with a nave and two columned aisles. There are two rows of stone benches that would have been for the elders. There was also a school room to the eastern side.²

^{The steps to the synagogue on the southwest corner. The steps are thought to be the oldest part of the synagogue.}

Was this the synagogue that Luke 7.5 tells us was built by the centurion who admired the Jews living there in Capernaum…the same centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servant? Turns out, it is not. This synagogue was built in the 4^th century AD so was definitely not a place where Jesus would have taught. But, then again, turns out, this synagogue was built on top of another more ancient synagogue (as is the habit to build the new over the old) that was made of black basalt and has been dated back to the 1^st century. That original ancient synagogue of black basalt is more likely to be the one that Jesus knew².

^{The synagogue viewed from the side/just to the north of Peter’s house. Note the homes are made of basalt stone that is dry-stacked or without mortar which was typical of the 1st century AD. Also, note the contrast with the walls of the synagogue which is made of limestone and from about the 4th century AD.}

The excavation continues at Capernaum and, no doubt, more things will be learned as the site is explored. Part of the site is owned by the Eastern Orthodox Church just over the wall built to enclose the Franciscan part. The part of the city owned by the Eastern Orthodox Church has not been excavated. Who knows what may be found there if it is ever excavated? Maybe more proof will be discovered that the house under/within the octagonal walls really was the house of Peter. Maybe more will be discovered in the synagogue that points back to Jesus. We know from scripture that Jesus was there along with Peter, James, John, and Matthew…and the rest of his disciples. And we know that many people followed Him there looking for the promised Messiah.

View from the prayer room to the auxiliary or school room.

However, notwithstanding all the miracles and the amazing sermons, the overall populace (priests? Pharisees? officials?) of Capernaum did not believe. In the end, Jesus cursed Capernaum for its unbelief. Matthew 11:23 states that Jesus said that Capernaum would be thrown down to Hades. A village that was blessed by the presence of God in the beginning only to be cursed by Him in the end.

^{Sculpture in the Garden at Capernaum. It was referred to as the “Homeless Jesus”.}

Scriptural Sources – As shown throughout the text.

Sources for Historical Information:

Capernaum – Wikipedia
Top Ten Biblical Archaeological Discoveries, © 2011 Biblical Archaeology Society 4710 41st Street, NW Washington, DC 20016 www.biblicalarchaeology.or , pages 68-84. (This is a free e-book available at the link shown above.)
Hasmonean dynasty – Wikipedia
749 Galilee earthquake – Wikipedia
New Testament places associated with Jesus – Wikipedia
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=743768 (Credit for photo from Google)
www.bakerbooks.com , USA, Capernaum, pages 185-189
Saint Peter – Wikipedia