Thread: The Decapolis Cities

The Decapolis Cities....



The Decapolis was a ten-city Greco-Roman federation, or league, occupying all of Bashan and Gilead in northeastern Palestine. The territory was contiguous except for Damascus which some believe to have been an honorary member.

Eusebius records it as the region around Hippos, Pella, and Gadara (Eusebius, Onomasticon, s.v). Created under Pompey the Great, about 64-63 BCE as part of his eastern settlement, the league provided a formidable means of defense on the eastern frontier of the empire. Such leagues existed in other parts of the Roman empire for purposes of trade and mutual protection.

Visit Decapolis Cities Bet She'an (Scythopolis) Gerasa (Jerash) Pella (Tabaqat)

Its cities, according to Pliny the Elder (CE 23-79) were: Scythopolis (Bet She'an), Hippos (Susieh), Gadara (Umm Qais), Pella (Tabaqat Fahl), Philadelphia (Amman), Gerasa (Jerash), Dion (Adun), Kanatha (Kanawat), Damascus, and Raphana (Abila) (Pliny the Elder, Historia N v. 18).

Each city in the Decapolis was a free-state (polis) whose territory included numerous small villages and rural settlements.

The Decapolis dominated trade routes in the region bringing about prosperity and funding for public art and monumental Greco-Roman architecture such as that found in Gerasa.

Fertile soil and temperate climate encouraged the practice of intensive agriculture throughout the region.

The presence of a significant Greek population, who settled in the region at the time of Alexander the Great and the Seleucids, is consistent with there being swine kept by the people of Decapolis (see Mark 5:11, 5:13, 5:20).

Cultural conflict continually plagued this region. The Greeks, intolerant of any physical imperfection and adhering to dualism, differed from the native Semitic populations in diet, in philosophy, in worship, and in other basic lifeways.

For the Greeks the circumcision practiced by the Arabs and Jews was a profanation of the living temple wherein the immortal soul dwells. Mutilation of the human temple constituted despicable conduct and bizarre sacrilege.

Moreover, in Hellenistic culture the open display, such as in the games or in the public baths, of a mutilated sex organ exposing the glands penis was obscene. To the Greek mind such behavior was lewd and indecent. This essentially excluded Semitic peoples from the venue of the public baths for matters of business and commerce.

Homosexuality was a well-accepted pattern of behavior in Greek culture. The games, such as those at Olympia, promoted homosexuality and cultic activity, the classical academies included homosexual philosophical apprenticeships, and the military utilized homosexual erotic apprenticeships to foster formation of close-knit teams of warriors.

Semitic peoples, observant of such customs and particularly of Greek males satiating themselves with homosexual acts with boys and practicing anal intercourse with their wives, regarded them as unclean, barbaric pedophiles, and sodomites.

The Jews particularly saw the widespread practice of Greek homosexual behavior as idolatrous and repugnant. They held the Greeks in contempt and attempted to expel them to remove the uncleanness from the land whenever they could.

These irreconcilable cultural differences resulted in numerous clashes between Greeks and the Jews. For example, when the Hasmonean ruler of Israel, Alexander Jannaeus, conquered Pella he sought to compel its people to repudiate their idolatrous religions and to embrace the law of Moses, as proselytes, or face banishment.

They refused so Jannaeus had the city set afire thoroughly destroying it (Josephus, Ant., bk. XII, ch. xv, sec. 4). The league provided the Greek settlements a means for trade and a mutual defense system capable of resisting any military intrusions of the Jews, Nabatians, or other indigenous peoples.

FYI.............

Decapolis



Region. Decapolis was Greek name for a league of approximately ten (deka) Hellenistic or Hellenized cities with their territories, in Roman times (with some Jews living there).

All of them, except Scythopolis, were on the Transjordan side of the River.

The New Testament (Matt 4:25; Mark 5:20) is the earliest mention of Decapolis revealing it as largely a gentile territory bordering Galilee and Perea: Matt. 4:25; Mark 5:20; 7:31.


It is very difficult to say which cities were part of the league at one time or another.


Pliny (Nat. Hist. 5, 74) mentions Damascus, Philadelphia (Rabbath-Ammon), Raphana, Scythopolis (Beth Shan), Gadara, Hippos (Susita), Dium, Pella (Pehel), Gerasa and Canatha (Kanath), yet he admits that his list is different from that of other writers. Ptolemy (Geography v, 14, 18) lists different cities, omitting Raphana and adding Abila, Lycianae, and Capitolias. Stephan of Byzantium (Gerasa) mentions 14 cities rather than the original 10.

The Decapolis:

The area east of Galilee was known as the Decapolis during Jesus? time. This region was once home to Israel?s half tribe of Manassah but eventually came under the influence of pagan groups.

In Jewish tradition, the Decapolis was known as the land of the seven, representing the seven pagan nations driven from Israel in Joshua?s day. Jews believed the area was dominated by the devil. The pagans were known for worship of fertility gods, and many of their practices were detestable to God?s people.

But the Decapolis also boasted a sophisticated culture.

Its cities had many attractions, including gymnasiums, baths, and theaters. Not wanting to be tempted by pagan culture, Jews rarely visited the area, despite its location within view of the Jewish communities near the Sea.

Jesus challenged these norms by taking his message to the dark corners of the Decapolis. He fed a group of 4,000 there. And he likely healed a demon-possessed man in the city of Kursi, one ten pagan cities in the Decapolis.

The Decapolis (Greek: deka, ten; polis, city) was a group of ten cities on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire in Syria and Palestine.

The ten cities were not an official league or political unit, but they were grouped together because of their language, culture, location, and political status.

The Decapolis cities were centers of Greek and Roman culture in a region that was otherwise Semitic (Jewish, Nabatean, and Aramean).

With the exception of Damascus, the "Region of the Decapolis" was located in modern-day northeastern Israel, northwestern Jordan, and southwestern Syria. Each city had a certain degree of autonomy and self-rule.


http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Cities/Decapolis.html

The Roman provinces of Syria, Palestina, and Arabia


The term "Decapolis" fell out of use after the emperor Trajan added the province of Arabia to the Roman Empire in the second century AD. The new province was east of Palestine, so the Decapolis was no longer the Greco-Roman cultural front line. In addition, the cities were grouped into different Roman provinces: Syria, Palestina Secunda, and Arabia.

However, the Decapolis remained an important region in the Roman east, even though the term was no longer used. The region continued to be distinct, distinguished for example by its use of the Pompeian calendar.

Historians and archaeologists often speak of the "Decapolis cities" and "Decapolis region" even when referring to these cities in later time periods.



Most of the cities continued into the late Roman and Byzantine periods.

Some were abandoned in the years following Palestine's conquest by the Umayyad Caliphate in 641, but others continued long into the Islamic period. Jerash and Bet She'an survive as towns today, while Damascus and Amman have become important capital cities.

Twentieth-century archaeology has identified most of the other cities, and most have undergone or are undergoing considerable excavation.

The New Testament gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke mention that the Decapolis region was a location of the ministry of Jesus.
The Decapolis was one of the only regions where Jesus travelled in which Gentiles (people who are not Jewish) were in the majority.

Most of Jesus' ministry focused on teaching to Jews. Mark 5:1-10 emphasizes the Decapolis' Gentile character when Jesus encounters a herd of pigs, an animal forbidden by Kashrut, the Jewish dietary laws

Originally Posted by kudzu

The Decapolis Cities....



The Decapolis was a ten-city Greco-Roman federation, or league, occupying all of Bashan and Gilead in northeastern Palestine. The territory was contiguous except for Damascus which some believe to have been an honorary member.

Eusebius records it as the region around Hippos, Pella, and Gadara (Eusebius, Onomasticon, s.v). Created under Pompey the Great, about 64-63 BCE as part of his eastern settlement, the league provided a formidable means of defense on the eastern frontier of the empire.

Such leagues existed in other parts of the Roman empire for purposes of trade and mutual protection.

Visit Decapolis Cities Bet She'an (Scythopolis) Gerasa (Jerash) Pella (Tabaqat)

Its cities, according to Pliny the Elder (CE 23-79) were: Scythopolis (Bet She'an), Hippos (Susieh), Gadara (Umm Qais), Pella (Tabaqat Fahl), Philadelphia (Amman), Gerasa (Jerash), Dion (Adun), Kanatha (Kanawat), Damascus, and Raphana (Abila) (Pliny the Elder, Historia N v. 18).

Each city in the Decapolis was a free-state (polis) whose territory included numerous small villages and rural settlements.

The Decapolis dominated trade routes in the region bringing about prosperity and funding for public art and monumental Greco-Roman architecture such as that found in Gerasa.

Fertile soil and temperate climate encouraged the practice of intensive agriculture throughout the region.

The presence of a significant Greek population, who settled in the region at the time of Alexander the Great and the Seleucids, is consistent with there being swine kept by the people of Decapolis (see Mark 5:11, 5:13, 5:20).

Cultural conflict continually plagued this region. The Greeks, intolerant of any physical imperfection and adhering to dualism, differed from the native Semitic populations in diet, in philosophy, in worship, and in other basic lifeways.

For the Greeks the circumcision practiced by the Arabs and Jews was a profanation of the living temple wherein the immortal soul dwells. Mutilation of the human temple constituted despicable conduct and bizarre sacrilege.

Moreover, in Hellenistic culture the open display, such as in the games or in the public baths, of a mutilated sex organ exposing the glands penis was obscene. To the Greek mind such behavior was lewd and indecent. This essentially excluded Semitic peoples from the venue of the public baths for matters of business and commerce.

Homosexuality was a well-accepted pattern of behavior in Greek culture. The games, such as those at Olympia, promoted homosexuality and cultic activity, the classical academies included homosexual philosophical apprenticeships, and the military utilized homosexual erotic apprenticeships to foster formation of close-knit teams of warriors.

Semitic peoples, observant of such customs and particularly of Greek males satiating themselves with homosexual acts with boys and practicing anal intercourse with their wives, regarded them as unclean, barbaric pedophiles, and sodomites.

The Jews particularly saw the widespread practice of Greek homosexual behavior as idolatrous and repugnant. They held the Greeks in contempt and attempted to expel them to remove the uncleanness from the land whenever they could.

These irreconcilable cultural differences resulted in numerous clashes between Greeks and the Jews. For example, when the Hasmonean ruler of Israel, Alexander Jannaeus, conquered Pella he sought to compel its people to repudiate their idolatrous religions and to embrace the law of Moses, as proselytes, or face banishment.

They refused so Jannaeus had the city set afire thoroughly destroying it (Josephus, Ant., bk. XII, ch. xv, sec. 4).

The league provided the Greek settlements a means for trade and a mutual defense system capable of resisting any military intrusions of the Jews, Nabatians, or other indigenous peoples.

A little history and geography lesson......

Why are you spamming the board and responding to your own posts?

FYI...............