04-29_Why_ Caesarea_Philippi

BSFL: Matthew 16:13-19
WHY AT
?
Caesarea
Philippi
Cliff face at
Caesarea Philippi.
The large cave
opening at the far
end was the place
where water came
gushing forth from
what was called
“the Gates of
Hades.”
SPRING 2012 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR
35
O
Right: Votive relief
in the shape of
a cave. Inside a
cave, three deities
dance as the god
Pan (right) plays
a flute. Artists
typically depicted
Pan as being half
human and half
goat, with hooves
and horns. He also
typically played a
syrinx (also known
as a Pan flute).
Likely from Sparta,
Greece; dated
about 330-320 B.C.
was believed to dwell among the
mountains in caves. Pan was a
nature and fertility god depicted
as half human and half goat, often
playing the syrinx flute and sexually pursuing nymphs, maidens, and
even animals. Mythology taught
he possessed individuals and sent
them into fits. However, he could
also cause “pan-ic” in enemies.4
The Battle of Paneas “confirmed”
this as Pan’s dwelling place because
Ptolemy’s forces fled in “pan-ic.”
Little more than the sanctuary
of Pan existed there until Caesar
Augustus gave the territory around
Paneas to Herod the Great in 20 b.c.
In response Herod built a white
marble temple in honor of Caesar,
where people worshiped Augustus
and the goddess Roma. The addition
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ JAMES MCLEMORE (13/28/16)
NE OF THE MOST
important moments in
Jesus’ life for establishing His identity as the Messiah
occurred at Caesarea Philippi, in
response to His question, “Who
do people say the Son of Man is?”
(Matt. 16:13, NIV). Jesus was not
just a prophet or even preparing
the way for the Messiah; Jesus was
the Messiah, the Son of the living
God. One would have expected
this conversation to have occurred
along the shores of the Sea of
Galilee where Jesus spent the bulk
of His ministry or in Jerusalem,
the city of David. Instead, this
revelation of Jesus Christ’s identity
occurred at Caesarea Philippi, a
place He visited only once. Why
did Jesus leave Galilee and walk
25 miles north into the territory of
Iturea to have this crucial conversation? Did Jesus choose Caesarea
Philippi because He merely wanted
to retreat to a beautiful area with
lush vegetation and a commanding view of the valley below and
Mount Hermon above?1 Or, did He
choose this specific place because
it, better than anywhere else, provided a dramatic backdrop for the
confession of Jesus’ messiahship?
The Place
During the time of Jesus, Caesarea
Philippi was a relatively new city,
having been founded by Herod
the Great’s son Philip in 3 b.c.
Because its spring gushed forth
from a cave to form the headwaters of the Jordan River, it was
likely an ancient Canaanite cultic
site long before it was a city.2 The
Greek historian, Polyibus, was the
first to mention the site by name
as he described the great battle
between the Seleucid (Syrian) king
Antiochus III and the Ptolemaic
(Egyptian) king Ptolemy V in
200 b.c. Polyibus called the site
“Panium” because it was the site of
the sanctuary honoring the Greek
god Pan.3 This was the perfect
place for Pan worship because Pan
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ G.B. HOWELL/ ATHENS ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM (35/4/71)
By Bradford S. Hummel
36 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SPRING 2012
Left: Looking
north from
Caesarea Philippi,
the mountains of
the Hermon Range
in Israel; the full
range measures
28 x 15 miles.
Right: The Banias
waterfall is fed by
water from the
spring near the
cave of Pan. It and
the Dan River are
two of the major
sources for the
Jordan River.
city remained loyal to the Romans
through the First Jewish Revolt
(a.d. 66-70). In fact, Agrippa II
hosted general Vespasian’s troops
during the war. Following the war,
thousands of Jewish captives were
killed in gladiatorial games held at
Caesarea Philippi. Following the
death of Agrippa II, the Romans
ruled Caesarea Philippi directly through the province of Syria.
During the second and third
centuries a.d., Caesarea Philippi
experienced its golden age of prosperity and construction. Its name
Mt Hermon
Caesarea Philippi
•
Lake
Hulah
Capernaum
• • Bethsaida
Sea of
Galilee
•
Nazareth
was changed to Caesarea Paneas
and then simply back to Paneas.
The current name of the site,
Banias, reflects its ancient origins
and connection to Pan.
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ JAMES MCLEMORE (13/38/3)
ILLUSTRATOR MAP/ LINDEN ARTISTS/ LONDON
of the imperial cult greatly enhanced
the status of Paneas. When Philip
inherited the territory from Herod,
he built his new capital there and
changed the name to Caesarea in
honor of Caesar Augustus. The city
was soon called Caesarea Philippi
to distinguish it from the Caesarea
on the Mediterranean coast. Jesus
visited Caesarea Philippi during
the reign of Philip (4 b.c.–a.d. 41).
Later, Herod Agrippa II (a.d. 53‑93)
enlarged the city further and
briefly changed the city’s name to
Neronias in honor of Nero. The
The Significance
For Jesus to go to a place associated with Pan and emperor worship
may at first seem odd. The geographical and religious background
of Caesarea Philippi broaden, however, the context of Jesus’ messiahship and dramatically accentuate
His message.
Jesus led His disciples to the region
of Caesarea Philippi (Matt. 16:13)
and the villages around the outskirts
of the city (Mark 8:27) where a significant Jewish community lived.5
The sacred area of Caesarea Philippi
with its numerous religious sites
stood alongside the massive cliff
and cave. The sacred area gave way
to the governmental and business
district, which then gave way to
wealthier dwellings.6 The bulk of
the population, however, lived in the
“villages around” Caesarea Philippi
with its Greek, Syrian, and Jewish
communities.7
SPRING 2012 / BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR
37
Ruins of a
Byzantine church
at Caesarea
Philippi.
38 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR / SPRING 2012
earth. If Jesus’ statement about the
“Gates of Hades” were to be understood to mean that not even death
could defeat the church,12 then His
pronouncement could not have been
more dramatic with the “Gates of
Hades” nearby.
Peter confessed Jesus’ true identity
as the Messiah, not just a prophet or a
forerunner, but the Christ. The very
surroundings of Caesarea Philippi
proclaimed Jesus’ superiority over
paganism, Caesar, and death. Jesus
was not just a Jewish messiah but the
Christ for the whole world.
i
1. Donald A. Hagner, Matthew 14-28, vol. 33B in Word
Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word Books, 1995), 466,
argues for the location merely as a retreat, but concedes
the place prompted some of the imagery use.
2. Baal-gad (Josh. 11:17; 12:7; 13:5) may be associated
with this site. Since numerous similarities exist between
Pan and Aliyan, son of Baal, who was also a god worshiped at springs, the Greeks made Pan the successor of
this Semitic god. John Kutsko, “Caesarea Philippi,” in The
Anchor Bible Dictionary, ed. in chief David Noel Freedman
(New York: Doubleday, 1992), 1:803; John Francis Wilson,
Caesarea Philippi: Banias, the Lost City of Pan (London:
I. B. Tauris, 2004), 2.
3. Polyibus, Histories 16.18-19.
4. People credited Pan with causing the Persians to
flee in panic at the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. Walter
Burkert, Greek Religion, trans. John Raffan (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 1985), 172; Maria
Mavromataki, Greek Mythology and Religion (Athens:
Haitalis, 1997), 120-22; Wilson, Lost City of Pan, 2, 57. The
Homeric Hymn 19.1-45 and Plato’s Phaedrus describe Pan.
5. Wilson, Lost City of Pan, 20-21, 29.
6. For descriptions of the excavations at Caesarea
Philippi see Zvi Uri Ma’oz, “Banias,” in The New
Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy
Land, ed. Ephraim Stern (New York: Simon & Schuster,
1993), 1:136-43 ; and John F. Wilson and Vassilios Tzaferis,
“Banias Dig Reveals King’s Palace,” Biblical Archaeology
Review 24 (January-February 1998), 54-61.
7. Wilson, Lost City of Pan, 20-21.
8. Hagner, Matthew 14-28, 469.
9. Calvin J. Roetzel, The World That Shaped the New
Testament, rev. ed. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox,
2002), 73.
10. In John 1:42; 21:15-16, Peter is called “son of
John.”
11. Josephus, The Wars of the Jews 1.21.3 in The
Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged, trans.
William Whiston (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1987), 575;
see Antiquities 15.10.3.
12. F. F. Bruce, The Hard Sayings of Jesus (Downers
Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1983), 143; Hagner, “Matthew
14-28”, 472; Frank Stagg, “Matthew” in The Broadman
Bible Commentary, vol. 8 (Nashville: Broadman Press,
1969), 174.
Bradford S. Hummel is professor of religion and vice president
for advancement and church relations at William Carey University,
Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (10/2/6)
and on this rock I will build my
church” (Matt. 16:18). In Greek,
the play on words is obvious, with
Petros (Peter) and petra (rock). In
Aramaic, which Jesus spoke here,
the words are identical, Kepha (Peter
or Cephas) and kepha (rock). This
was made all the more dramatic
with the rock of Caesarea Philippi
in view. Ultimately, neither the
rock nor the cliff brought Jesus to
Caesarea Philippi; Jesus did not
have to leave Capernaum to see the
huge Cliff of Arbel overlooking the
Sea of Galilee.
Unlike the Cliff of Arbel, the cliff
of Caesarea Philippi was marked
by a large cave at its base. The
Greeks believed Pan lived in the
cave. Josephus described the cave as
a “horrible precipice, that descends
abruptly to a vast depth; it contains a mighty quantity of water,
which is immovable; and when anyone lets down anything to measure
the depth of the earth beneath the
water, no length of cord is sufficient
to reach it.”11 This was not just any
cave; people believed it reached into
the underworld, that it was one of
the “Gates of Hades.” According
to Greek mythology, Pan’s father,
Hermes, guided dead souls across
the river and into a chasm in the
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (10/22/6)
Here, in response to Jesus’ question about His identity, Peter related how others identified Jesus; he
then confessed that Jesus is “the
Christ, the Son of the living God”
(Matt. 16:16). The contrast between
“the living God” and the dead,
false gods at the heart of Caesarea
Philippi could not have been any
starker.8 Ironically, nearby in the
Temple of Augustus that Herod the
Great had built, Caesar Augustus
was worshiped as “the son of god.”9
When Jesus commended Peter for
his confession, He called him Simon
“Bar-Jonah,” which is Aramaic for
“son of Jonah” (Matt 16:17).10 This
may be a subtle allusion and comparison with the prophet Jonah
who preached to the pagans and
bemoaned that “those who cling to
worthless idols forfeit the grace that
could be theirs. . . . Salvation comes
from the Lord” (Jonah 2:8-9, NIV).
In contrast to the philosophy and
reasoning of the Greeks, Peter’s
knowledge of Jesus’ identity was
revealed to him by God in heaven,
not by flesh and blood (Matt. 16:17).
With the famous and massive
cliff of Caesarea Philippi as a backdrop, Jesus said, “you are Peter,