may be said of the refined Damascus, the territory of which formed here the extreme

boundary of Palestine. Passing from the eastern to the western bounds of Palestine, we

find that in Tyre and Ptolemais Phrygian, Egyptians, Phoenician, and Greek rites

contended for the mastery. In the centre of Palestine, notwithstanding the pretence of

the Samaritans to be the only true representatives of the religion of Moses, the very

name of their capital, Sebaste, for Samaria, showed how thoroughly Grecianised was that

province. Herod had built in Samaria also a magnificent temple to Augustus; and there

can be no doubt that, as the Greek language, so Grecian rites and idolatry prevailed.

Another outlying district, the Decapolis (Matt 4:25; Mark 5:20, 7:31), was almost entirely

Grecian in constitution, language, and worship. It was in fact, a federation of ten

heathen cities within the territory of Israel, possessing a government of their own. Little

is known of its character; indeed, the cities themselves are not always equally

enumerated by different writers. We name those of most importance to readers of the

New Testament. Scythopolis, the ancient Beth-shean (Josh 17:11,16; Judg 1:27; 1 Sam

31:10,12, etc.), was the only one of those cities situated west of the Jordan. It lay about

four hours south of Tiberias. Gadara, the capital of Peraea, is known to us from Matthew

8:28; Mark 5:1; Luke 8:26. Lastly, we mention as specially interesting, Pella, the place to

which the Christians of Jerusalem fled in obedience to the warning of our Lord (Matt

24:15-20), to escape the doom of the city, when finally beleaguered by the Romans. The

situation of Pella has not been satisfactorily ascertained, but probably it lay at no great

distance from the ancient Jabesh Gilead.

But to return. From what has been said, it will appear that there remained only Galilee

and Judaea proper, in which strictly Jewish views and manners must be sought for. Each

of these will be described in detail. For the present it will suffice to remark, that north-

eastern or Upper Galilee was in great part inhabited by Gentiles --Phoenicians, Syrians,

Arabs, and Greeks (Josephus, Jewish War, iii, 419-427), whence the name "Galilee of the

Gentiles" (Matt 4:15). It is strange in how many even of those cities, with which we are

familiar from the New Testament, the heathen element prevailed. Tiberias, which gave its

name to the lake, was at the time of Christ of quite recent origin, having been built by the

tetrarch Herod Antipas (the Herod of the gospel history), and named in honour of the

Emperor Tiberius. Although endowed by its founder with many privileges, such as

houses and lands for its inhabitants, and freedom from taxation--the latter being

continued by Vespasian after the Jewish war--Herod had to colonise it by main force,

so far as its few Jewish inhabitants were concerned. For, the site on which the city stood

had of old covered a place of burial, and the whole ground was therefore levitically

unclean (Josephus, Ant, xviii, 38). However celebrated, therefore, afterwards as the great

and final seat of the Jewish Sanhedrim, it was originally chiefly un-Jewish. Gaza had its

local deity; Ascalon worshipped Astarte; Joppa was the locality where, at the time when

Peter had his vision there, they still showed on the rocks of the shore the marks of the

chains, by which Andromeda was said to have been held, when Perseus came to set her

free. Caesarea was an essentially heathen city, though inhabited by many Jews; and one

of its most conspicuous ornaments was another temple to Augustus, built on a hill

opposite the entrance to the harbour, so as to be visible far out at sea. But what could

be expected, when in Jerusalem tself Herod had reared a magnificent theatre and

i

amphitheatre, to which gladiators were brought from all parts of the world, and where

games were held, thoroughly anti-Jewish and heathen in their spirit and tendency?

(Josephus, Ant., xv, 274). The favourites and counsellors by whom that monarch

surrounded himself were heathens; wherever he or his successors could, they reared

heathen temples, and on all occasions they promoted the spread of Grecian views. Yet

withal they professed to be Jews; they would not shock Jewish prejudices; indeed, as

the building of the Temple, the frequent advocacy at Rome of the cause of Jews when

oppressed, and many other facts show, the Herodians would fain have kept on good

terms with the national party, or rather used it as their tool. And so Grecianism spread.

Already Greek was spoken and understood by all the educated classes in the country; it

was necessary for intercourse with the Roman authorities, with the many civil and

military officials, and with strangers; the "supers cription" on the coins was in Greek,

even though, to humour the Jews, none of the earlier Herods had his own image