In 2 B.C. Herod the Great’s son Philip named the city Caesarea in honor of Augustus and to differentiate from the Caesarea Maritima. It is situated some 25 plus miles north of the Sea of Galilee at the base of Mt. Hermon.
It is one of the largest springs feeding the Jordan River. Abundant water made the area fertile and attractive for building. Numerous temples were built at this city in both the Hellenistic and Roman periods.
The Greek god Pan, half man and half goat, was worshiped here, a cave, believed by them to be a gate into the hadean world, was considered to be his birthplace. He is often depicted playing the pan flute. He was the god of nature, fields, forests, mountains, and flocks.
The walls had many niches carved into them to hold statues of their deities.
As Rick shared with us in one of his sermons this year, Rabbi Jesus felt it important enough to lead His Apostles all the way from the Sea of Galilee up to this center of evil where parents sacrificed their children to Pan and worshipped Baal and Asherah with every perversion known to pagans to ask them one question.
“Jesus was standing on a road in an area littered with the temples of the Syrian gods, a place where the Greek gods looked down, a place where the most important river in Judaism sprang to life, a place where the white marble splendor of the home of Caesar-worship dominated the landscape. And here, of all places, He stands and asks men who they believe Him to be. Peter boldly answers that He is "the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Matthew 16:16
It was here, on this rock of infamy, in this epitome of evil, that Jesus declared that He would establish His Sacred Community and that these Gates of Hell would not be able to prevail against it.
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