Decapolis

Overview

• Type: Region / League of ten Greek-influenced cities
• Testament: New (primarily)
• Modern Location: Primarily modern Jordan and southern Syria; cities include ancient Gerasa (Jerash), Gadara, Scythopolis, Philadelphia (Amman), and others

Biblical Significance

The Decapolis was a confederation of ten (later more) Greco-Roman cities established after Rome’s conquest of the region under Pompey in 63 BC. The cities were granted a degree of self-governance and became centers of Hellenistic culture in a predominantly Semitic landscape. The region was east and southeast of the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River, lying outside the traditional territory of Israel. Its population was predominantly Gentile, making Jesus’s ministry there significant as a crossing of ethnic and cultural boundaries.

Mark records the most concentrated Decapolis ministry in the Gospels. After healing the Gerasene demoniac (Mark 5:1-20), Jesus sent the restored man to “go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee” — and the man instead proclaimed in the Decapolis, so that “all men did marvel.” This Gentile testimony prepared the ground for Jesus’s return to the region. On that return visit, he healed the deaf-mute whose healing Mark records in the passage known as Ephphatha (Mark 7:31-37). The crowd’s astonished praise — “He hath done all things well” — echoes the Gentile world’s recognition of the one Israel had largely failed to embrace.

The Decapolis is also the setting for one of Jesus’s great feeding miracles. The feeding of the four thousand (Mark 8:1-10) most likely occurred in Gentile territory, following the Ephphatha healing, making it a Gentile counterpart to the feeding of the five thousand (Mark 6:30-44) which was in Jewish territory. Together the two feedings suggest that Jesus’s provision extends across ethnic boundaries.

Key Events

• Ephphatha — healing of a deaf-mute in the Decapolis; Mark 7:31-37
• First Miracles — the Gerasene demoniac healed; Mark 5:1-20; man sent to proclaim in the Decapolis

Key People Associated

• Jesus Christ — extended ministry in this Gentile region
• The Gerasene Demoniac — became the first recorded Gentile evangelist after his restoration

Important Verses

• Mark 5:20 — “And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him”
• Mark 7:31 — “And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis”