and Idumea; and there were then several Galilees, as we shall see presently. Judea contained a part of the antient tribe of Judah, and those of Benjamin, Dan, and Simeon. Its breadth was from Jordan to the city of Joppa. Idumea, which was south of Judea, between Arabia and Egypt, had been conquered by Hircanus; and this high priest commanded the inhabitants either to be circumcised, or to leave their country; upon which they chose to be circumcised, and from that time their country became a part of Judea; so that it is not to be wondered at, if St. Mark reckons the Idumeans among those who came to Jesus Christ.* The name of Idumea, was at first given only to the country which was possessed by Esau, who in • Hebrew is called Edom, that is, red. His first descendants were at first called Edomites, and afterwards Idumeans. We know of no king of Idumea but Esau, whom the Greeks call supos that is to say, red; and from hence the Red Sea, or Erithrea, has its name; and not from any particular colour, either in its water or its sand. Samaria was at first only the name of a city, but it became afterwards that of a province. It contained the tribe of Ephraim, and the halftribe of Manasseh, which was on this side Jordan; so that it was to the north of Judea, and between the great Sea, Galilee, and Jordan; and there was therefore no going from Galilee to Jerusalem, without passing through this province. Sichem, called by the Hebrews Sichar, * Mark iii. 8. ↑ John iv. 4. was its capital, and was situated between the mountains Gerizim and Ebal. The name of Sichar was a term of reproach, which the Jews gave this city in allusion to that passage of Isaiah, Woe to the drunkards of Ephraim:* for the Hebrew word the prophet here makes use of, comes from Sachar, which signifies to get drunk, and St. John therefore calls this city by the name the Jews used to do. Near it was Jacob's well. Josephus distinguishes between two Galilees, the upper and the lower: they both join to Syria and Phoenicia, to the west; Samaria and Scythopolis as far as Jordan, to the south; the towns of Hippus and Gadara, and the territory of Gaulonitis, to the east; and Tyre and its territory to the north; so that Galilee contained the tribes of Issachar, Zabulun, Asher and Naphthali, except Paneadis, which took its name from the city of Paneas, formerly Dan, and since called Cesarea-Philippi, situated at the foot of mount Libanus; all this latter territory is out of Galilee. This province had the happiness to receive the light of the Gospel the first of any; it contained a great number of very populous cities. Josephus, from whom we take this account, reckons to the number of two hundred and four cities or villages the least of which had above fifteen thousand inhabitants. up The country that the tribes of Reuben and Gad possessed beyond Jordan was called Perea, which signifies a distant province, because it was beyond Jordan. Its length, according to Josephus,† was from the city of Macheron, to * Isaiah xxviii. 1. † Wars of the Jews, b. 3. c. 4. that that of Pella; and its breadth, from Philadelphia, a country of the antient Moabites, to Jordan. Pella was to the north of it; Jordan to the west; the country of the Moabites to the south; and Arabia to the east. The country which extends towards Libanus northwards, and towards the mountains of Hermon eastwards near Damascus,' was the portion of the half-tribe of Manasseh : but afterwards it comprehended Gaulonitis, so called from the city of Gaulon, (which Josephus makes to have been two cities, the upper and the lower ;*) Batanea, which was formerly the kingdom of Bashan; and Trachonitis, which took its name from the craggy mountains with which it abounded: Strabo says it touched upon Celosyria. To the north lay Auranitis, which took its name from the city of Auran, which was situated between Cesarea and Damascus. And near it was Iturea, which joined to Celosyria, beyond mount Libanus. Pliny places Iturea in Celosyria itself; and Adricomius says, Iturea begins at Jordan, and extends all along Libanus, as far as to the mountains of Tyre and Sidon towards the west. So that they must be mistaken, who place Iturea in Perea. They found their opinion indeed, upon what the Scripture tells us of the Itureans having assisted the tribes of Reuben and Gad: but it does not from thence follow, that Iturea was in the middle of those tribes, or even in their neighbourhood. Perea was subject to Herod the Tetrarch; and the Gospel tells us, that Iturea was a part of Philip's Tetrarchy.† * Wars of the Jews, b. 4. c. 1. † Luke iii. 1. E e 2 But 1 But besides these, there was yet another canton in Judea, which was called Decapolis, because it contained ten cities, whose inhabitants lived after the Grecian manner, and Josephus therefore calls them Grecian cities. Pliny reckons among the cities of Decapolis, Damascus, Opoton, Philadelphia, Raphana, Scythopolis, Gadara, and Hippus; and Josephus tells us,* that Cesar separated Gaza, Gadara, and Hippus, from the kingdom of Judea, and joined them to Syria. But those geographers who place Capernaum, Corazin, Bethsaida, and Cesarea-Philippi in Decapolis, are certainly mistaken; though it be true, that some of those ten cities were round about the Sea of Tiberias and Jordan; and that Josephus therefore says, that Galilee was encompassed with strangers. Agreeably to which, he says in another place, that the Gentiles killed a great number of the Jews in the cities of Scythopolis, Gadara, and Hippus; and it is probably cities of this kind, that the Gospel means by the name of Galilee of the Gentiles. Gadara, the metropolis of Perea, according to Strabo, gave the name of Gadarenes to its territory, in like manner as that of Gergesene came from the city of Gergesa. These two little countries were in the neighbourhood of each other; and it ought not therefore to be wondered at, that in the relation of the same miracle, St. Mark and St. Luket should say, that Jesus Christ did it in the country of the Gadarenes, and St. Matthew in that of the Gergesenes; nor is it * Antiq. b. 17. c. 13. and, Wars of the Jews, b. 2. c. 9, + Mark v. 2. Luke viii. 26. * Matt. viii. 28. any any thing more strange, that these people should keep swine, since they were Gentiles. And we find likewise in the same relation of the Evangelists, a proof that Gadara and Gergesa were parts of Decapolis. For St. Mark says, that the possessed, who was delivered from the unclean spirits, whom Jesus Christ permitted to go into the herd of swine, published the miracles which Jesus Christ had wrought in his favour, in Decapolis; whereas St. Matthew and St. Luke§ only say, that he published them throughout the whole city, that is, either in Gadara or Gergesa. These two cities were in the neighbourhood of a lake which was called Genesareth, from the city of Chinnereth. This lake the book of Joshua¶ places in the tribe of Naphthali; and in Numbers** it is called the Sea of Chinnereth; for both this passage, and that in Joshua, are to be understood of this lake. Afterwards the name of Genesareth was given both to the lake, and the country round about it; which, as Josephus testifies,tt was watered by a spring called Capernaum whence without doubt the city so called had its name. The Sea of Genesareth, as the Hebrews speak, was likewise called the Sea of Tiberias, from the city of that name which stood near it. Some have thought that the city of Tiberias was the antient Chinnereth; but it is a mistake. Josephus expressly says, that Herod built it in a place where there was no city before." Herod the tetrarch," says he, * Mark v. 20. § Matt. viii. 33. Luke viii. 39. "to |