Caesarea Maritima #59

Caesarea Maritima, or Caesarea by the Sea, was the Roman capital of Judea on the Mediterranean coast, about thirty miles north of Joppa. It is not to be confused with Caesarea Philippi in the north. The city figures throughout Acts as the home of the first Gentile believers and as the place where Paul was held for two years before being sent to Rome.

Biblical Significance

The city was built by Herod the Great on the site of an older port called Strato’s Tower, in the last decades before the birth of Jesus. He named it for Caesar Augustus and gave it a large artificial harbor, a temple, a theater, and an aqueduct. After Herod’s kingdom was divided, it became the residence of the Roman governors, or prefects, of Judea, and the official seat of Pontius Pilate.

In Acts, Philip the evangelist arrived at Caesarea after preaching in Azotus (Acts 8:40) and was still living there decades later, when Paul stayed at his house and met his four daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:8-9). Caesarea is also the home of Cornelius, a devout centurion of the Italian Cohort, to whom an angel appeared, and who sent for Peter from Joppa (Acts 10:1-8). When Peter came and preached, the Holy Spirit fell on all who listened, and the Gentiles present were baptized (Acts 10:34-48). This was a landmark in the spread of the gospel to non-Jews.

Herod Agrippa I died at Caesarea after being struck down for accepting the crowd’s acclaim as a god (Acts 12:19-23). Paul passed through the city several times (Acts 9:30; 18:22; 21:8). After his arrest in Jerusalem, he was moved there under heavy guard by night to appear before the governor Felix, and he was kept in Herod’s praetorium for two years (Acts 23:23-35; 24:27). Before Felix’s successor Festus, he made his appeal to Caesar (Acts 25:1-12), and he also addressed King Agrippa II and his sister Bernice (Acts 25:13-26:32). He set sail for Rome from the harbor of Caesarea (Acts 27:1-2).

Today

Caesarea is now a national park on the coast of Israel, with extensive Roman, Byzantine, and Crusader remains. Visitors can see the restored Roman theater, the remains of Herod’s harbor and palace, a hippodrome for chariot racing, and a long stretch of aqueduct running along the beach. In 1961, archaeologists found a stone in the theater bearing an inscription that mentions Pontius Pilate, the Prefect of Judea, which is one of the few direct pieces of physical evidence for him. The original is in the Israel Museum, and a replica stands on the site. The site is also of great interest to historians of early Christianity, since it later became a major center of Christian learning, with a library associated with Origen and, later, with the historian Eusebius.