Caesarea Philippi #58

Caesarea Philippi was a city at the northern edge of the land of Israel, at the foot of Mount Hermon, near one of the main sources of the Jordan River. Today it is called Banias. It is the location, in Matthew and Mark, of the turning point in Jesus’ ministry, when Peter confessed him to be the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Biblical Significance

Matthew says that Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi and asked his disciples who people said the Son of Man was, and then who they said he was (Matthew 16:13-15). Simon Peter answered, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” and Jesus replied that this had been revealed to him by the Father, not by flesh and blood (Matthew 16:16-17). Jesus then declared that on this rock he would build his church and that the gates of Hades would not overcome it, and he promised Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 16:18-19). Mark places the same confession on the road to the villages of Caesarea Philippi (Mark 8:27-30), and Luke records the confession without naming the location (Luke 9:18-20).

Interpreters differ on what Jesus meant by the rock, whether Peter himself, his confession, or Christ, and the question has divided churches for centuries. The setting is also frequently noted. The city was a center of pagan worship, with a cave and spring dedicated to the god Pan, and some readers see a deliberate contrast between the Greek gods honored there and Jesus, and a link between the gates of Hades and the cave. The Gospels themselves do not say so. Directly after the confession, Jesus began to teach that he must suffer and be killed and rise again (Matthew 16:21), and about a week later he took Peter, James, and John up a high mountain, where he was transfigured (Matthew 17:1-2). Tradition has favored Mount Tabor for that event, and some scholars prefer Mount Hermon, though the Gospels do not name the mountain.

Today

The site is Banias, a nature reserve in the Golan Heights at the foot of Mount Hermon, where a large spring feeds one of the streams that form the Jordan. The Hellenistic Greek name Paneas recalls the god Pan, and the modern Arabic name Banias is derived from it. After the death of Herod the Great, his son Philip the tetrarch rebuilt the city and named it Caesarea in honor of the emperor, adding his own name to distinguish it from the coastal Caesarea. Visitors can see the spring, the cave, carved niches in the cliff face where statues once stood, and the ruins of Roman and later buildings. As the site is in territory whose status is disputed internationally, access and administration are matters of current politics, though the archaeological identification of Banias with Caesarea Philippi is secure.