Kursi

MARK 5 (ASV -- 1901 in the public domain/copyright expired)

¹ And they came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes (Gadarenes or Gergesenes in some ancient manuscripts). ² And when he was come out of the boat, straightway there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,³ who had his dwelling in the tombs: and no man could any more bind him, no, not with a chain; ⁴ because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been rent asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: and no man had strength to tame him. ⁵ And always, night and day, in the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out, and cutting himself with stones. ⁶ And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshipped him; ⁷ and crying out with a loud voice, he saith, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God? I adjure thee by God, torment me not. ⁸ For he said unto him, Come forth, thou unclean spirit, out of the man. ⁹ And he asked him, What is thy name? And he saith unto him, My name is Legion; for we are many. ¹⁰ And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. ¹¹ Now there was there on the mountain side a great herd of swine feeding. ¹² And they besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. ¹³ And he gave them leave. And the unclean spirits came out, and entered into the swine: and the herd rushed down the steep into the sea, in number about two thousand; and they were drowned in the sea. ¹⁴ And they that fed them fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they came to see what it was that had come to pass. ¹⁵ And they come to Jesus, and behold him that was possessed with demons sitting, clothed and in his right mind, even him that had the legion: and they were afraid.
¹⁶ And they that saw it declared unto them how it befell him that was possessed with demons, and concerning the swine.¹⁷ And they began to beseech him to depart from their borders. ¹⁸ And as he was entering into the boat, he that had been possessed with demons besought him that he might be with him. ¹⁹ And he suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go to thy house unto thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and how he had mercy on thee. ²⁰ And he went his way, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men marvelled.

During Byzantine times this church (near the center of photo) was built along a five kilometer stretch of the east coast where the steep slopes north and south of the church were relatively close to the water. This church near the foot of the ridge was near the junction of roads 92 and 789. There were a few natural overhanging ledges in the limestone cliffs that might be described as caves. There were also some square or rectangular openings described by some as tombs in the sides of the hill within a kilometer NE and SE of the hill side shrine at Kursi. These caves were dug into rock hard conglomerate. In 1999 the floor of the chapel pictured above (tile floor at bottom of photo), was partially covered with a conglomerate ledge that was being cleared by archaeologists. The floor appeared to be back in a cave. Eventually the whole area was cleared of the rock and the chapel was brought into the light.

The Decapolis of the Gentiles was close to this shore. The Jews did not eat pork nor keep swine, but those of the Decapolis region did. Hippos (Susita) was two kilometers above En Gev about five kilometers south of Kursi. One April morning there were east winds howling down from the Susita site high above En Gev and raising waves in the lake west of Shittim Beach. Tall reeds were bent over sideways and there were large standing waves out in the lake. The winds that caused the waves that almost swamped Jesus' boat might have been these east winds said to have occurred in the winter and spring. In the summer the gusting wind that caused white caps was out of the west in the afternoon and sometimes into the night. There were also occasional winter storms that caused the lake to be turned into waves that blew from the west to the east; some severe storms lasted more than 12 hours.

In 2006 I hiked on the paved road to Hippos a flat topped hill, a mesa, above En Gev. The walk from the En Gev to the city ruins took about 55 minutes as I paused for picture taking along the way. The city was about 900 feet above En Gev. At higher elevations there were numerous hard rock caves that might have been the tombs the demoniac was hiding in. Many people used caves for burial of their loved ones. The best burial sites had narrow entrances that were sealed after burial to prevent animal and bird scavengers from scattering the bones of their loved ones.

In some early Biblical manuscripts the demoniac was from Gadara, in other manuscripts he was from Gerasa. Some indicated they thought Gerasa was the village in the area of the Kursi church ruins. Gadara was also part of the Graeco-Roman Decapolis near the SE edge of the lake Galilee/Chinnereth in Jordan. From Gadara built upon the highland in Jordan; the lake Galilee was visible. It was above Hammat Gader.

ISRAEL PHOTOS III -- A COLLECTION OF PHOTOS FROM ISRAEL

WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF SCENES AND SITES PERTINENT TO THE STUDY OF CHRISTIANITY

Kursi

Kursi (April, 2005)

This was a view from a small shrine down to the Byzantine Church built to commemorate Jesus' miracle of taming a fierce demon possessed man.