A couple of days ago while out for a drive we chanced upon the Kursi National Park on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.
According to Christian tradition it is the site of the ‘Miracle of the Swine’, in which Jesus exorcises demons from a man who lived amongst the caves. It is one of strangest New Testament stories, told with characteristic brevity in the Gospel of Mark:
They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; and he shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.’ For he had said to him, ‘Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!’ Then Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He replied, ‘My name is Legion; for we are many.’ He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; and the unclean spirits begged him, ‘Send us into the swine; let us enter them.’ So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea.
The park surrounds the remains of a fifth century Byzantine monastery. It was an extensive complex, encompassing a church, prayer hall, an oil press and living quarters. Just up beyond the monastery there are fragments of a hillside chapel by a distinctive rock. This, it is assumed, marks the location of the miracle. Both the monastery and chapel have fine mosaic fragments. The monastery and chapel fell into disuse around the ninth century and were rediscovered only in 1970 during excavations for a nearby road leading to the Golan Heights.
Please click the images below for larger versions (the first image shows the location of Kursi from the western shore of the sea). More pictures are available on Flickr.
As ever, I am sceptical regarding the veracity of the story or the site. The Gospels of Mark and Luke refer to the territory of the ‘Gerasenes’, Matthew to the ‘Gadarenes’. They all set the episode close to the shoreline, but Gerasa is around 50km south east and Gadara 10km away. An interesting Wikipedia entry notes however that:
The differing geographical references to Gadara and Gerasa can be understood in light of the social, economic, and political influence each city exerted over the region. In this light, Mark identified the exorcism with the local centre of power, Gadara, located about 10km southeast of Lake Galilee, whereas Matthew identified the event with the regional center of power, Gerasa, located further inland.
So this location may have been regarded as being within the Gerasene (or Gadarene) region even though the town itself was some distance away. It is a short boat journey from Capernaum – clearly visible from the hillside chapel – which Mark mentions as the place from which Jesus had travelled. And archaeologists believe the site had some notoriety long before the time of Jesus: it is probably the location of ancient Kurshi, mentioned in the Talmud as a centre of ‘idol worship’.
Whatever: the geography of the park certainly fits the story. The stark cliffs of the Golan, pockmarked by caves, decline sharply to a plain leading down to the sea. One can picture how ‘the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank’. I’d like to return, perhaps on a day when the light isn’t so brilliant, and dark clouds are overhead.