{"id":126,"date":"2014-07-21T12:00:01","date_gmt":"2014-07-21T12:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=126"},"modified":"2014-05-23T22:01:51","modified_gmt":"2014-05-23T22:01:51","slug":"matthew-423-25-jesus-heals-the-sick-geographical-background","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-423-25-jesus-heals-the-sick-geographical-background.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 4:23-25; Jesus Heals the Sick (Geographical Background)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Decapolis referenced in Matthew 4:25 was not a single city or country.<\/p>\n<p>Much as we collectively refer to the northeastern states of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Connecticut as \u201cNew England,\u201d people in Jesus\u2019 day used Decapolis as a collective reference to a political league of 10 predominately Greek towns in eastern Palestine. Those communities comprised: Damascus, Raphana, Kanatha, Philadelphia, Gerasa, Pella, Scythopolis, Gadara, Dion, and Hippos.<\/p>\n<p>The town of Hippos lay just across the Sea of Galilee from Capernaum, Christ\u2019s home base. It was likely a place where fishermen like Peter and John sold fish.\u00a0Additionally, the man suffering from a \u201cLegion\u201d of demons was from Gadara in the Decapolis, and thus was the first to spread the news of Christ into the Gentile world (see Mark 5:1-20).<\/p>\n<p>Because of cultural similarities found in Jesus\u2019 parable of the Prodigal Son, some commentators also speculate that the \u201cfar country\u201d where the son squandered his fortune was based on one or more towns found in the Decapolis.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_314\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-314\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/371\/2014\/05\/TheDecapolis.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-314 \" title=\"Matthew 4:23-25; Jesus Heals the Sick\" alt=\"Hebrew map of The Decapolis\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/371\/2014\/05\/TheDecapolis.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"440\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-314\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hebrew map of The Decapolis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/workscited.html\" target=\"_self\">Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>[ZP2, 81, 84]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Bible Study Nerds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-for-bible-study-nerds.html\">About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Mike Nappa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-mike-nappa.html\">About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0<a title=\"Nappaland Communications Inc. official website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nappaland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Decapolis referenced in Matthew 4:25 was not a single city or country. Much as we collectively refer to the northeastern states of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Connecticut as \u201cNew England,\u201d people in Jesus\u2019 day used Decapolis as a collective reference to a political league of 10 predominately Greek towns in&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,2],"tags":[95,16,302,96],"class_list":["post-126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geographicalbackgrounds","category-matthew","tag-decapolis","tag-jesus","tag-matthew","tag-prodigal"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matthew 4:23-25; Jesus Heals the Sick (Geographical Background) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-423-25-jesus-heals-the-sick-geographical-background.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 4:23-25; Jesus Heals the Sick (Geographical Background) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Decapolis referenced in Matthew 4:25 was not a single city or country. Much as we collectively refer to the northeastern states of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Connecticut as \u201cNew England,\u201d people in Jesus\u2019 day used Decapolis as a collective reference to a political league of 10 predominately Greek towns in&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-423-25-jesus-heals-the-sick-geographical-background.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-21T12:00:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-05-23T22:01:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/TheDecapolis.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Nappa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Matthew 4:23-25; Jesus Heals the Sick (Geographical Background) - For Bible Study Nerds","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-423-25-jesus-heals-the-sick-geographical-background.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Matthew 4:23-25; Jesus Heals the Sick (Geographical Background) - For Bible Study Nerds","og_description":"The Decapolis referenced in Matthew 4:25 was not a single city or country. Much as we collectively refer to the northeastern states of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Connecticut as \u201cNew England,\u201d people in Jesus\u2019 day used Decapolis as a collective reference to a political league of 10 predominately Greek towns in&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-423-25-jesus-heals-the-sick-geographical-background.html","og_site_name":"For Bible Study Nerds","article_published_time":"2014-07-21T12:00:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-05-23T22:01:51+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/TheDecapolis.jpg"}],"author":"Mike Nappa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-423-25-jesus-heals-the-sick-geographical-background.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-423-25-jesus-heals-the-sick-geographical-background.html","name":"Matthew 4:23-25; Jesus Heals the Sick (Geographical Background) - For Bible Study Nerds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-423-25-jesus-heals-the-sick-geographical-background.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-423-25-jesus-heals-the-sick-geographical-background.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/TheDecapolis.jpg","datePublished":"2014-07-21T12:00:01+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-23T22:01:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-423-25-jesus-heals-the-sick-geographical-background.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-423-25-jesus-heals-the-sick-geographical-background.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-423-25-jesus-heals-the-sick-geographical-background.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/TheDecapolis.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/05\/TheDecapolis.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-423-25-jesus-heals-the-sick-geographical-background.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew 4:23-25; Jesus Heals the Sick (Geographical Background)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/","name":"For Bible Study Nerds","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Mike Nappa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575","name":"Mike Nappa","description":"Mike Nappa is an entertainment journalist at FamilyFans.com, a bestselling author\u2014and a notorious Bible Study Nerd. He's a former youth pastor who shepherded kids on staff at Chuck Swindoll's church in Southern California\u2014and he's a bestselling and award-winning author with more than a million copies of his books sold worldwide. Plus, he holds a degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Bible Theology. So, you know, he\u2019s got that going for him. Mike is also a pop culture dork who watches too much TV, reads too many comic books, utters too many bad words, laughs at all the wrong jokes, and often gets in trouble because he says whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment\u2014like quoting an R-rated movie in the middle of a sermon. Yeah, he\u2019s a mess (just like you!), but he kind of likes it that way. Most of all, Mike Nappa loves Jesus, and he figures that covers over a multitude of sins. 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