by Ptr. Art Calaguas
Shalom.
The passage about our Lord’s visit to Caesarea Philippi in the northernmost extent of ancient, unified Israel’s territory under King Solomon moves us closer to the fourth of the five (5) major discourses contained in the Gospel according to Matthew. It also marks the turning point after which the Lord Jesus heads south, away from his base in Galilee, toward Judea and ultimately to the cross in Jerusalem.
Matthew 16:13-20 is an important transition from the parables about the Kingdom of Heaven of chapter 13; the beheading of John the Baptizer; the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 and the walk on the water to his disciples in a boat in Lake Galilee in chapter 14; and the feeding of the 4,000 in chapter 15. Matthew 16:13-20 talks about Simon Peter’s confession of the Lord as the Messiah and the Son of the living God. After this, the Lord now lets his disciples in on his true identity, but then starts predicting his coming suffering, death and resurrection. A few verses from this Caesarea Philippi narrative and the Lord will be transformed before the eyes of his closest disciples in the Transfiguration, as narrated in chapter 17.
Aside from being close to Dan, the city named after one of the 12 Tribes, Caesarea Philippi is at the foot of Mt. Hermon (הַר חֶרְמוֹן “har chermon”), the source of the River Jordan, and within the ancient area named (בָּשָׁן “Bashan”). Bashan was the part of the kingdom of Og (ע֥וֹג). Kings Sihon of Heshbon and Og of Bashan were the first Amorite rulers defeated by the Israelites and their kingdoms east of the Jordan were given over to the Reubenites, Gadites and half-tribe of Manasseh (East Manasseh).
In New Testament (NT) times, Dan, Caesarea Philippi, Mt. Hermon and the Bashan were under the Tetrarchy of Herod Philip II. See the following maps from my Study Bibles for general orientation of their locations:
It would appear that this area of Bashan where Caesarea Philippi was located, together with Mt. Hermon was important enough for our Lord to go to. In our pilgrimage visits to Israel, we went to Mt. Tabor in Galilee as it was the traditional site for the Transfiguration. Later on, I found out that Mt. Hermon, was another possible site. Furthermore, in Caesarea Philippi was the ancient place called Banias, from Panias, which comes from the Greek mythological half goat-half man god, Pan. [The Greeks considered Pan to be the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, rustic music and who possessed great strength. See https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/gods/pan/]. As Banias was very near to Tel Dan (the archaeological site), we visited this site also and found out that there were some 20 pagan temples, sanctuaries, caves and niches built on the foot of Mt. Hermon. See the pictures I took of these places:
The maps and pictures give us an approximation of the setting of Matthew 16:13-20. Mt. Hermon was a high mountain and at its foot were these huge cliffs and rocks. Built into these cliffs and mountain-sides were these pagan temples and sanctuaries. At the height of their popularity, in ancient times people would flock to these sites and offer sacrifices to the various Greco-Roman gods enshrined there. And this area was supposed to be part of ancient Israel. Theologically then, this pagan area represented something evil and in opposition to the true God of Israel.
At this point, we have the physical context. We can look into some more historical/literary context; what was written about Bashan and Mt. Hermon.
The Hebrew name of the area, Bashan means “serpent.” In Ugaritic, a Semitic language very close to Hebrew, it is called “Bathan” which also means “serpent.” As if this was not sinister enough, this “place of the serpent” also had Mt. Hermon. In Second Temple period Jewish literature such as 1 Enoch identified this mountain as the actual place the “sons of God” or supernatural beings came down from heaven and took wives among humankind. Their offspring became quasi-divine giants, the Nephilim (Hebrew: נְּפִלִ֞ים/נְּפִילִ֛ים) mentioned in Genesis 6:4 and Numbers 13:33. In both verses, the Greek Septuagint (LXX) translates the Hebrew word as γίγαντας/γίγαντες (“gigantas”/”gigantes” meaning giants). So both the Old Testament (OT) in Hebrew and the Greek LXX say that these offspring were giants. And king Og of Bashan was a giant (see Deuteronomy 3:11 where he is called the last of the Rephaim, an old race of giants; Hebrew: רְפָאִ֛ים).
One can detect a connection in the Flood narrative of Genesis 6:1-4 and the detection of and extermination of these giant clans during Joshua’s holy war in Canaan from Numbers 13:33. [Note that in the ancient Mesopotamian “Epic of Gilgamesh,” Gilgamesh was two-thirds divine and one-third human. He was also a giant. See https://www.britannica.com/topic/Epic-of-Gilgamesh; https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gilgamesh/summary/].
The tone of Genesis 6:1-4 indicates that these types of sexual unions of these “sons of God” and human females were not in accord with God’s will. And their giant offspring lines were to be extinguished. Here, an interesting feature of the Hebrew name חֶרְמוֹן for Hermon is that it uses the same 3 Hebrew consonantal letters for the word that is used in Joshua to denote the total dedication of something to the LORD God by means of their utter destruction, חָרַם (“charam”). Note also that in Judges 3:3 and 1 Chronicles 5:23 it is written that Mt Hermon is called in Hebrew בַּעַל חֶרְמוֹן (“baal chermon” meaning Baal/Lord of Hermon). It was the center of Baal worship (https://biblehub.com/hebrew/1179.htm). Bashan and Mt. Hermon were definitely enemy territory.
We will continue next week.
God bless us all.