=1.= Many =incidental circumstances= have led commentators to suppose that the third Passover transpired about this time. The following incidents are therefore attributed to him after the third Passover. We therefore, in accordance with the above supposition, recount the events for the next six months to the Feast of Tabernacles. The chief reason for asserting the third Passover at this time is, that according to John 6:4, the Passover “was nigh” at the time of the feeding of the five thousand. =2. Capernaum.= Jesus replies to the Pharisees who object to eating with unwashed hands, Matt. 15:2; Mark 7:1, in which the washing was not for cleanliness but religious ceremony. =3. Region of Tyre and Sidon.= The Syro-phœnician woman’s daughter healed, Matt. 15:21; Mark 7:24. TYRE AND SIDON. These were Phœnician towns, twenty-five miles distant from each other, and upon the Mediterranean seacoast. They are mentioned in history long before the building of Jerusalem. The first is mentioned in Scripture in Josh. 19:29 for the first time, while Sidon is spoken of by name many years before, in Gen. 10:19, as being a prominent Canaanitish city, B. C. 2350. In the time of our Saviour they were both inhabited places, and Tyre was a city of great importance. At present they are considerable towns of from 5,000 (Tyre) to 15,000 (Sidon) inhabitants. Tyre is almost due west from Mt. Hermon. =Decapolis.= The deaf and dumb healed, Mark 7:32. It is probable that this case is to be distinguished from those mentioned in Matt. 9:32; 12:22, which may have happened at previous times, as the surrounding circumstances suggest. DECAPOLIS. =4.= This region contained ten principal cities, as the name signifies. Pliny gives the names Scythopolis (or old Beth-shean), Philadelphia, Raphana, Gadara, Hippos, Dios, Pella, Gerasa, Canatha, and Damascus as constituting the ten. Josephus says Otopos instead of Canatha. The region was inhabited by many foreigners, and hence might have contained more swine than any truly Jewish region. Hence the mention of large numbers of swine in the healing of the demoniac, for among the strictly Jewish districts the keeping of swine would not have been permitted. This district may be described generally as east of the Lake of Gennesaret and of that part of Jordan which is south of the lake as far as Scythopolis or Beth-shean, fifteen miles south of the lake and four miles west of the Jordan. The cities of the list have not all been identified. Scythopolis, Philadelphia, Gadara, Damascus, and possibly Hippos and Pella, are known, but the district of Decapolis has not yet been satisfactorily defined.