As already remarked, _Kerazeh_ (Chorazin), north-west of _Tell Hum_,
has sometimes been confounded with _Khersa_, which was on the eastern
side of the lake. Khersa is Gergesa, where Christ was met by the two
demoniacs coming out of the tombs (Matt. ix. 1). It is situated on the
left bank of _Wady Semakh_, and at the point where the hills end and
the plain stretches out towards the lake. Sir C. Wilson is of opinion
that there is only one spot where the herd of swine could have run
down a steep place into the lake. It is a place about a mile south of
Khersa, where the hills, which everywhere else on the eastern side are
recessed from a half to three-quarters of a mile from the water’s edge,
approach within 40 feet of it, and _there_ do not end abruptly but
descend in a steep, even slope. Some time after Sir C. Wilson’s survey,
the eastern coast was carefully examined by Mr Macgregor in his canoe,
and he came to exactly the same conclusion.
A difficulty has arisen with regard to this locality in consequence
of the different readings in the three Gospels. In Matthew Christ is
said to have come into the country of the Gergesenes; in Luke and John
into that of the Gadarenes. The old MSS. do not give any assistance
here, but the similarity of the name Khersa to that of Gergesa is, as
Dr Thomson points out, in “the Land and the Book,” a strong reason for
believing that the reading of Matthew is correct; and we have also
the testimony of Eusebius and Origen that a village called Gergesa
once existed on the borders of the lake. Perhaps the discrepancy may
be explained by supposing that Gergesa was under the jurisdiction of
Gadara. Gadara itself, now _Umm Keis_, is a good two hours’ distance
from the lake, else here we find rock-hewn tombs which are actually
occupied by fellahin, while there do not appear to be any such at
Khersa. To meet the difficulty which might be felt from the absence
of tombs at Khersa, Sir C. Wilson has suggested that the demoniacs
may have lived in a tomb built above ground, like one still existing
at _Tell Hum_, a rectangular building, capable of holding a large
number of bodies, and which appears to have been whitewashed within
and without. It is possibly this description of tomb to which our Lord
refers in Matt. xxiii. 27, where he compares the Scribes and Pharisees
to “whited sepulchres,” beautiful in outward appearance, but within
“full of dead men’s bones.”
Dr Merrill, speaking of Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum, and other
places now desolate by the Lake of Galilee, remarks that the contrast
between the present and the former condition of this region is painful
to one who knows its history. Nevertheless, he says, “this region is to
me one of the most sacred and delightful on earth. No place that men
have consecrated brings me so near to Christ as a day spent in walking
and meditating on these lonely shores.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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