Introduction

There is a growing revisionist opinion among New Testament scholars that the second miraculous feeding (the 4,000) was done by the Lord deep in the Decapolis region, so that His ministry on this occasion was predominantly among Gentiles. Both Matthew and Mark describe the event as separate and apart from the feeding of the 5,000 at an earlier time.

Was Jesus On The Border or Deep in the Region of Decapolis?

Mark especially gives the location of the event as having occurred in “the midst of the borders of Decapolis” (Mark 7:31, ASV), which suggest that it was on the fringes of the Decapolis area on the east side of the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River. Other translations render it “within the region of Decapolis” (NASB) and in “the midst of the region of Decapolis” (NKJV), and suggest that the miracle was deep within the Decapolis area. How one translates this passage, and the location of the feeding of the 4,000 makes a lot of difference in understanding how broad the ministry of Christ was among Gentiles. Several commentaries indicate that Jesus and His disciples had gone far into the Decapolis region and were surrounded by Gentile cities.

What Is The Decapolis?

Decapolis (10 cities) was primarily on the Golan Heights and on the east side of the Jordan River in the area that is now part of the Kingdom of Jordan. It was populated by Gentiles in the time of our Lord, and was largely pagan in religious practice. They were cities of Greco-Roman culture. It is so described in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, II, p. 815 under “Decapolis”:

“The name given to the region occupied by a league of ‘ten cities’ (Mt 4:25; Mk 5:20; 7:31)… The Greek inhabitants were never on good terms with the Jews; and the herd of swine (Mk 5:11ff) indicates contempt for what was probably regarded as Jewish prejudice.”

The revisionist commentaries would have us believe that Jesus ventured deep into this Gentile area of Decapolis so that He could have a broader ministry among the Gentiles. They see this as a harbinger of the great Gentile influx later as the apostles preached throughout the Roman empire. For instance, Robert H. Gundry in A Survey of the New Testament (p. 187) assumes that the Feeding of the 4,000 was a major accomplishment in the ministry of the Lord among the Gentiles:

Read Matthew 15:21-28. ‘And they glorified the God of Israel’ (15:31) shows that the four thousand whom Jesus now feeds are Gentiles. Together then with the preceding Gentile woman and, earlier, the centurion and the Magi, they represent the great mass of Gentiles who are flocking into the church of Matthew’s time.

The only argument Gundry gives that the 4,000 were Gentiles is that they glorified the God of Israel. That logic makes no sense at all. Whom do Jews glorify when they read the Torah in the synagogues? To say that one has to be a Gentile to glorify the God of Israel is devoid of all reason. Nevertheless, he argues that the Syrophonecian woman, the centurion in Capernaum, and the Magi at the birth of Jesus combine with the 4,000 who were fed miraculously to constitute a great mass of Gentiles involved in Jesus’ ministry. If you didn’t have the 4,000, you would only have the five Gentile exceptions (but the three Magi might also have been Jews). Gundry and his revisionist colleagues must go to some lengths, then, to attempt to prove that the 4,000 were Gentiles. The facts, however, simply do not bear out this contention.

Jesus’ Rule of Ministering Only To Israel

If the 4,000 who were fed by the Lord were Gentiles, Jesus would have been departing from His announced rule that His ministry was only to Israel: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 10:6); But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 15:24).

This rule had only the individual exceptions mentioned above, which proved the rule. Christ’s entire earthly ministry was restricted to the Jewish people. There is no reason to believe that the 4,000 were any different from the 5,000 fed before. They also were Jewish people from the Sea of Galilee area who came to hear the Master.

Does ΟΡΙΩΝ (ORION) Mean “Border” or “Region”?

If the 4,000 were Jews, where was it that Jesus fed them? What was the site of this second spectacular and miraculous feeding? A closer reading of the Gospels shows that the text states that He was by the Sea of Galilee “in the midst of the border (οριον or orion) of Decapolis.” That is, He was near the Decapolis border close to the Sea of Galilee. Much hinges on the translation of the Greek term οριον, orion. Some try to translate it broadly as referring to a “region or district.” However, one of the standards in Greek translation is A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, by G. Abbott-Smith. This manual has the following entry on the word on page 323: “οριον, -ου, το (< ορος, a boundary), [in LXX chiefly for גבול;] a boundary, bound; chiefly in pl., and so always in NT.” Thus, the word is derived from oros, which means “mountain,” a frequent boundary between geographical regions. It refers to a limit, a boundary or border of an area. Some try to make this mean that Jesus went into the heart of Decapolis, but what the word indicates is that He came to the border of Decapolis, not into the region.

It was also a “desert” area, and not close to any supply of food. All of these descriptions would put the site in the Jewish area of the Tetrarchy of Phillip near the Sea of Galilee, and north of the hill where Decapolis began. Jesus further indicates that it was within walking distance of their homes, but they needed to be fed in order to have the strength to make their way home. There is nothing to suggest that they were Gentiles. This whole area north of the Decapolis border was Jewish. The only town that had Gentiles in it was Julius, a pagan town not far from Bethsaida, close to where the Jordan River enters the Sea of Galilee. The adjacent map shows where the Tetrarchy of Phillip and the Decapolis border is located, and the approximate locations of the two miraculous feedings.

The weight of evidence is that the location of the Feeding of the 4,000 was in the Tetrarchy of Phillip just north its border with the Decapolis, perhaps not far from the mountain town of Gamala, which became famous as “the Masada of the north” during the war Israel had against Rome later in the First Century. It was far enough away from the shore of the Sea of Galilee that it would be considered a desert area, but close enough so that the Lord could go conveniently from there to the shore and take the boat to the other side.

Did Jesus Ever Go to the Decapolis?

Did Jesus ever venture into the Decapolis? Perhaps one time He came close, but we have no indication He ever ministered there to any great extent. There was one time when He may have stepped on the border of Decapolis near the Sea of Galilee, which was the hill just north of Gerasa (currently called Kursi). It is a hill that practically runs into the lake, and made a natural boundary between Decapolis on the south, and the Tetrarchy of Phillip on the north. Gerasa was in Decapolis. If one visits the Sea of Galilee, the location of Gerasa (Kursi) is clear. It sits in a valley made by a river that goes between the border hill on the north and the hills of the Golan Heights on the south.

Conclusion

Some revisionist commentators have an agenda to show that Jesus had a massive outreach among Gentiles in His earthly ministry. If they can establish this, it will help them demolish the dispensational distinctives that exist before and after the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord. Their purpose is to show that Church Age concepts and the broad inclusion of Gentiles was something already instituted in the ministry of Christ before the cross. They also want to show that Jesus actually preferred ministry among the Gentiles in contrast with the difficulties He was having among the Jewish people. There is an undercurrent of anti-Jewish attitude in all of these commentaries and revisionist textbooks.

The only possible place these revisionists have to get large numbers of Gentiles into the ministry of the Lord is in this episode of the feeding of the 4,000. By twisting the wording around, they attempt to show that Jesus went into the heart of the Gentile region of Decapolis, preached to and healed large numbers of pagans, and concluded His ministry there with the miraculous feeding.

The text of the New Testament simply does not support those views. Jesus repeatedly said that His ministry before His sacrificial death was limited to the people of Israel. Whenever there was an individual exception to this general rule, it was clearly and unequivocally stated. On the unusual occasion when the Lord went to the east side of the Sea of Galilee, the Scriptures indicate He came only to the borders of Decapolis, not into the heart of the Gentile area. The people He ministered to there were Jews in the predominantly Jewish area of the Tetrarchy of Phillip north of the boundary with Decapolis.

The location of the feeding of the 4,000 was probably somewhat south of the location of the earlier feeding of the 5,000. Both were in the Tetrarchy of Phillip near the Sea of Galilee and were miracles designed to show Israel that Jesus, the Messiah, was able to provide food miraculously for His people, much as Moses, by the power of God, was able to provide miraculous manna for the nation in the wilderness. They fit well into the Messianic program of our Lord in His presentation of the Kingdom to Israel. The concept of the Lord having a broad ministry among Gentiles could not be accomplished until His death and resurrection, and the beginning of the Church Age in the Book of Acts. When this extension of outreach beyond Israel did occur, the apostles were surprised, and had to be educated through miracles and Scriptural interpretation that the Lord had instituted a new program in the Church Age that included Gentiles.