View source for Gergesa

{{Short description|Historical place in Israel}}
{{More citations needed|date=January 2009}}

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| website        = [https://web.archive.org/web/20150919103315/http://www.parks.org.il/parks/ParksAndReserves/Kursi%20National%20Park/Pages/default.aspx  Kursi National Park]
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[[Image:The-Decapolis-map.svg|right|thumb|200px|Map of Roman Israel showing Gadara and Gerasa]]

'''Gergesa''', also '''Gergasa''' (''Γέργεσα'' in [[Medieval Greek|Byzantine greek]]) or the '''Country of the Gergesenes''', is a place on the eastern ([[Golan Heights]]) side of the [[Sea of Galilee]] located at some distance to the ancient [[Decapolis]] cities of [[Umm Qais|Gadara]] and [[Jerash|Gerasa]]. Today, it is identified with '''El-Koursi''' or '''[[Kursi, Sea of Galilee|Kursi]]'''. It is mentioned in some ancient manuscripts of the [[Gospel of Matthew]] as the place where the [[exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac|Miracle of the Swine]] took place, a miracle performed by [[Jesus]] who drove [[demons]] out of a possessed man into a herd of [[pigs]]. All three [[Synoptic Gospels]] mention this miracle, [[Matthew the Evangelist|Matthew]] writes about two possessed men instead of just one, and only some manuscripts of his Gospel name the location as Gergesa, while the other copies, as well as all versions of Luke and Mark, mention either Gadara or Gerasa (see {{bibleverse|Mark 5:1-20, Luke 8:26-39, Matthew 8:28-34|multi=yes}}). The "Gerasa" reading is problematic, because [[Jerash|Gerasa]] is neither near a sea nor does it border Galilee.<ref>Gill's Exposition (Matthew 8:28)</ref>

Some{{who?|date=February 2025}} are of the opinion that Gergesa was the country of the ancient [[Girgashites]]; but it is more probable that 'Gergesenes' was introduced by [[Origen]] upon mere conjecture; as before him most copies seem to have read 'Gadarenes', agreeable to the [[parallel passage]]s and the ancient [[Peshitta|Syriac version]]. In any event, the "country of the Gergesenes/Gadarenes/Gerasenes" in the [[New Testament]] Gospels refers to some location on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. The name is derived from either a lakeside village, Gergesa, the next larger city, Gadara, or the best-known city in the region, Gerasa. It is likely that the "Gerasa" reading is erroneous and a copyist error for "Gergesa," since only the latter place is bordering a lake while Gerasa is very far away from a lake.<ref>Origen. Comment. in Joannem. T. 2. p. 131. Ed. Huet.</ref>

==Interpretations==
''Gergesenes'' means "those who come from pilgrimage or fight."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Roswell D. |last=Hitchcock |authorlink=Roswell Dwight Hitchcock |year=1869 |title=Gergesenes |url=http://www.studylight.org/dic/hbn/view.cgi?number=T898 |accessdate=2009-01-24 |encyclopedia=An Interpreting Dictionary of Scripture Proper Names |location=[[New York City]]}}</ref>

Many New Testament manuscripts refer to the "Country of the Gadarenes" or "Gerasenes" rather than the Gergesenes. Both Gerasa and Gadara were cities to the east of the Sea of Galilee and the River Jordan. They were both [[Gentile]] cities filled with citizens who were culturally more Greek than Semitic; this would account for the pigs in the biblical account. Gerasa and Gadara are accounted for in historical accounts (by writers such as [[Pliny the Elder]] and [[Josephus]]) and by archaeological research. Today they are the modern towns of [[Jerash]] and [[Umm Qais]].

A third city, [[Hippos, Israel|Hippos]], was similar in character to Gadara and Gerasa, and it may fit the biblical account even better. It was located on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, whereas Gerasa and Gadara were several kilometers south-east of it. Hippos, Gerasa, and Gadara were all counted in the Decapolis, an informal grouping of [[Greco-Roman]] cities just south of the ancient city of [[Caesarea Philippi]].

==Identification with Kursi==
[[Eastern Christian monasticism|Byzantine monks]] venerated a site a few kilometres north of Hippos on the lakeshore as the miracle's location. It is the only place fitting Matthew's description, since it contains the only "steep bank" in the area descending to the shore of the lake. The site became known since at least the [[Islam in Palestine|Early Muslim period]] as Kursya,<ref name="Jol">Harry M. Jol, Gloria I. López, Haim Cohen, Michal Artzy, ''Initial GPR explorations near the ancient anchorage of Kursi, Sea Of Galilee, Israel'', 2014 GSA Annual Meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia (19–22 October 2014), Paper No. 95-8. Retrieved 30 June 2016 [https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2014AM/webprogram/Paper250661.html]</ref> the [[Aramaic]] word for "chair", and later as [[wikt:kursi|Kursi]], a word with the same meaning in [[Arabic]],<ref>Jeremy Black, ''Sumerian'', in ''Languages of Iraq, Ancient and Modern'', British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 2007, p. 12 [http://www.bisi.ac.uk/sites/bisi.localhost/files/Postgate_Languages_of_Iraq.pdf]</ref> The monks built a walled monastic complex there and made it a destination for Christian [[pilgrimage|pilgrims]]. That monastery was destroyed by the [[Military of the Sasanian Empire|Sasanian military]] in 614, partially rebuilt, and finally levelled by the [[749 Galilee earthquake]]. The remains of the monastery can be visited in the [[Kursi, Sea of Galilee|Kursi National Park]]. Christian artifacts from Kursi can be viewed at the [[Golan Archaeological Museum]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Hebrew Bible regions]]
[[Category:New Testament places]]
[[Category:Geography of Jordan]]
[[Category:Sea of Galilee]]