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History |
| Pella (Khirbet Fahil)
Pella lies in the eastern Jordan Valley, twenty-eight kilometers (21 miles) south of the Sea of Galilee. It is a large site, and the accumulated debris of the main tell is some thirty-one meters in depth. At the foot of the mound is a stream fed by a spring and in the valley lie the remains of a Greco-Roman temple and a Roman theater. Ruins of two large basilicas are also quite evident. Coins indicate the existence of a Nymphaeum and the prevalence of the worship of Apollo, Heracles, Athena, Thychae, and Nike. Eusebius of Caesarea notes that in A.D. 66 Christians fled to Pella. They were not fearful for their lives, but they were taking literally Jesus' command to flee to the mountains when they saw the "abomination of desolation spoken of in Daniel the prophet standing the holy place." Pella became a Christian center. Robert H. Smith has directed much of the work done here. He writes, "The ancient city took on fresh vigor in the Hellenistic Age, when its name became 'Pella' in honor of the birthplace of Alexander the Great." It fell successively under Ptolemaic, Seleucid, and Maccabean control. In 63 B.C., the Roman general Pompey placed the city under Roman domination, ushering in a new era. The early settlers were steeped in the Hellenistic and Roman cultures which prevailed in the area, and Pella became a member of the Decapolis. The archaeologists working the site recovered striking evidence of Pella's Roman elegance, especially near the spring at the Civic Complex. Finds there date from the first century of this era and include public halls, one or more temples and a small theater with its stage and orchestra in the creek-bed of the Wadi Jirm. Building the theater near the stream facilitated the task of flooding the stage for aquatic performances. On the eastern hill overlooking the central mound is a small Temple Complex dating back to the same era. In the West Church in 1967, Smith discovered a sarcophagus that may originally have been the last resting-place of one of these early Christians. The testimony of the burial is not entirely clear, since no inscription remains. Radiocarbon dating obtained soon after the find date the bones to a slightly later period. Evidences in the sarcophagus, however, identified the remains as that of a Christian. The contributions of archaeological activity at Pella are of value as we strive to understand the New Testament. The layout of the civic complex and the ruins of the buildings enable us to have a fuller picture of the nature of the community in the first century. These same contributions reveal striking parallels with the evidence recovered at Abila. |
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