66 A.D. - Jerusalem's Christians Flee To Pella and the Decapolis Area!

The Ruins of the Ancient City of Pella, in Jordan¹

Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D. by the combined efforts of several Roman Legions conducting a long siege. Yahuwah did not protect His chosen people, nor even the Holy Temple that they had built for Him. The Jewish wickedness of that time had grown far too extensive, and they had crucified His son Yahushua, the son He had sent as their long-awaited Messiah and Savior. The Jews had rejected Yahushua just as Yahushua, during His 3 1/2 years of teaching and ministry, had verbally rejected the behavior of the leaders of the Jewish people.

Yahushua found the Priests' and Scribes' behavior evil, self-serving, and far from their Father and Maker's intentions for them. He rebuked them loudly and publicly for this while performing amazing miracles right in front of them so that they would know who rebuked them.

Instead of repenting, they plotted to kill Yahushua, and when they enacted their plot, Yahushua submitted to this atrocity. In front of Roman Governor Pontius Pilate, a crowd of the Jewish common people - whipped up into a frenzy by their Priests and probably demons as well - shouted out that Rome must crucify Yahushua. And Yahushua was crucified.

As a badly whipped and beaten Yahushua drug His heavy cross to the place called Golgotha (place of the skull), on a hill called Calvary, people believe it was an outsider, not a fellow Jew from Jerusalem or nearby, who helped him carry it when he grew too tired. The man was named Simon and was from the North African nation of Cyrenaica. He converted to Christianity because of this experience and went on with his sons to become a pillar and leader of the Christian church of Antioch. That was the first church where followers of Yahushua were called 'Christians.'

There in Antioch, Simon would be fondly known by a nickname roughly meaning 'Blackie' because of his darker complexion, some old writings say. So if the black Christian community is proud of Barack Obama being President, that's great. But I hope they are even prouder of this man, Simon, who reached the high station of being the only man known to have physically helped the Lord in His most difficult hour. As for those who gave the Lord drinks of various liquids as He hung on the cross, is it helping to extend the life of one hanging to die on a cross? Maybe they count as helpers, or maybe not.

Yes, Jerusalem sealed its fate in those days and hours. They had often killed the prophets that Yahuwah had sent to them in the days of old, not wishing to be told that their deeds were evil, not wanting to change even if Yahuwah warned them to. Now, they had killed Yahuwah's Son after beating Him and mocking Him.

While still alive, Yahushua foretold a tremendous future destruction of Jerusalem. He told the people he was speaking to on that day that their generation would not pass away before this occurred. Most of His followers would have been of retirement age (60 - 80 years old) when the destruction came to pass. They'd have been elders, but many would still be alive.

In about 29 A.D., during His ministry, Yahushua once drove out many demons from a possessed man. The Demoniac of the Gadarenes, the man was called. He was a locally famous possessed man there in the region of the Gadarene people. His strength was so unreal that he broke chains! It seemed he couldn't even be bound - people had tried. He lived wild among burial tombs, apparently quite mad, and sometimes he harmed his flesh until it bled. He was like a proto-type Viking berserker. A man like that would be well-known and famous over a pretty large area.

The Gadarenes, who the scriptures identify as raisers of pigs, are unlikely to have had many practicing Jews among them. They were a gentile people, maybe. Back in the days of the Assyrian conquering and deportation of the Northern ten tribes, around the 720s B.C., many foreigners had been moved into the area that victorious Assyria had moved Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh out of. This area was on the East side of the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee. This land was once home to giant king Og, and part was once Sihon's land. But in ancient days, Joshua had conquered it. Perhaps these people were some of those Assyrian transplants since Og and Sihon's peoples were wholly killed off.

'Gadarenes' implies some possible connection with the tribe of 'Gad,' though, as Gad had once lived there in that region. Was it only geographical, or were these people fallen away Israelites who no longer obeyed the Jewish dietary laws?

When Yahushua and the Apostles got out of their boat upon landing at the shore of the Gadarene people, this Demon-possessed man ran up to Yahushua and the Apostles.

Yahushua ordered the possessing spirit to identify itself, and it called itself 'Legion', saying that there were many spirits, not just one, dwelling inside of the man.

Yahushua ordered them out. They begged to be allowed to enter a herd of thousands of swine rather than be expelled out into the open, where they would (according to some old beliefs) need to find a host or perish.

Yahushua allowed them to enter the swine herd, but the herd ran over the cliff and perished in the sea. Thousands of dead swine floated in the sea - a herdsman's fortune!- but the man who had been made crazy by all of these demons was now sane and sat near Yahushua's feet.

And the local people, running to see with their own eyes what the swine herders were telling them, plainly perceived the magnitude of what Yahushua had done. The sea would have been awash with dead pigs. The crazy demon-filled man, once so fearsome to them, now sat quietly at the visitors' feet.

Later, when Yahushua made another trip to this land, they would eagerly gather to hear His teachings because of this day’s events. But today, they only asked him to leave their country because he had caused disaster. Was each hog worth the equivalent of $100.00 to $300.00 US? If so, then Yahushua had cost their region nearly a million dollars. But they weren't about to try to harm Yahushua!! Not after what He had done. It is evident to all that this one had great power as they had never seen.

Yahushua left when they asked Him to. The former Demoniac man asked if he could go with His Savior. But Yahushua told him :

'No. But he should instead go out and tell people what happened - what was done for him.'

Yahushua left, and this man faithfully carried out his assignment because he was grateful for what Yahushua had done for him. He traveled in the region East of the Jordan River, an area called Perea, for some periods just about then. In this region, there were ten crucial cities, which were, as a group, called 'the Decapolis' (the 10 Cities). He told people in these cities about Yahushua and what Yahushua had done. And they would have heard this story confirmed by many from the region where it happened once they began to ask if it was true.

The Demoniac spread the news so thoroughly that the next time Yahushua returned to the area, crowds of people came and eagerly listened to His teachings. It had become fertile ground.

And about 40 years later, it would matter quite a great deal that the people of this region had met Yahushua, learned to fear and respect Him, and embraced Him. There were ten cities in the Decapolis. One of these was named Pella. And when the Romans came to destroy Jerusalem in 66 A.D., under the command of Gaius Cestius Gallus, it was to the region of the Decapolis and to the city of Pella that the Christians fled!

It was 66 A.D.

A Roman General named Cestius surrounded the city of Jerusalem with a great many Roman troops. The Jews were rebelling against Rome again, and Rome was tired to death of them. The Romans were fooling around with the Jews. Inside Jerusalem were giant numbers of people, taking shelter from the angry Romans. This was because it was an incredibly safe and strong-walled city. Secondly, it was packed because Cestius's army had appeared during one of the great compulsory Jewish feasts when everyone came into Jerusalem to be at the Holy Temple.

For about 150 years, the Romans ruled over the notably stubborn and difficult Jewish people. They had endured many small rebellions and some larger ones, and they were just tired of them. They decided to make an all-out war against the Jews to humble them once and for all.

Inside the walls, people were of mixed minds. Some thought Yahuwah would save them by a great deliverance, as He sometimes did in ancient times. Others thought that Yahuwah had sent them many signs that He was displeased with them in recent years, and they didn't believe that Yahuwah would help them against the Romans now.

But after Cestius had surrounded the city, having prepared to lay siege to it, he suddenly surprised everyone by lifting the blockade and marching his army off. I've yet to learn what his full intentions were. Opinions seem to differ, and they tend to favor him wanting to avoid a long and ultimately embarrassing siege against a well-defended city when other battles were being fought in a more direct fashion, battles that offered both glory and loot!

To the Jewish fighters inside the walls of Israel, it appeared that Yahuwah may have struck fear into the hearts of their enemies yet again. They were ecstatic when they had waited long enough to make sure that it wasn't a ruse to draw them out. They determined to press the situation, and their army left the city to follow, find, and destroy these 'frightened' Romans.

The Jews did catch and destroy this Roman army near Bethoron (Beth Horon). About 5,300 Roman soldiers and 480 cavalry died when Eleazar Ben Simons led his Jewish troops against Cestius in battle. They even stole the Legion’s 'eagle standard,' a Legion's particular battle emblem, on a tall pole. This represented a massive insult to the might of Rome and a great shame to the specific Legion that lost it.

Such a victory against the well-trained Romans was quite a military accomplishment, but it buoyed the Jewish confidence to the point that they thought they could whip the feared and vaunted Romans anywhere, anytime, ultimately working to their destruction.

But, at that time, in 66 A.D., inside of Jerusalem's walls was a population of Christians that wanted no part of war or violence for any reason. And they had been divinely warned to leave the city because it would be destroyed - and they would be destroyed with it if they stayed.

So, when the Jews sallied out over the horizon to catch the retreating Romans, they had their golden chance—their window of opportunity. The more patriotic and militant men among their Jewish countrymen were gone, chasing the enemy. And no one in the countryside would hold them back because there wasn't anyone there. Everyone was hiding within whichever walled city they thought was closest and safest.

The Christians left out the gates of Jerusalem and went to the north, around 50 miles. Then, they crossed eastward toward the Jordan River and across it to Pella, where they took refuge for quite a time. It was about a 70-mile trip by the trails they likely used (according to maps I found of their suspected flight path, which are probably only estimates.)

And so, that's how it came to be that, so far as various old writers knew, there weren't any Christians killed within Jerusalem a couple of years later when the Roman soldiers, angry at the destruction of nearly an entire Legion of their brothers, laid long and bitter siege to Jerusalem, eventually breached the walls, and killed hundreds of thousands of Jews, destroyed their homes, and burnt Yahuwah's temple to the ground, even prying the stone walls apart in search of melted gold.

But Yahuwah not only allowed it, He brought it about.

As Titus, the general in charge of the siege (and eventually the Emperor of Rome), said: 'It is no great accomplishment to defeat a people abandoned by their god.'

There are no safer people when obedient people wait in faith in times of dire need, counting on Yahuwah and Yahushua for their rescue. Who can steal Yahuwah's children from His hand? No one takes a sheep from Yahushua unless it is part of some plan that more greatly serves Yahuwah's kingdom than the survival of that sheep. And Yahushua's followers have been warned, even promised, that they will have problems and trials on this side of their death but eternal life on the other.

As Yahushua himself stated, he is the single way offered to man to obtain salvation. But just knowing who He is will not suffice to save your soul. Yahushua's enemies understand who He is.

Being a heck of a guy or a great lady will not save you. You are well-liked among men, but men don't cleanse the sinner. Only Yahushua can. And Yahushua requires that you believe His teachings, repent of your sin, be baptized in His name, and give the rest of this worldly life to Him so that He can use you to reach others and so that you can share in His sacrifice by giving yourself to the welfare of your fellow man just as Yahushua gave Himself for you. Persevere in this, and with faith, we are told that we can obtain salvation despite our inability ever to reach the standards for behavior that would qualify us to live in the purity required by Yahuwah.

Seize your chance. Believe the Son of Yahuwah sent for you, the fallen sinner! Commit to Yahushua with your life. Yahuwah has loved you since the beginning of all time², but so precious a gift had to be given to save you that there will be great anger toward you if you spurn that gift.

² "For Yahuwah so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For Yahuwah sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of Yahuwah. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." (John 3:16-19)

This is a non-WLC article by Daniel Curry.

We have taken out from the original article all pagan names and titles of the Father and Son, and have replaced them with the original given names. Furthermore, we have restored in the Scriptures quoted the names of the Father and Son, as they were originally written by the inspired authors of the Bible. -WLC Team