GERASA - A city of the Decapolis (q.v.) in Trans-jordan, north of the middle stretch of the Jabbok. It may originally have been founded by Perdiccas, to whom its citizens still raised a statue centuries after his time. But Antiochus iv. Epiphanes may have refounded it, for it was called Antioch on the Chrysorrhoas, for a while, and had a temple of Zeus Olympics, such as that ruler also had built at Dura. The city was an inviolable sanctuary for the 2nd cent. BC Transjordanian tyrants. It was taken by Alexander Jannaeus c 78 BC. It was liberated by Pompey in 63 BC, at which time it became one of the federation called Decapolis. The Jews seem to have indicted damage on it in the Jewish war (BJ ii. xviii. 1 [458]), but the kindly attitude of the Gerasenes toward Jewish residents subsequently (ib. 5 [480]) shows that it cannot have been enough to cause rancour. The real flowering of Gerasa took place in the centuries under the Roman emperors. The ruins near the village bearing the name
Jerash are among the most impressive of the Near East. A full record was made of them by a Yale University expedition, which also carried on some excavations.
Gerasa is not mentioned in the OT, though its Semitic name indicates pre-Hellenistic origin. Glueck was able to show that a Bronze Age city had existed about 200 metres away from the NE. wall of Roman Gerasa. Its history had ended in the 20th cent. BC. Remains of an Iron Age city have not yet been located.
The people of Gerasa are mentioned in Mk.5.1, Lk.8.26 (RSV, but AV Gadarenes). But Gerasa was too far away, and the reading 'Gadarenes' (Mt.8.28 RSV, but AV Gergesenes) is more plausible and has displaced 'Gerasenes' in the received text of the other passages. The fame of Gerasa in the early centuries may have led to the seeking of its mention in the NT. [Article: Dictionary of the Bible, J.Hastings, 2nd Ed., T&T.Clark, 1963. - E.G.K.]
