Location and Setting
- Dating from the Hasmonean Period (after 165 B.C.), Gamala was located on the Lower Golan
hills, seven miles due east of Bethsaida. Built on a ridge that resembles a camel’s
hump (hence the name), access to the city was extremely difficult. It could only be
approached from the northeast through the top of the northern rim of the Daliyot Valley.
- Because of its elevation, which gave a clear view of the northern shore of the Sea of
Galilee, Gamala was easily visible to Herod Antipas at Tiberias. The city lay in the
Tetrarchy of Phillip, his brother.
Historical and Biblical Significance
- During the first six decades of the first century A.D., Gamala was
viewed as the personification of Jewish yearning for Messianic deliverance.
In A.D. 6, Judah of Gamala, the founder of the Zealots, led an ill-fated
revolt against the Romans (Acts 5:35).
- The city was well fortified and almost impregnable, as the Romans discovered when they
attacked it in A.D. 66. Known as the stronghold of the "freedom fighter"
Zealots, it became the first military objective of the Romans under Vespasian, as they
moved southward to put down the rebellion against King Agrippa II. Facing annihilation,
men, women and children gathered at the highest point of the city and leapt to their
deaths. From this event, Gamala became known as "The Masada of the North."
- Jesus’ ministry in the "evangelical triangle" (Capernaum, Chorazin and
Bethsaida) was conducted within sight of Gamala. Politically, He was living and teaching
in the shadow of its Messianic, revolutionary image.
- For many Jews in Galilee, there was a prevailing expectation of a Messiah who would
liberate them politically and culturally from Rome. The arrival of Jesus, identifying
Himself as the Son of God, which carried Messianic overtones, created anticipation but
also a dilemma with His insistence on the spiritual dimension of His kingdom.
- The question the Pharisees and Herodians asked Jesus in Jerusalem, "Is it lawful to
pay a poll tax to Caesar or not?" (Mark 12:14), reflected one of the main issues of
the day, and one that was directly linked to the Gamala revolutionaries. (The Pharisees
would probably have hoped for a negative answer and the Herodians for a positive one!)
- Jesus fed the multitude at Bethsaida within sight of Gamala. Presumably some, if not
many, of the five thousand men in the crowd would be Zealots, or Zealot sympathizers.
Jesus, who knew the hearts of all, perceived "that they were intending to come and
take Him by force to make Him king." He then "withdrew again to the mountain by
Himself alone" (John 6:15). He would probably have moved westward into the hills
behind Bethsaida, away from the slope that led eastward up to Gamala. It is noteworthy
that only on this occasion did Jesus almost abruptly send His disciples away from Him. He
ordered them into a boat and to sail away on the lake. Apparently He wanted to ensure that
they would be separated from the crowd that was echoing the aspirations of the Zealots for
a Messiah to provide food and lead them against Rome. He would not want the disciples to
be influenced by the Zealots or to be identified with them by the authorities.
- It may have been Judas who sparked the movement to make Jesus king. Such action would be
consistent with Jesus’ reference to him on the next day as "a devil" and
one who would betray Him, i.e. hand Him over to the Sanhedrin (John 6:70,71).
Bibliography
- Pixner, Bargil. With Jesus through Galilee According to the Fifth Gospel. Rosh
Pina: Corazin Publishing, 1992.
- Rousseau, John J. and Rami Arav. Jesus and His World: An Archaeological and Cultural
Dictionary. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995.
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