i. 28, identical with the Canaanite town of _Girgash_
(_Gen._ x. 16, xv. 21; _Deut._ vii. 1; _Josh._ xxiv. 11), would be the
site now named _Kersa_ or _Gersa_, on the eastern shore, nearly
opposite Magdala. Mark v. 1, and Luke viii. 26, name _Gadara_ or
_Gerasa_ instead of Gergesa. _Gerasa_ is an impossible reading, the
evangelists teaching us that the town in question was near the lake
and opposite Galilee. As to Gadara, now _Om-Keis_, at a journey of an
hour and a half from the lake and from the Jordan, the local
circumstances given by Mark and Luke scarcely suit it. It is possible,
moreover, that _Gergesa_ may have become _Gerasa_, a much more common
name, and that the topographical impossibilities which this latter
reading offered may have caused Gadara to be adopted.--Cf. Orig.,
_Comment. in Joann._, vi. 24, x. 10; Eusebius and St. Jerome, _De situ
et nomin. loc. hebr._, at the words [Greek: Gergesa], [Greek:
Gergasei].]

[Footnote 3: Matt. xvi. 13; Mark viii. 27.]

[Footnote 4: Matt. xv. 21; Mark vii. 24, 31.]

[Footnote 5: Jos., _Vita_, 13.]

[Footnote 6: Jos., _Ant._, XV. x. 3; _B.J._, I. xxi. 3, III. x. 7;
Benjamin of Tudela, p. 46, edit. Asher.]

[Footnote 7: Jos., _Ant._, XV. x. 3.]

[Footnote 8: _Corpus inscr. gr._, Nos. 4537, 4538, 4538 _b_, 4539.]

A rationalistic Jew, accustomed to take strange gods for deified men
or for demons, would consider all these figurative representations as
idols. The seductions of the naturalistic worships, which intoxicated
the more sensitive nations, never affected him. He was doubtless
ignorant of what the ancient sanctuary of Melkarth, at Tyre, might
still contain of a primitive worship more or less analogous to that of
the Jews.[1] The Paganism which, in Phoenicia, had raised a temple and
a sacred grove on every hill, all this aspect of great industry and
profane riches,[2] interested him but little. Monotheism takes away
all aptitude for comprehending the Pagan religion; the Mussulman,
thrown into polytheistic countries, seems to have no eyes. Jesus
assuredly learned nothing in these journeys. He returned always to his
well-beloved shore of Gennesareth. There was the centre of his
thoughts; there he found faith and love.

[Footnote 1: Lucianus (ut fertur), _De Dea Syria_, 3.]

[Footnote 2: The traces of the rich Pagan civilization of that time
still cover all the Beled-Besharrah, and especially the mountains
which form the group of Cape Blanc and Cape Nakoura.]