HOLY LAND BOOK - Draft

With a large Gentile population and a minority of Jews. By Paul's time, the inhabitants also included some
members of the early church: “The next day we left and came to Caesarea; and we went into the house of Philip
the evangelist, one of the seven, and stayed with him. . . . After these days we got ready and started to go up to
Jerusalem. Some of the disciples from Caesarea also came along and brought us to the house of Mnason of
Cyprus, and early disciple, with whom we were to stay" (Acts 21:8, 15—16). Tensions between Jews and Gentiles
at Caesarea contributed to the outbreak of the First Jewish Revolt in 66 C. E., when a pagan ceremony conducted
on the Sabbath near the entrance to a synagogue sparked riots.
Vespasian made Caesarea the headquarters of his operations during the First Revolt. After the revolt, Vespasian
raised Caesarea to the rank of a Roman colony, a status that conveyed certain benefits to the population, which
now included Roman military veterans. In the centuries that followed, Caesarea continued to grow, reaching its
maximum extent during the fifth and sixth centuries C. E. (the Byzantine period). Caesarea was the last major city
in Palestine to fall to the Muslims, surrendering in 640 C. E. after a seven-month-long siege. Although Caesarea
contracted in size after the Muslim conquest, it continued to be an important commercial hub, as indicated by
large quantities of imported pottery from around the Mediterranean. Caesarea was conquered during the First
Crusade (1101) and became a key stronghold of the Crusader kingdom in the Holy Land. The Genoese found a
green-colored glass vessel in the city and declared it to be the Holy Grail, the goblet used by Jesus at the Last
Supper. It was taken to Genoa and placed in the Church of San Lorenzo. Caesarea fell to Saladin in 1187 and was
retaken by the Crusaders in 1191.
When the Mamluke ruler Baybars conquered
Caesarea in 1265, he razed it to the ground,
bringing to an end the city's long history. In
the 1870s and 1880s, the Ottomans settled
Bosnian refugees at Caesarea (Kaisariyeh).
This settlement existed until the
establishment of the state of Israel in 1948;
some descendants of the Bosnian families
still live in the nearby Israeli town of
Hadera. After 1948, the Israeli authorities
cleared and restored the Crusader
fortification walls and moat.
We hear first of Caesarea as the final
destination of the wandering Philip the
Evangelist (8:40), who, besides a modest
missionary range, also had four prophesying
daughters living with him (21:8-9). When in
Jerusalem certain Hellenists wanted to kill
Paul, the brethren spirited him away to
Tarsus via Caesarea (9:30).
Also in Caesarea, the centurion Cornelius
saw a vision in which he was told to sent
for Peter, who was in Joppa at the time
(10:1). Peter too saw a vision, the famous
Great Sheet via which the Lord explained
Peter that the gospel was also for the
gentiles, and the first of those to receive
the gospel and the Holy Spirit was Cornelius
of Caesarea (11:24-48).
Some while later, Peter was arrested in
Jerusalem but miraculously freed from
prison. When Herod (Herod Agrippa I)
couldn't find him, he had the guards
executed and took off to his Roman
buddies in Caesarea himself, and there he
died rather spectacularly (12:19-23, also
Josephus Ant.19.8.2).
On his way from Greece to Antioch, Paul
came ashore in Caesarea (18:22), and later
on his way to Jerusalem, did the same
(21:8) and even picked up some Caesarean
disciples who accompanied him for untold
reasons to Mnason of Cyprus (21:16).
Finally in Jerusalem, Paul was arrested
and after some ado, toted back to
Caesarea, to be tried by Felix the
governor (23:23, 23:33).
After two years, Felix was succeeded by
Porcius Festus, whose inquiries into the
Pauline situation took him to Jerusalem
from Caesarea (25:1), while Paul stayed in
Caesarea (25:4), where he joined him after
eight or ten days (25:6). Several days
later, King Agrippa (Herod Agrippa II) and
Bernice arrived at Caesarea (25:13), and
joined their host Festus in hearing Paul.
The Holy Land - The Essential Guide to Living in Israel 97