Although Jesus spent most of his time among the Jews, he did sometimes minister further afield. On one occasion he crossed the Sea of Galilee to visit Kursi, referred to as Gadarenes or Garasenes in the Gospels. It was here that he drove many devils out of a man possessed (two men according to Matthew).
Afterwards the townspeople begged him to leave. In Byzantine times a village called Korsia flourished here, and a large monastery and church were erected. Decorated with flora and fauna mosaics, one shows the local swine.
A visitor to the Galilee in the last century described his sojourn thus, “There is no journey in all the world to be compared with this, none of such sweet memories, not even in the Holy Land”.
*And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding. So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. And he said to them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters. Matthew 8:29-32
This page is part of the book The Holy Land of Jesus
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