What is a Greek pagan city doing in Israel?

 

As related in the Bible, Moses allotted captured territory east of the Jordan River to the tribes of Reuven, Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh. After First Temple times, however, the eastern side of the Jordan River was under Jewish control for only a limited time during the reigns of the Hasmoneans and Herod the Great.

 

The city of Sussita was founded by the Ptolemaic Greeks, whose base was in Egypt, in the 3rd century BCE, possibly as a border fortress between the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires. These two kingdoms were created by the generals of Alexander the Great after his death and this area was the front line between them during their subsequent fighting. Sussita later became part of the Seleucid empire, whose capital was in Iraq and then Turkey. The city was then called Antiochia Hippos. Hippos is Greek for a horse. It may have been called this because of the horse-shoe shape of the hill on which it was located. The name Sussita is Aramaic for a female horse.

 

After many years of conflict, the Hasmoneans were eventually able to displace the Seleucids from Judea. The Hasmonean ruler Alexander Jannaeus took over lands east of the Jordan River between 83 to 80 BCE.

 

Hasmonean rule was brought to an end by the Roman general Pompey when he conquered Judea. Hippos then became one of ten cities on the eastern side of the Jordan River collectively called the Decapolis, and each was granted self-rule as part of the Roman Province of Syria. However, when Judea was ruled by Herod the Great, Rome transferred Hippos to his rule and the city again became part of the Jewish kingdom. On his death, it reverted back to the Province of Syria. The Decapolis was never part of the kingdoms of Herod's son Herod Antipas, grandson Herod Agrippa, or Herod Agrippa II.

 

After the defeat of the Jews in their Great Revolt against Rome, this city became part of the Roman province of Palaestina, and it reached its peak then in terms of prosperity, architecture and population. Together with the other cities of the Decapolis, it became a center of Greek and Roman culture. New city walls were built, and a 24-Km aqueduct was constructed to bring spring water from the Golan Heights into the city.

 

Sussita was initially pagan, although it may have had a small Jewish community. As evident from its churches, it became Christianized during the Byzantine period. The city declined during the Muslim period. The city was abandoned after the earthquake of 749 CE which caused considerable destruction.

 

Prior to Israel’s War of Independence, Kibbutz Ein Gev was Israel’s northern-most settlement on the eastern side of Lake Kinneret. During the 1948 War of Independence, members of the kibbutz captured the hill of Sussita, and Sussita remained on the western or Israeli side of the ceasefire line between Israel and Syria. This remained the situation until the Six-Day War when Israel captured the entire Golan Heights from the Syrians.