Perea

Perea in the 1st century.

Region beyond the Jordan crossed by Jesus during his apostolic journeys.

Description[edit | edit source]

In the autumn of the first year of his public life, for the pilgrimage of the Tabernacles, Jesus decides to travel through Perea.

"We have passed through the Decapolis and Perea, and everywhere we have seen farmers working in the fields. In some places the land was still covered with stubble and couch-grass, an arid hard land, encumbered with parasite plants, the seeds of which had been carried there from the desert waste by the summer winds".^[1]

It is an opportunity to compare these diversely worked fields to the hearts that must be evangelized. But He is not yet well known enough to draw crowds.

"For the time being the Decapolis and Perea are like that… and are not the only ones. They do not ask for miracles, because they do not want My sharp word nor the ardour of My fire. But their hour will come."^[1]

When He passes through there again, two years later, He notes:

"'But I cannot see the Jordan' says Bartholomew. 'You cannot see it, but it is over there, in that expanse between the two chains of mountains. The river is immediately beyond the western one. We will be going down there, because Perea and the Decapolis are still awaiting the Evangelizer.'"^[2]

Its name[edit | edit source]

The term "Perea" comes from the Greek "Πέραια" (Peraia), which means "the region beyond" or "the other side". This name refers to its geographical position relative to Judea, located on the other side of the Jordan River.

Where is it mentioned in the work?[edit | edit source]

GRM 111. GRM 345.

Learn more about this place[edit | edit source]

This region of Palestine located "beyond the Jordan" is about 25 km wide and bounded to the east by "desert Arabia" (the Decapolis and the kingdom of Moab), to the south by the Arnon, and to the north by the Yarmouk (Hieromax).

At the time of Jesus, this district was administered by Herod Antipas. The Jews accorded it the same status as Judea and Galilee.

It is mentioned as the "beyond the Jordan" region by the four evangelists as an important place of the ministry of the Baptist and Jesus.^[3]