From the Galilee to Jerusalem: Luke as a Source for the Routes of Jewish Pilgrimage

How to cite this article: Jeffrey P. García, “From the Galilee to Jerusalem: Luke as a Source for the Routes of Jewish Pilgrimage,” Jerusalem Perspective (2024) [https://www.jerusalemperspective.com/28996/].

This article belongs to the collection Ashrech Ziqnati (Blessed Are You, My Old Age): Studies in Honor of David Bivin’s 85^th Birthday.

Of the four Gospels,^[42] Luke uniquely portrays pilgrimage as an integral part of Jesus’ life and ministry. This is not surprising, as pilgrimage to Jerusalem was an important part of the Jewish life for communities in the land and the diaspora. Exodus commands that on the feasts of unleavened bread (הַמַּצּוֹת חַג [ḥag hamatzōt]; i.e. Passover), weeks (חַג הַשָּׁבֻעוֹת [ḥag hashāvu‘ōt], Shavuot/Pentecost), and booths (חַג הַסֻּכּוֹת [ḥag hasukōt], Sukkot) one must not appear before the Lord “empty handed” (רֵיקָם [rēqām], Exod. 23:14-17; 34:23-34). By the first century C.E., being in Jerusalem for the three holy days was not obligatory, but the pilgrimage was observed by many. Josephus, rewriting parts of the Book of Exodus, describes pilgrimage in the following way:

Let those that live as remote as the bounds of the land which the Hebrews shall possess, come to that city where the temple shall be, and this three times in a year, that they may give thanks to God for his former benefits, and may entreat him for those they shall want hereafter. (Ant. 4:203)

Tobit’s story which is set in Nineveh—approximately 500 miles east of Jerusalem—mentions his regular journeys to Jerusalem, “But I alone went often (πλεονάκις [pleonakis]) to Jerusalem for the feasts, as it is ordained for all Israel by an everlasting decree” (Tob. 1:6). Philo, the Alexandrian philosopher, waxed poetic about the importance of pilgrimage to Jewish communities in the diaspora:

For innumerable companies of people from a countless variety of cities, some by land and some by sea, from east and from west, from the north and from the south, came to the temple at every festival, as if to some common refuge and safe asylum from the troubles of this most busy and painful life, seeking to find tranquility, and to procure a remission of and respite from those cares by which from their earliest infancy they had been hampered and weighed down, and so, by getting breath as it were, to pass a brief time in cheerful festivities, being filled with good hopes and enjoying the leisure of that most important and necessary vacation which consists in forming a friendship with those hitherto unknown, but now initiated by boldness and a desire to honor God, and forming a combination of actions and a union of dispositions so as to join in sacrifices and libations to the most complete confirmation of mutual good will. (Spec. Laws 69-70)

Historians and archaeologists alike note that pilgrimage meant an economic boom for Jerusalem^[43] and was essential to Jewish spirituality in the Second Temple period. As with other pilgrimages in the Greco-Roman world, the routes that were taken to the holy city carried spiritual and economic weight. Yet, apart from a handful of accounts that either imply or describe them, information about the routes used for pilgrimage are few. Luke’s depiction of Jesus making his way to Jerusalem, however, preserves a valuable vestige of them. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the third Gospel as a source for how Jewish communities traveled to Jerusalem from the Galilee.^[44] Consequently, there are three major routes, and contingent arteries, explored here: 1) In the Land of Antipas—The Route Through Perea; 2) The Way to Emmaus—The Coastal Route; 3) The Way of the Patriarchs—The Route through Samaria.^[45]

• ^[1] Joseph Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke I-IX, AB 28 (New York: Doubleday, 1981), 440. ↩
• ^[2] R. Steven Notley, “Redeeming Jesus,” 6 (unpublished article). ↩
• ^[3] See Joseph Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke X-XXIV, AB 28A (New York: Doubleday, 1983), 1149; François Bovon, Luke 2: A Commentary on the Gospel of Luke 9:51-19:27, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress Press. 2013), 502. ↩
• ^[4] See y. Ber. 1:1. ↩
• ^[5] Uzi Leibner, Settlement and History in Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Galilee: An Archaeological Survey of Eastern Galilee, TSAJ 127 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009), 198. It is missing in several maps, including Michael Avi Yonah, “The Development of the Roman Road System in Roman Palestine,” IEJ 1 (1950-51): 57. ↩
• ^[6] David A. Dorsey, The Roads and Highways of Ancient Israel, The ASOR Library of Biblical and Near Eastern Archaeology (Baltimore/London: John Hopkins UP, 1991), 156. Evidence of a Roman road is lacking; see Yoram Tsafrir, Leah Di Segni, Judith Green, Tabula Imperii Romani – Iudaea · Palaestina: Eretz Israel in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Periods: Maps and Gazetteer, The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities (Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1998), see map “Iudaea Palaestina: North.” ↩
• ^[7] Dorsey, The Roads, 156. ↩
• ^[8] Albert E. Block, “Jenin,” ABD, 6:378. ↩
• ^[9] Victor Guérin, Description Géographique, Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine, vol. 1, pt. 2 (Paris: L'Imprimerie Imp., 1868), 334. ↩
• ^[10] Albert E. Block, “Jenin,” ABD, 6:378. Several kilometers to the west of Jenin there is the traditional Burqin church of the Ten Lepers that is said to have been built over a Roman cistern, Mohamad Torokman, “Pilgrims Flock to Ancient Holy Land Church as Palestinian Congregation Shrinks,” [https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/pilgrims-flock-ancient-holy-land-church-palestinian-congregation-shrinks-2023-04-13/]. ↩
• ^[11] Bovon, Luke, 502. ↩
• ^[12] Achia Kohn-Tavor, “Kefar Ruppin,” The Archaeological Survey of Israel, Israel Antiquities Authority, [https://www.antiquities.org.il/survey/new/default_en.aspx#Roads]. ↩
• ^[13] Michael Avi-Yonah, The Holy Land: A Historical Geography from the Persian to the Arab Conquest (536 B.C. – A.D. 640) (Jerusalem: Carta, 2002), 182. For the Trajan milestone found at mile 6 of the Scythopolis-Jericho Road, see Israel Roll, “The Roman Road System in Judaea,” Jerusalem Cathedra 3 (1983), 136-161. ↩
• ^[14] Kohn-Tavor, “Kefar Ruppin.” ↩
• ^[15] Anson Rainey and R. Steven Notley, The Sacred Bridge: Carta’s Atlas of the Biblical World (Jerusalem: Carta, 2005), 363. ↩
• ^[16] These are approximates based on walking twenty miles per day, starting, for each route examined here, at Capernaum and ending in Jerusalem. ↩
• ^[17] See Mark 5:1, Gadara: Γαδαρηνων A C K ƒ¹³ ℓ 2211 𝔐 sy^p.h; Gergasa: Γεργυστηνων W, Γεργεσηνων ℵ² L Δ Θ ƒ¹ 28. 33. 565. 579. 700. 892. 1241. 1424. 2542 sy^s.hmg. Luke 8:26, Gadara: Γαδαρηνων A K W Γ Δ Ψ ƒ¹³ 565, 700c, 892, 1424, 2542 𝔐, 𝔓⁷⁵ B D latt sy^hmg; Gergasa: Γεργεσηνων ℵ L Θ Ξ ƒ¹ 33, 579, 700, 1241; Luke 8:37, Gadara: Γαδαρηνων ℵ^2a A K W Γ Δ Ψ 565, 700^c, 892, 1424, 2542 𝔐 sy, 𝔓⁷⁵ B C✱ D 0279, 579 latt sy^hmg (sa); Gergasa: Γεργεσηνων ℵ✱.^2b (C²) L P Θ ƒ^1.13 33, 700✱, 1241 (bo). Rainey and Notley, The Sacred Bridge, 360. ↩
• ^[18] See Tsafrir, Di Segni, Green, Tabula Imperii Romani, map “Iudaea Palaestina: North.” See S. Douglas Waterhouse and Robert Ibaci, Jr., “The Topographical Survey,” Andrews University Seminary Studies 13.2 (1975): 217-233 [https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4124&context=auss]. Later Christians came west from Livias, crossed the Jordan and continued to Jericho, Yoram Tsafrir, “The Maps Used by Theodosius: On the Pilgrim Maps of the Holy Land and Jerusalem in the Sixth Century C.E.,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 40 (1986), 129-145, esp. 132. ↩
• ^[19] An alternate, difficult route down the eastern side of the Jordan river near Tell Deir Alla (perhap biblical Sukkot, Exod. 12:37, or Pethor, Num. 22:5) could have been used by pilgrims, as well. Although a lack of Hellenistic and Roman remains suggests that if anything was there in those periods it may have been small and insignificant. A later Roman road with several milestones passed Deir Alla and immediately moves southeast to Philadelphia, See Tsafrir, Di Segni, Green, Tabula Imperii Romani, map “Iudaea Palaestina: North.” ↩
• ^[20] See, for example, the ritual immersion pools (miqva’ot) that have been discovered not far from the southernmost section of this road at Khirbet al-Mukhayyat and Tall al-Umayri (Annlee E. Dolan and Debra Foran, “Immersion is the New Ritual: The Mikveh at Khirbat al-Mukhayyat (Jordan) and Hasmonean Agroeconomic Policies in the Late Hellenistic Period,” Levant 48 [2016]: 286-289). Jewish presence in the Transjordan seems to continue up through the medieval period. See for instance the discovery an etched menorah discovered in Tell Abila, Philippe Bohstrom, “Archaeologists Find First Sign of Jews in Ancient Abila, Jordan,” Haaretz, [https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2016-09-21/ty-article/archaeologists-find-first-sign-of-jews-in-ancient-abila/0000017f-e6d8-da9b-a1ff-eeffc0220000]. ↩
• ^[21] David Guverich, “The Water Pools and the Pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the Late Second Temple Period,” PEQ 149 (2017): 103-134; Bryant G. Wood, “Extraordinary Excavations: The Pilgrimage Road and the Pool of Siloam,” Associates for Biblical Research, [https://biblearchaeology.org/research/chronological-categories/life-and-ministry-of-jesus-and-apostles/5107-extraordinary-excavations-the-pilgrimage-road-and-the-pool-of-siloam]. ↩
• ^[22] Rainey and Notley, The Sacred Bridge, 350-351; Jeffrey P. García, “‘A Voice Cries Out’: Reassessing John the Baptist’s Wilderness Relationship to Qumran,” JJMJS 9 (2022): 8-18. ↩
• ^[23] Waheeb, “The Discovery of Bethany,” Disrasat, Human and Social Sciences 35 (2008), 123; also idem, Abdelaziz Mahmod, and Eyad al-Masri, “A Unique Byzantine Complex Near the Jordan River in the Southern Levant and a Tentative Interpretation,” Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry 13.2 (2013): 128-134; Rami G. Khouri, “Where John Baptized,” BAR 31.1 (Jan.-Feb. 2005): 39; García, “A Voice Cries,” 14-15. ↩
• ^[24] Brian Schultz, “Jesus Archelaus in the Parable of the Pounds (Lk. 19:11-27),” NT 49 (2007): 117. ↩
• ^[25] The Geography of Strabo, trans. H.C. Hamilton and W. Falconer, 3 vols. (London: George Bell & Sons, 1903). ↩
• ^[26] Safrai, Pilgrimage, 115. ↩
• ^[27] Ibid. ↩
• ^[28] David N. Bivin, “A Farewell to the Emmaus Road,” Jerusalem Perspective, Jan 13, 2017, rev. Mar 26, 2019, [https://www.jerusalemperspective.com/16208/]; Tsafrir, Di Segni, Green, Tabula Imperii, 105, 119-120. ↩
• ^[29] See R. Steven Notley and Ze’ev Safrai, Eusebius, Onomasticon: A Triglott Edition with Notes and Commentary, JCP 9 (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 88. ↩
• ^[30] See Notley’s text-critical discussion in The Sacred Bridge, 368. ↩
• ^[31] See Tsafrir, Di Segni, Green, Tabula Imperii Romani, map “Iudaea Palaestina: North.” ↩
• ^[32] Safrai notes that both the Emmaus (Colonia-Motza) and the Beth Horon roads were utilized by pilgrims in the Second Temple period, Safrai, Pilgrimage, 116. ↩
• ^[33] Safrai appears to be the only one who mentions it, Pilgrimage, 116. ↩
• ^[34] Tsafrir, “The Maps Used by Theodosius,” 132. ↩
• ^[35] Craig S. Keener, The Gospel of John: A Commentary, Volume 1 (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003), 590. ↩
• ^[36] Avi-Yonah, The Holy Land, 127. ↩
• ^[37] Dorsey, Roads, 103-116. ↩
• ^[38] John alone states that Jesus also went to Jerusalem to celebrate the holy day of “the dedication” (τὰ ἐγκαίνια, commonly known as “Chanukah,” John 10:22). ↩
• ^[39] Safrai, Pilgrimage, 116. ↩
• ^[40] See for example, R. Steven Notley, “The Sea of Galilee: Development of an Early Christian Toponym,” JBL 128 (2009): 183-188; idem, “Literary and Geographical Contours of ‘The Great Omission’,” The Sacred Bridge, 360-362. ↩
• ^[41] For well water as living water, see Jub. 24:36. ↩
• ^[42] For David, whose scholarship and friendship, from afar, has left an indelible mark on my journey. ↩
• ^[43] Martin Goodman, “The Pilgrimage Economy of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period,” in Jerusalem: Its Sanctity and Centrality in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, ed. Lee Levine (New York: Continuum, 1999), 69-76; also idem, Judaism in the Roman World: Collected Essays (Leiden: Brill 2007). See also, Shmuel Safrai, “The Temple,” 808-904, in The Jewish People in the First Century: Historical Geography, Political History, Social, Cultural, and Religious Life and Institutions, Volume Two, eds. Shmuel Safrai and Menahem Stern, CRINT (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976); Gideon Hartman, Guy Bar-Oz, Ram Bouchnick, and Ronny Reich, “The Pilgrimage Economy of Early Roman Jerusalem (1st Century BCE – 70 CE) Reconstructed Remains from the d¹⁵N and d¹³C Values of Goat and Sheep Remains,” Journal of Archaeological Science 40 (2013): 4369-4376. ↩
• ^[44] There were also diaspora routes to the land of Israel; see Shmuel Safrai, Pilgrimage in the Second Temple Period (Tel Aviv: Am Hassefer Publishers, 1965), 114-118 [Heb.], for a discussion on the many ways that were taken by pilgrims to reach Jerusalem. ↩
• ^[45] Safrai describes middle, eastern, and western routes: 1) middle: the land of the Cutim (Samaria), En-gannim, Shechem; 2) eastern: Beth Shean to Jericho; 3) western: Kephar Otnay, Antipatris, “from there one of the pilgrimage roads to Jerusalem,” Safrai, Pilgrimage, 116. ↩