“(iv) But there was something even more impressive yet at Caesarea Philippi. In the time of Jesus Caesarea Philippi was one of the most beautiful cities in the East. In 20 BC Augustus had given it as a gift to Herod the Great; and Herod had built on the hill-top a great white temple of gleaming marble with the bust of Caesar in it for the worship of Caesar. ‘Herod,’ says Josephus in the passage which we have already quoted in part, ‘adorned this place, which was already a very remarkable one, still further by the erection of this temple which he dedicated to Caesar.’ In another place Josephus again describes the temple and the cave: ‘When Caesar had further bestowed on Herod another country, he built there also a temple of white marble, hard by the fountains of Jordan. The place is called Paneion, where there is the top of a mountain which is raised to an immense height, and, at its side, beneath, or at its bottom a dark cave opens itself, within which there is a horrible precipice that descends abruptly to a vast depth. It contains a mighty quantity of water, which is immovable, and when anyone lets down anything to measure the depth of earth beneath the water, no length of cord is sufficient to reach it.’ In due time Herod‘s son Philip inherited the area and the city. He further beautified the already lovely city and the temple, and he changed the name from Panias to Caesarea, ‘the City of Caesar’, and to the name Caesarea he added his own name Philippi, ‘Philip’s City of Caesar’, to distinguish it from the other Caesarea in the south, which was the seat of government of Judaea, and where Paul was imprisoned. So, then, at Caesarea all the majesty of imperial Rome and the worship of the Emperor looked down on Jesus and his men. Still later Herod Agrippa was to call Caesarea Philippi by the name Neroneas in honour of the Emperor Nero.”
(William Barclay, The Mind of Jesus, p. 169)
