Caesarea Philippi (gr. Kaisáreia Filíppou teas). City near one of the main sources of the Jordan on the southern slope of Mount Hermon. Some identify the place with Baalgad* (Jos 11:17) and with Baal-hermon* (Jdg 3:3), because there is evidence that it was the seat of the Canaanite cult; but these identifications are very doubtful. The first time it appears in historical times was during the Seleucid period under the name of Paneas (or Panias, or Paneion), as the main place of a district of the same name, because the god Pan was worshiped in a grotto there. Philip the Tetrarch, son of Herod the Great, embellished the city with many new buildings and renamed it Caesarea in honor of the emperor. To distinguish it from Caesarea on the coast, it was commonly called Caesarea Philippi (Mat 16:13; Mar 8:27). Jesus, during his ministry in Galilee, once visited one of the towns in the region of Caesarea Philippi, and on that occasion Peter made his famous confession of faith by declaring that Jesus was the Son of God (Mat 16:16 ). After Agrippa II became king of the northeastern territory he renamed it again, calling it Neronias, in honor of Nero. In subsequent centuries the city lost importance and regained its old name: Paneas, which has been preserved as Bâniyâs, a village that is located on the site of the ancient city. Map XVI, B-4. Bib.: FJ-AJ xv.10.3; xviii.2.1; P-NH v.18: FJ-AJ xviii.2.1; FJ-GJ ii.9.1; iii.9.7.; FJ-L 13: FJ-GJ vii.2; 3.1. 124. Village of Bâniyâs, ancient Caesarea Philippi.
Source: Evangelical Bible Dictionary
city to the southwest of Damascus, which was originally called Paneas because it was a center where Pan, a Greek divinity, was worshiped. In the 1st century BC. C., Caesar Augustus gave the region to Herod the Great, King of Judea. Later, Philip, son of Herod, was the one who changed the initial name to C., in honor of the emperor, adding Philip, in his own honor. Near this city, Jesus asked his disciples who they believed that he was the Son of man. Peter replied that the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God, Mt 16, 13-20; Mark 8, 27-30.
Digital Bible Dictionary, Grupo C Service & Design Ltda., Colombia, 2003
Source: Digital Bible Dictionary
City visited by Christ, Mat 16:13; where Jesus offered Peter the “keys to the kingdom of heaven”, Mat 13:18-19.
Peter and Paul were there: Acts 10:11, Acts 21:8, Acts 23:23-25.
Christian Bible Dictionary
Dr. J. Dominguez
http://bible.com/dictionary/
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
City located on the slopes of Mount †¢Hermon. Possibly it was previously a Canaanite sanctuary called †¢Baal-hermon. Herod the Great built a temple there dedicated to Augustus Caesar. His son † ¢ Herod Philip continued building and called it C. de F. to distinguish it from the † ¢ Caesarea that his father had built on the coast. It is the farthest place to the N that the Lord Jesus visited (Mar 8:27). There he asked his disciples: † œWho do men say that he is the Son of Man?† (Matt 16:13). It is currently called Banias.
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
type, CITY
sit, a1, 531, 118
vet, City that Philip the Tetrarch enlarged and renamed in honor of the Roman Emperor. It was situated on the slopes of Mount Hermon. There Peter declared that Jesus was the Messiah (Mt. 16:13-17).
Source: New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
This is how the Jewish writer Flavius Josephus calls the city founded by Herod Philip (cf. Lk 3,1) around the year 3 BC in honor of Augustus and his own, next to the cave where one of the sources of the Jordan flows, at the foot of the mount Hermon: the title Caesarea of E serves to distinguish it from the maritime Caesarea (cf. E. Josephus, . jud. 3,9,7). The gospels also call it that way, already before Flavio Josefo. The official name was Caesarea Paneas or Panias because it was found in the place called , where Herod the Great already in the year 20 a. C. had built a temple to Pan, the Greek god of fountains, whose ruins are still recognizable today, in honor of Augustus for having given him those territories (1,21,3; 2,9,1). The Gospels place Peter’s confession and Jesus’ promise to Peter in the region of Caesarea de E. (Mt 16:13-20; cf. also Mc 8:27-30). The name does not appear in the NT, which Agrippa II added to the city in 61 AD The name of the Arab population, which was destroyed by the Israelis in June 1967, has preserved reminiscences of the ancient Caesarea Banias of Herod Philip.
Rodriguez Ruiz
FERNANDEZ RAMOS, Felipe (Dir.), Dictionary of Jesus of Nazareth, Editorial Monte Carmelo, Burbos, 2001
Source: Dictionary of Jesus of Nazareth
It was located at the southwestern base of Mount Hermon on a rocky height of more than 350 m. above sea level, about 40 km north of the Sea of Galilee and 72 southwest of Damascus. The Greek name was Paneas, probably so named because it was the center for the worship of the Greek god, Pan. It was rebuilt and embellished by Philip the Tetrarch, of Bazán, to use as his capital, and named Caesarea in honor of Augustus Caesar, adding his name so that it might be distinguished from Caesarea on the coast. The district was given by Augustus to Herod the Great, 20 BC. JC, who built the temple to the god Pan there. Later it was called Neronica by Herod Agrippa II.
It now has a little over 2,000 people, and is called Banias (Banyas). You can see from the ruins that the walls, towers, castles and a temple are from the time of the Crusades. A castle occupies the top of the hill, and a short distance north of the town, the Jordan River begins. The surroundings are beautiful, the land is fertile and the water is abundant.
This was the northernmost place our Lord reached on his second journey. There Christ pronounced the declaration about the institution and work of the church, and the double prediction of his death, and here the transfiguration took place (Matthew 16-17; Mark 8-9; Luke 9). Here, too, Peter pronounced the Great Confession.
Source: Geographic Dictionary of the Bible
Ancient city located at the head of the Jordan River, where today the small town of Banias is located. Its location, 350 m. above sea level, it is a place of great natural beauty. The town is surrounded by mountains on three sides—to the NE. rises majestically the snow-capped peak of Mount Hermon—and to the west is a lush green plain watered by one of the Jordan’s main springs flowing from a nearby cave.
The city was the scene of a battle between Egypt and the victorious forces of Antiochus III the Great (c. 200 BCE). At that time the name of the city was Paneas, in honor of Pan, the pagan god of fertility, worshiped in that place. In the year 20 a. CE Caesar Augustus gave this city to Herod the Great, who later built a white marble temple there and dedicated it to Augustus. The Tetrarch Philip, son of Herod, later enlarged and embellished the city in honor of Tiberius Caesar. It was then that it received the name of Caesarea, and to distinguish it from the port city of the same name, it was called Caesarea Philippi. Some time later, the city was enlarged and embellished again, this time by Herod Agrippa II, and its name became Neronias, although this denomination immediately fell into disuse after Nero’s death. Josephus relates that after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, General Titus began gladiatorial combat there, using captive Jews as victims. (The War of the Jews, book VII, chap. II, sec. 1.) Over time, the city regained its old name of Paneas, and in Arabic (a language in which the letter †œp† does not exist) she became known as Banias.
On the way to “the villages of Caesarea Philippi,” Jesus asked his disciples: “Who do men say that the Son of man is?”, thus beginning the significant conversation that had to do with the foundation rock mass of the Christian congregation and the use of the keys of the kingdom of heaven. (Mr 8:27; Mt 16:13-20.)
Source: Dictionary of the Bible
A Greek Catholic residential see, and Latin titular see in Syria. Its native name is unknown; Antiochus the Great went down and had the Greek name Panion due to a cave consecrated to the cult of Pan. In 20 BC Augustus gave it to Herod, who built a magnificent temple there in honor of the emperor. Shortly after, the Tetrarch Philippi embellished it and dedicated it to the imperial protector Tiberius, from which it got the name Caesarea Philippi or Caesarea Paneas. Near this city the confession of Saint Peter took place (Mt. 16,13-20). The hemorroísa lived there (Mt. 9,29), according to Eusebio she erected in front of her house a bronze monument that represented the healing that she obtained from Jesus; in this group Julian the Apostate substituted his own statue for that of Christ.
At a very early time Caesarea was a suffragan of Tire in Phenicia Prima. Lequien (II, 831) mentions five bishops (until 451), the first of whom Saint Erastus (Rom. 16,23), is obviously legendary. After the Crusaders captured the town (c. 1132), a Latin see was established there; Lequien (II, 1337) mentions four holders, which are not to be confused with those of Panio, another see in Thrace.
Its modern name is Banias, a small village in a pleasant spot 900 feet above sea level, at the foot of Mount Hermon and 45 miles southwest of Damascus, the village’s capital. The landscape is splendid and the country is very fertile due to the abundance of water. One of the main sources of the Jordan arises in Pan’s grotto, now partially blocked and serving as a cattle shed. Among the ruins there are many columns, capitals, sarcophagi and a gate. The old church of St. George serves as a mosque. The citadel is partially preserved and is considered the most beautiful medieval ruin in Syria. Since 1886 Banias has been the seat of a Greek Catholic (Melkite) bishop, with about 4,000 worshipers and 20 priests. Its first holder, Monsignor Géraïgiry, built a certain number of churches and 26 schools; the bishop’s residence is near Banias in Gedaïdat-Margyoum.
Bibliography: WILSON, Lands of the Bible, II, 175 sqq.; THOMSON, The Land and the Book, 228 sq.; GUÉRIN, La Galilee, II, 308 ff.
Source: Vailhe, Simeon. Caesarean Philippi. The Catholic Encyclopaedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03135a.htm
Translated by LH M.
Source: Catholic Encyclopedia