The Gates Of Hell Series

(Slide showing the excavation of that same wall today)

http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-tel-dan-gate-jeroboam-city-wall-israeli-judgement-seat-900bc.jpg

As you can see, the walls of the city were much higher originally. These walls were excavated and are the original stone of the walls. Walled cities were important in that day because of raiders and invading armies. The walls kept invaders at bay and helped protect the common people and their rulers.

(Slide showing the “judgment seat”)

http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-tel-dan-gate-israeli-judgement-seat-benches-cobble-stone-road.jpg

This was the “court house” of ancient Dan. This is where the judges would sit, literally in the city gates. When citizens had conflicts over legal matters they could bring their conflicts to the leading citizens of the city who would sit in judgment in places like this. The benches along the wall likely would have been where waiting defendants and plaintiffs would wait their turn to have their cases heard.

(Slides I took of the ruins. One shows a room where sentries would have stayed. Another showed an overview of the gate and its ruins)

These pictures are ones I took of the ruins of the gated area of Dan (there’s more to the city, but these are the most prominent and obvious excavations to date).

The first picture shows a room just off the gates. It’s reasonable to believe this may have been where the guards would have lived while on duty.

The 2nd picture is taken from above the ruins and gives a general lay out of where the gates were and how the walls were laid out in this small area of the city.

Up to this point, I have introduced you to 3 “gates” in our lesson.

The first “gate” (as I loosely refer to it) was the gate of the source waters of the Jordan River. The 2nd gate was the ancient gate of Laish we call “Abraham’s gate” built around 1800 B.C. and the 3rd gate would have been built around 900 B.C. by Jeroboam.

Now we go to what has often been referred to as the Gates of Hell.

The place is Caesarea Philippi, built by Philip the Tetrarch.

At this site was the Cave of Pan (or Grotto of Pan) an amazing place for many reasons:

• the waters flowed out of the cave and fed the Jordan River

• there was a bottomless pit inside that contained so much water that it could not be measured.

• The place was so striking that it impressed Alexander the Great, and the Greeks built a sanctuary there.

• The natural features not only impressed the Greeks but they believed them to be a dwelling place of the gods, and nothing produced more awe and terror than a place identified as a cave where the god Pan dwelt. (http://www.bible-history.com/biblestudy/caesarea-philippi.html)

Philip the Tetrarch rebuilt the city of ancient Paneas that had been at this site, and made it much more large and beautiful. Then he changed its name to Caesarea Philippi, to honor the Emperor Tiberius Caesar and his own name Philip. Philip made it his capital and ruled the area until 33 AD. He depicted the Shrine of Pan on his coins some of which have survived. (http://www.bible-history.com/biblestudy/caesarea-philippi.html)