Peter Kučera - Böcker

In this volume, the modern scholarly consensus that the Bethsaida of the Gospels was east of the Jordan River and the concomitant negative assessment of the evangelists’ geographical knowledge is subjected to a meticulous multidisciplinary scrutiny. Recourse is made, inter alia, to textual criticism, archaeology, numismatics, odology, anemology and linguistics. The ancient literary record is scoured, in the original languages, for all and any relevant references: Josephus Flavius, Pliny, Ptolemy, Julian the Apostate, Origen, Eusebius, Jerome, Epiphanius, John Chrysostom, Augustine, rabbinic literature, apocryphal literature, pilgrim reports and finally the Gospels themselves. It is argued that the one-Bethsaida-east-of-the-Jordan-River-theory with all its implications does not withstand scrutiny.