The Christians’ Flight to Pella

IN 33 C.E., Jesus Christ warned his followers to “begin fleeing to the mountains” when they saw “Jerusalem surrounded by encamped armies.” (Luke 21:20-24) But where did they actually flee to? French orientalist and historian Joseph Ernest Renan answers: “The place selected by the heads of the [Christian] community to serve as the principal asylum for the fugitive Church was Pella, one of the towns of Decapolis, situated near the left bank of the Jordan in an admirable position, overlooking on one side the whole plain of Ghor, and having on the other precipitous cliffs, at the foot of which runs a torrent. No wiser choice could have been made. Judæa, Idumæa, Peræa, and Galilee were in insurrection; Samaria and the coast were in a very unsettled state . . . Thus Scythopolis and Pella were the nearest neutral cities to Jerusalem. Pella, by its position beyond the Jordan, must have offered much more tranquillity than Scythopolis, which had become one of the Roman strongholds. Pella was a free city like the other towns of Decapolis . . . To take refuge there was openly to avow horror of the [Jewish] revolt . . . It was in this anti-Jewish town that the Church of Jerusalem found refuge during the horrors of the siege.”