-Michael LuddeniSidon was the scene of heavy fighting during Lebanon's civil war and it's situation only deteriorated during the subsequent 22-year Israeli occupation. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? The Lord had leveled His charge against Israel for their sins ( Isaiah 1:3-4 ). Woe to you, Bethsaida! In other words, what I am trying to say is this: we must distinguish between God's temporal judgments on whole cities and whole nations, when they refuse to repent as nations, and the Final Judgment, at which people shall be dealt with individually and not as whole nations or whole cities. He divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them, and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus. Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter; and they called to Lot and said to him, Where are the men who came to you tonight? He probably walked the colonnaded street, passing the hippodrome. Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.. i. p. 164) supposes that the population may now be about 10,000 - about 6,800 Moslems, 850 Greek Catholics, 750 Maronites, 150 Greeks, and 300 Jews. . As their wealth and prosperity engendered luxury and its concomitant evilsirreligion and moral degeneracytheir overthrow was repeatedly foretold in ancient prophecy, and once and again fulfilled by victorious enemies. And because of their indifferent unbelief, Jesus said to them, I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. 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"[3], Augustine: "A certain Catholic disputant of some note expounded this place of the Gospel in the following way; That the Lord foreknew that they of Tyre and Sidon would fall from the faith after they had believed the miracles done among them; and that therefore in mercy He did not His miracles there; because they would have incurred the heavier penalty had they lapsed from the faith after having held it, than if they had never held it at all. But those who survived fled to the hill country. Far be it from You! After his arrest in Jerusalem and imprisonment in Caesarea, Paul was taken as a prisoner to Rome. Corozaim and Bethsaida are condemned because they would not believe, though Christ Himself was among themTyre and Sidon are justified, because they believed His Apostles. A primary preposition denoting position, and instrumentality, i.e. Consider the magnitude of the time of judgment that Jesus is describing! The ancient world's purple dye industry developed from extracting a fluid from a Mediterranean mollusk, the murex. Zimrida, king of Sidon wrote one (EA [El Amarna] 144, ) or maybe two (EA 145) of the Amarna Letters. You shall descend to Hades. Then after his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Shaveh (that is, the Kings Valley). Today Tyre is a depressed city that suffered greatly during Lebanon's civil war and Israel's subsequent occupation of southern Lebanon. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. The port of ancient Sidon is believed to have been located in this area. 247-50 in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Ancient Near East 5, ed. The Meaning of Sodom and Gomorrah . Few things Jesus might have said could have stunned Jews more than to be unfavorably compared to Gentiles. When Paul returned to Palestine from his third missionary journey, he sailed into Tyre. and the Horites in their Mount Seir, as far as El-paran, which is by the wilderness. Jesus upbraids Korazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum; and praising his Father's wisdom in revealing the Gospel to the simple. 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With numerous hammams (Turkish baths), souqs (markets) and mosques, it feels like an old world city. More insights from your Bible study - Get Started with Logos Bible Software for Free! When subsequently the city of Nineveh returned to its evil ways, God allowed the city to be destroyed. A relation of rest; 'in, ' at, on, by, etc. Jesus here makes two truths clear: there will be degrees of punishment in hell, and among those given the severest punishment will be those who have received the divine revelation and been the most religious and outwardly upright. Whereas, with the vastly greater witness of the Saviour's miracles, the men of Capernaum did not repent, and very often they did not bother to cross the road to listen to our Lord's preaching. 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Isaiah was a prophet sent by God to Judah, the southern kingdom. Genesis 13:10-12. 2. And the Lord said, The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. All rights reserved. Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly? So the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account. And Abraham replied, Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am but dust and ashes. In these striking and sobering contrasts, Jesus makes plain that . Or the words of Matthew, Then began he to upbraid the towns, must be taken, as some think, as expressing some particular time by the word then, but not referring generally to that time in which the many other things here told were done and said. They are also important cities in the Old and New Testaments. King David and Solomon: Men or Myths? Unfortunately for archaeologists, the area of ancient Sidon remains occupied today and only minimal archaeological evidence for New Testament Sidon is available. Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was . woe unto thee, Bethsaida! If we ask why God did not give the people of Tyre and Sidon the light they needed to repent, then our answer must take into account the contrast that our Lord is making between the light given to Tyre and Sidon and Nineveh, compared with the light given to Capernaum and Chorazin. Sidon, spread of the Gospel. They are mentioned frequently in the prophets and the New Testament as symbols of human wickedness and divine retribution, and the . If Tyre and Sidon had seen half of the powerful miracles you have seen, they would have been on their knees in a minute. In this situation, therefore, it is a comfort to me to notice that our Lord cites two other instances from the Old Testament, namely the people of Nineveh and the Queen of Sheba (Matthew 12:4142). They are also important cities in the Old and New Testaments. Just as during the "Church Age," people will be judged by their obedience to Gods word. At that time, Judah was lost in idolatry and rebellion against God. Unfortunately, because the ancient port area has continued to be inhabited over the millennia, there is little archaeological evidence or Bronze and Iron Age Sidon. For the respectable and upright unbelievers of Capernaum, Hades will be hotter than for the crude and immoral unbelievers of Sodom. In other words, just like the flood was an example or a pointer towards the judgment that will happen when the Lord comes, so the judgment that befell Tyre, Sidon, Sodom and Gomorrah is an example and a warning of the eternal judgment that will take place at the great white throne. ((m) Philocalia, p. 109. The Jews also frequently threw ashes on their heads as expressive of grief, Job 1:21; Job 2:12; Jeremiah 6:26. and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds),read more.then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, New American Standard Bible Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. The hippodrome at Tyre is the best preserved in the world. So that no one has turned back from his wickedness. The words are an hyperbolical exaggeration of the wickedness of those cities, like to Ezekiel 3:5 showing, that they were worse than the Tyrians and Sidonians; an Heathenish and idolatrous people, who lived very profligate and dissolute lives, in all intemperance, luxury, and impiety; and therefore would be punished in a severer way: neither this passage, nor what follows, can be any proof of God's giving sufficient grace to all men alike, which in some is effectual to conversion, and in others not, but of the contrary; since the men of Tyre and Sidon had not the same means, or the same grace, as the inhabitants of the other cities, if the mighty works done among them are to be called so; or that man has a power to repent of himself, in a spiritual and evangelical way; or that outward means, as doctrines and miracles, are sufficient to produce such a repentance, without efficacious and unfrustrable grace; since only an outward repentance is here supposed, such as that of Ahab, and of the Ninevites.

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