The Gates of Hell

** This teaching was highly influenced by my time spent with Ray VanderLaan and his teaching which can be seen in the "That the World May Know" DVD series.

If Jesus was worried about the disciples not getting out of the boat at Susita, or truly learning the lessons of the last few chapters of Matthew, Jesus puts the disciples in a real pressure cooker in the next story.

Jesus marches the disciples into the region of Caesarea Philippi, and to properly understand the message surrounding the famous passage we often call “Peter’s Great Confession,” we need to do a basic history lesson regarding this place referred to as Caesarea Philippi.

In the ancient world of the Old Testament, this location would have served as a major place of worship for the Assyrian, Canaanite, and Phonecian god of Baal. While the nuances change throughout the ancient world, Baal was seen, almost without exception, as the god of agricultural fertility. Thunder was his voice, lightning was his weapon, and rain was his “gift” to the earth. Water was the common image of Baal. Therefore, wherever the ancient world had a spring or a water source that came from the earth, it was immediately associated with Baal worship.

At this particular location, a major water source flowed out of the rock face; in the ancient world, seven springs were reported to have flowed from this location. It serves as one of three major sources which form the headwaters of the Jordan River. The religious myth went something like this (it is not my desire to be crude, but to explain very clearly the context of this story):

In the winter, everything begins to die. This is because Baal has left this earth to descend into the underworld and pursue his mistress, Ashtoreth (or Asherah, the goddess of sexual fertility). Baal pursues her and she continually teases him to the point of ejaculation. The rainy season is actually Baal’s sperm watering the earth and bringing life to the world around us. In the spring, Baal grows weary of this game and emerges from the underworld and the agriculture springs back to life.

This myth will eventually evolve from Baal worship into Pan worship (the preferred god of the Greeks) and the underworld being Hades (the Greek version of hell). The name of the location will become Panias — or sometimes translated in the Roman world as Banias.

Ruins of the temple to Pan at the "rock" known to the
ancient world as the 'Gates of Hell'

When Herod dies and wills his kingdom to his three sons, this region falls under the rule of Philip in the north. Philip, in an effort to gain the admiration of Caesar, follows in his father’s footsteps and rebuilds the city of Banias, dedicating it to Caesar and attaching his name, calling it Caesarea of Philip (or Caesarea Philippi). Most historians believe it was an effort to build a commercial enterprise out of the annual festival held in honor of the god Pan, called Pandaemonium. This festival included a parade featuring a six-foot erect penis made of gold, which was paraded in the midst of the women who would caress the statue and work themselves into a sexual frenzy. Meanwhile, the men would celebrate the story of Pan by engaging in beastial relations with goats.

The Roman world called this location “the Gates of Hell.”

This is the region of Ceasarea Philippi. It makes the Decapolis look like a children’s playground.

Jesus brings his disciples here, and the following conversation takes place:

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus is incredibly pleased with Peter’s answer. In fact, in reference to an earlier conversation we’ve had, Jesus claims Peter has received sod (more on this in the next post). He also includes another detail in his exclamation:

And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Now, if I’m reading this passage correctly in context, Jesus is following that brilliant rabbinic principle of never teaching about something you cannot point at. We have for centuries argued about what the rock is that Jesus will build his church on. The Catholics have argued that the rock is Peter himself; I think there is some truth to that — Peter will be the leader of the Christian movement. Protestants have argued that the rock is the truth of Peter’s confession; obviously, I think there is plenty of truth to that, as well.

But both of these answers ignores the cultural setting of Caesarea Philippi. Jesus is saying, “Listen guys! I’m building my church and I’m bringing the Kingdom of God RIGHT HERE! I’m going to bring shalom to the most incredible chaos. And the Gates of Hell itself will not be able to prevail against what I’m doing in the world!”

Now, this raises a hundred different observations, but one of the most impactful for me as I’ve studied in this region is that Jesus’s movement in the world is an offensive strategy, not a defensive one. I have grown up with a faith that worked hard to play it safe. This message is telling me Jesus is running INTO the chaos with shalom. He’s looking for the places where it’s needed most and he is employing it at the points of crisis.

He trusts in the work of God that much.

He trusts the story.

And he’s wanting to hand us the keys.

A Gospel of Two Kingdoms

Back in the beginning of our study, I argued the narrative God was telling through His Text was “A Tale of Two Kingdoms.” We spent much of our time in the Old Testament showing how these two agendas continued to pop up as the central theme to the story of the people of God. Whether it was their time in the desert, learning how to lead with their voice and not the stick, the tension of living in shephelah, the challenge of living with abundance, or the way that we approached the socio-economic realities of our world, we kept seeing an agenda of empire and an agenda of shalom.

This narrative makes a prominent appearance at the very beginning of the gospel records. There are two birth narratives in the New Testament, one in Matthew and one in Luke; in a very interesting fashion, both of them set the stage for the life of Jesus in a world of contrast.

The gospel of Matthew draws out the deep background of the rule of Herod the Great. It showcases how paranoid Herod was that a future ruler would ever pose a threat to his kingdom.

Depending on how reliable one finds our historical sources (extra-biblical as well as biblical), Herod was the richest man ever to walk the face of the planet. If history is correct, there would not be even a close second; Bill Gates would mow Herod’s lawn. One of my teachers taught me that Herod’s income came in at well over a hundred times the national GDP of his country (don’t ask me how the math is done on those numbers, but just imagine even a fraction of that being true).

In Israel, everywhere you go you can see signs of the impact that Herod had on the world. Herod desired to be the greatest man who ever lived. He took this pursuit very seriously and did everything so wildly over-the-top that to this day, we are not sure how he and his architects did what they did at that point in history. The list is quite staggering. Whether the stones that we still find on the Temple mount (we’re talking about the sheer size of the stones, the perfection of the construction, the magnitude of the project), the underwater harbor poured in the self-built city of Caesarea, the construction and opulence of the famous fortress of Masada — even a cursory study of one of these sites would impress any student.

Yet, the King of the Universe wraps Himself in flesh and is born in a stable in Bethlehem, which isn’t just the backwater town of Joseph and his family. Bethlehem also happens to be the location for one of Herod’s three great palaces, the Herodium. Herod built an entire palace on top of a mountain that he had constructed.

Yes, I said that Herod built a mountain.

The ruins of the Herodium

And to steal a phrase from my teacher, Ray Vander Laan, the subversive nature of God’s plan is that He will send His son to be born in the shadow of the palace of the “greatest” man to walk on Roman soil. There are two kingdoms that are being put on display in Matthew’s gospel.

One king is the richest man ever to live. He constructs incredible buildings that stagger the mind and accomplishes incredible feats of human engineering. His ingenuity and wealth are second to none. He builds mountains where there aren’t any, pipes in water to places that it could never previously reach, and corners the market on beauty and innovation. He is the most powerful human being that the world has ever seen. His life is decorated with silver, gold, and the richest of fare.

The other king is born to a poverty-stricken, rejected family from the rural town of Nazareth. He is born in sheep crap surrounded by the ash of shepherd’s fire and the feces of cattle. His birth is announced to the marginalized of society and his advent is celebrated by shepherds.

One king is the leader of Empire. The other is the king of Shalom.


Luke’s gospel seeks to accomplish a similar juxtaposition. With a very brief phrase, Luke sets his audience on alert:

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.

And in those five words, Luke says more than we probably realize. These words are chosen deliberately by Luke. It should be noted that in no historical setting can Quirinius be the governor of Syria during the birth of Jesus. I have watched some biblical literalists do incredible gymnastics to try to explain how this is accurate; however, in no possible scenario is Jesus born during the census of Quirinius. We do not have record of a census taken by Augustus for those details, either, so this could be a marginal addition by somebody trying to make sense of the story, or Luke may be trying to make a statement that we are missing context for, or we may not have all the pieces of history yet. Regardless, it’s worth noting that something is taking place there.

At any rate, Luke is trying to set his own stage for his own narrative about the tale of two kingdoms. His version of the Christmas story puts us in the juxtaposition between two other kings.

One king thought himself to be god incarnate. The son of an ascended Julius Caesar, Augustus claimed that a mighty star in the sky (apparently seen by many), referenced today as “Caesar’s Comet,” was actually his father Julius ascending to his rightful throne as god. If Julius was god, then that would make Augustus the son of god. From this point in Roman history, emperors would — almost without exception — claim incarnate deity among their many attributes. Augustus was exclaimed by Roman propaganda (we already looked at the “gospel” plague found in Priene) to be “the Son of the Most High,” the “eternal Prince of Peace,” the “King of kings,” the “Lord of lords,” etc. It was often proclaimed that there was no other name under heaven which a man could be saved from terror except that of Caesar Augustus.

And yet in a stable is born a baby, who Luke claims to be the true King of kings, Lord of lords, Prince of Peace, and Son of the Most High God.

One king plays the part well. The other king challenges everything we expect of the Ruler of the Universe.

It’s a Tale of Two Kingdoms. And we’re being invited to consider our deepest assumptions about the world. What is real power? What is wealth? Where does security come from? Who is God? What is God trying to save me from?

What do I really want and what do I strive for? Empire? Or shalom?

Would I have even noticed the King of the Universe, born in a stable, or would I simply look for a better Caesar? Is this a problem?

Who is truly King?