February 6 Caesarea

The next day we ventured to Caesarea; caesar’s beach city vacation home

Acts 8:40 “Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.”

The city was built in 25 BC during the days of Herod by the Roman Empire. It turned into a fisherman village and soon became a colossal Roman city.

As mentioned before, it feels amazing and somewhat humbling to stand in a place where so much history has taken place. I love learning about these different cities and how they are relevant to our history today. You see pictures of what it looked like before and compare it to the ruins that remain and are left standing there imagining what it must have been like for people so many years ago. Impactful moments one such as standing in the sand where chariot races once took place.

Ceasarea is a town in north central Isreal. This ancient city was built by Herod the Great about 24-13 BC as a major port. It later became a colossal Roman city.

The apostle Paul was a prisoner here before he was shipped off to Rome. This is the birthplace of the church.

“Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.”- Acts 8:40

We also got to see the Hadrianic aqueduct of Caesarea Maritima, Isreal. Caesarea had no reliable source of fresh water when construction on the city began around 22 BC. King Herod commissioned a raised aqueduct to deliver water from the springs near Shuni. Today you can see part of the Herodian aqueduct from the beach of Caesarea.

For those interested in further history of Ceasarea and the the history in context with the apostle Paul feel free to read below:

Paul stood before Festus in shackles and made an appeal to the Roman governor in Caesarea.

(Acts 25: 4 Festus answered, “Paul is being held at Caesarea, and I myself am going there soon. 5 Let some of your leaders come with me, and if the man has done anything wrong, they can press charges against him there. 6 After spending eight or ten days with them, Festus went down to Caesarea. The next day he convened the court and ordered that Paul be brought before him. 7 When Paul came in, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him. They brought many serious charges against him, but they could not prove them. 8 Then Paul made his defense: “I have done nothing wrong against the Jewish law or against the temple or against Caesar.”

We also saw the high level aqueduct of Caesarea built by Herod the Great, Israel. For more information on the aqueduct you can read about it HERE.