Caesarea Maritima, developed by Herod the Great, is a testimony to incredible architecture and innovation. Forty miles north of Tel Aviv, near the coast, he created a mini-Rome, complete with an amphitheatre, a hippodrome and a harbour. Yet for all the luxury of this location, Peter and Paul, arriving with the good news of Jesus, brought what the people really needed – hope and meaning. Here, the gospel trumped Roman culture.
Festus … went to Caesarea. On the next day he sat down in the judgment court and ordered Paul to be brought in. Acts 25.6
In Jesus’ day there were two places called Caesarea: Caesarea Philippi, located in what is now the Golan Heights, where Peter declared Jesus to be the Messiah, and Caesarea Maritima on the Mediterranean coast.
Herod the Great renamed what had previously been a Phoenician settlement Caesarea Maritima, in honour of the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus. One of the largest harbours in antiquity was constructed for Herod’s battleships, as well as an aqueduct to supply the city with fresh water. A royal palace, temples, theatre, hippodrome and bathhouses followed. Caesarea had turned into the splendid capital of Judea.
To Christians it has more spiritual than worldly significance. Three apostles are linked with the city: Philip headed there after leading the treasurer of the Queen of Ethiopia to faith, Peter baptised the first Roman Christian in Caesarea, and Paul was imprisoned there, standing trial for his faith.
‘If you are grounded, it can be amazing. If your feet are not planted in something deeper, it can feel like, what the hell is going on?’ (Jonny Wilkinson)
In many ways, he’d ‘made it’. Everything about rugby world cup winner Jonny Wilkinson had led to the moment of sporting glory, so surely life was now ‘nailed’? But Wilkinson was deeply unhappy and barely managed to survive his rugby career.
Jonny Wilkinson is a microcosm of human experience. No matter how much we see, acquire, achieve or experience, we always want more. We live with an itch that, no matter how many times we scratch, won’t go away.
This is why Caesarea is such a fascinating place – with some of the best Roman culture had to offer, but lacking something Christianity had: real life meaning.
St Augustine famously said, ‘You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.’
Eventually, everything in life is limited and temporary. In Jesus Christ, we find the lasting meaning we all long for.
Read on, to find out more about the significance of Caesarea Maritima for Christians
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