🔼The name Decapolis: Summary
- Meaning
- Ten Town
- Etymology
- From (1) the cardinal number δεκα (deka), ten, and (2) πολις (polis), city.
🔼The name Decapolis in the Bible
The name Decapolis belonged to a region almost exclusively east of the Jordan, so technically not part of the Roman province of Judea or even of Israel. It consisted of a, what seems, arbitrary cluster of cities, which included Gerasa (possibly connected to the land of the Gerasenes, mentioned in Mark 5:1 and Luke 8:26), Gadara (possibly connected to the land of the Gadarenes, mentioned in Matthew 8:28), Scythopolis (probably the same as the Biblical Beth-shean, which was the only one west of the Jordan), Philadelphia and possibly Damascus, the capital of Syria.
How many proper urban centers there actually were in Decapolis isn't clear. Several contemporary ancient historians such as Pliny the Elder, Josephus and some others list up to nineteen different names, but, for instance, Pliny lists Damascus while Josephus doesn't (for more on Josephus, see our article on Dalmanutha).
What is clear, however, is that Decapolis was notorious for its blending of Semitic and Greco-Roman cultures, even to the extent that diffusion and assimilation on both sides formed a recognizable Decapolitan sub-culture. The cities were autonomous, insofar that word applied to a Rome-ruled existence, but enjoyed a blooming trade among each other and neighboring societies.
The name Decapolis occurs three times in the Bible. The gospel of Matthew mentions that in his early ministry, Jesus attracted people from Galilee, Decapolis, Jerusalem and Judea (Matthew 4:25). These four names provide quite some geographical overlap, and it seems plausible that Matthew meant to say that people from four major and differing schools of thought found themselves interested in Jesus.
All three synoptic gospels mention the story of the man named Legion (by Matthew portrayed as two unnamed men), whose exorcism is also a cunning commentary on the goings on of the times (Matthew 8:28-34, Mark 5:1-20, Luke 8:26-40; see our article on the name Legion for more details). Only Mark adds that the man formerly known as Legion began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him (Mark 5:20). Mark is also the only one who reports that Jesus went from Tyre to Sidon to the Sea of Galilee and into Decapolis, where he healed a deaf-mute man (Mark 7:31).
🔼Etymology of the name Decapolis
The name Decapolis consists of two elements. The first part is the common cardinal number δεκα (deka), meaning ten:
δεκα
The cardinal number δεκα (deka) means ten but also signifies the whole of a collective (ten commandments, ten camels, ten talents). The ordinal δεκατος (dekatos) means tenth or tithe. The word δεκα (deka) is also part of all words that describe numbers from eleven to nineteen. For instance, δωδεκα (dodeka) means twelve.
The second part of our name is the word πολις (polis), meaning city:
πολις
The noun πολις (polis) means city, i.e. the whole of human economy that goes on in one walled urban nucleus plus its supporting agricultural lands and settlements.
Noun πολιτης (polites) means citizen, which is a person who exists and operates within a so perpetuated community. Hence the verb πολιτευω (politeuo) means to live as or behave like a citizen, to be civilized, to be in tune with others. Noun πολιευμα (politeuma) denotes whatever act can be associated with the verb πολιτευω (politeuo); whatever doings keep the city together. Noun συμπολιτης (sumpolites) means fellow-citizen.
Noun πολιτεια (politeia) denotes citizenship or city-hood, πολιταρχης (politarches) means city ruler or magistrate, κωμοπολις (komopolis) describes a medium-sized but not-walled urban center. and μητροπολις (metropolis) means mother-city.
🔼Decapolis meaning
The name Decapolis means Ten Town. It does not mean Ten Cities, because (a) there were more than ten, and (b) the word for city is singular. The name Decapolis appears to reflect the idea that its cluster of cities together formed a closed unit, which might as well have existed as if behind its collective wall. The word δεκα (deka), in this case, functions somewhat the same as our English word "dozen" would: not so much to indicate a precise arithmetic quantity but rather a bulk-sized collection of roughly twelve elements whose unity is much more definitive than the specific amount of its members.
This figurative use of the number ten is rather common in the Bible: the "ten" commandments aren't specifically ten (which is why there is no consensus on which command is which number), the "ten" camels of Abraham with which Eliezer set off to find a wife for Isaac rather represented all Abraham's estate (Genesis 24:10), and the "ten" northern tribes that formed Israel in contrast to Judah were also not specifically ten because the original twelve had become thirteen through Joseph's sons, while Levi and Simeon were dispersed, and Benjamin was decimated.
But this latter instance of the number ten is rather significant since the initial wedge that would ultimately result in the tribal separation from Judah and therefore the separate exiles and ultimately the vanishing of the "ten" northern tribes, was the request of the tribes of Reuben and Gad (Deuteronomy 32:1-6) and Manasseh (32:33) to be allowed to settle east of the Jordan, in Gilead and environs. That is precisely where Decapolis would later be, which is not a subtle detail. Nobody in the gospels' original audience would have missed that.