Caesarea Philippi

Caesarea Philippi was a city at the foot of Mount Hermon, near the principal source of the Jordan River, in the northernmost region of Palestine. Originally called Paneas (after the Greek god Pan, whose grotto and spring were there), it was rebuilt and renamed by the tetrarch Philip — son of Herod the Great — in honor of the Emperor Augustus and himself, to distinguish it from Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast. It appears in the New Testament only in connection with Peter's confession: Jesus led his disciples to "the region of Caesarea Philippi" and there asked who people said he was, eliciting Peter's declaration, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:13–16; Mark 8:27–29). The remote location, far from Galilee and Jewish religious centers, may have provided a deliberate setting for this pivotal moment. The city later passed to Agrippa II, who renamed it Neronias in honor of Nero, but the name Paneas has survived as modern Banias.