Tyre and Sidon are Gentile cities next to the Mediterranean Sea. Sidon is about thirty-five kilometres north of Tyre. The Sea of Galilee is southeast of Tyre and Sidon, and the Decapolis region is southeast of the Sea of Galilee, east of the Jordan River. These regions are in modern-day Lebanon and Syria.
Tyre and Sidon were under the reign of Herod Antipas, while the area east of the Sea of Galilee fell under the rulership of his brother Phillip.1 Both were sons of Herod the Great. Jesus was in disfavour with Antipas, because Antipas, who beheaded John the Baptist, believed that Jesus was John who came back from the dead.2 This might be part of the reason that Jesus left Antipas’ region.
Decapolis means ten cities
in Greek. Though there might have been a few small Jewish communities, it was mostly Gentile country.
31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.