Self Intro

26,363 views Streamed live on Sep 29, 2026 CENTRE PLACE

Why are there so many strange geographical references in the gospels? The pigs of the Gerasenes rushed into the lake... but Gerasa was roughly 50 km away. To go from Tyre to the Sea of Galilee, Jesus goes north through Sidon on a huge unexplained detour. And while approaching Jerusalem, Jesus reappears near Galilee, where he was many chapters earlier. What do the gospels tell us about the geographical knowledge of each author? Do inaccurate place names, implausible routes, and geographical inconsistencies reflect ignorance, theological purposes, or both? How did ancient readers try to work around these problems? Most of Jesus’ ministry as described in the gospels took place in the 30s AD in Galilee and in Jerusalem and its vicinity in Judea. The canonical gospels were composed generations later by anonymous Greek-speaking Christians who were not eyewitnesses to the events they narrated. In this live lecture, John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place analyzes the towns, regions, landscapes, and other locations mentioned in Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, Thomas, and the hypothetical sayings gospel Q, to consider how knowledgeable their authors were about the geographical setting of their texts. Join the livestream to participate in the discussion and to ask questions of our lecturer during the Q&A. This lecture is part of our series exploring Christianity and the Bible from an academic perspective through history, mythology, archaeology, theology, and biblical studies. In this presentation we focus on the geographies of the gospels. 📚 Browse our catalogue of free lectures at https://www.centreplace.ca/lectures Your generous support allows us to offer these lectures at no cost. Please consider making a donation (tax deductible in the US and Canada): ❤️ https://www.centreplace.ca/donate ️