High above the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee lies the ruins of Hippos, or Susita, one of the Decapolis cities. From its commanding ridge, it overlooked the lake and was visible from every Jewish town along the western shore. Hippos’ location may help us understand some of Jesus’ teaching, as well as why it could have been the first city to embrace Christianity.
In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5), Jesus tells His disciples: “You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” Standing on the Galilean hillsides, His audience would have had two powerful visuals. To the west, Magdala, famous for its salted fish industry, offered a picture of “salt of the earth.” To the east, Hippos, perched high above the lake, provided the perfect image of a “city on a hill” shining for all to see. Jesus was grounding His words in the landscape around them. His call was clear: just as salt preserves and flavors, and just as Hippos’ lights pierced the night sky, His followers were to impact the world.
Immediately afterward, the Gospels show Jesus putting this teaching into action. In Mark 5, He crosses the lake into the region near Hippos. There He meets a man tormented by a legion of demons. After healing him, Jesus sends the demons into a herd of swine, which rush down the steep cliffs into the sea—the very terrain beneath Hippos. The man begs to stay with Jesus, but instead is sent out with a mission: “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you” (Mark 5:19). This makes him the first Gentile evangelist. And where would he have gone first? Most likely into Hippos, the closest Decapolis city—the very “city on a hill” Jesus had just spoken about.
The effect was dramatic. Just a short while later, when Jesus returned to the Decapolis in Mark 8, the atmosphere was completely different. Instead of hostility or fear, vast crowds came to hear Him. They brought their sick, their lame, and their hungry. In fact, it was here, in this Gentile region, that Jesus performed the feeding of the 4,000. What explains such a change? The testimony of one man. His story had spread through the whole Decapolis, preparing thousands to receive Jesus with open hearts. What Jesus had taught in Matthew 5 was already coming true: one light shining in the darkness had lit up a whole region.
Archaeology adds weight to this story. Excavations in Hippos have revealed at least seven churches, richly decorated with mosaics and inscriptions. For a city of its size, this concentration is extraordinary and suggests that Hippos became a major Christian hub.
From its hilltop, Hippos could never be hidden. And perhaps that is exactly what Jesus intended. He used it as an illustration of the gospel’s visibility, then immediately demonstrated how the light of one transformed life could illuminate an entire city and region. For this reason, many see Hippos as the first city to become Christian—a living example of what it means to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
