JESUS’S MIRACLES IN THE EVANGELICAL TRIANGLE

MATTHEW 11:20–24

In reading the Gospel accounts, we may get the impression that Jesus’s miracles were dispensed in an arbitrary way across the countryside at random locations, but Matthew 11:20–24 suggests otherwise. In this judgment speech Jesus pronounces woes on Korazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. Although these cities had seen more of Jesus’s miracles than any other location in the Promised Land, they had not received Jesus as the Messiah. When we put those cities on a map, they form a triangle sometimes referred to as the “Evangelical Triangle.” Capernaum (Kefar Nahum) was located along the northern shoreline of the Sea of Galilee. Korazin was situated about an hour and a half walk (approximately two and a half miles) up the hillside above Capernaum. And Bethsaida was near the Jordan River inlet. When we consider the nature of the population in this area and the relationship of this triangle to the International Highway, we will see that Jesus performed the bulk of his miracles in this region for a reason.

We note that Jesus had primarily dedicated his teaching and miracles to those who belonged to the “lost sheep of Israel” (Matt. 10:6; 15:24). While a variety of cultures made their presence felt around the Sea of Galilee in the Gospels, the area defined by the Evangelical Triangle hosted a significant population of observant Jews.15 By doing more miracles in this area than in any other, Jesus was clearly fulfilling his great passion to rescue and heal the “lost sheep of Israel.”

But the Kingdom of God was not restricted to those “lost sheep.” His focus on teaching along the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee reveals a larger strategy behind the sites of the majority of his miracles. To see that strategy at work, we need to draw a line between each of the three cities mentioned in these verses in order to form a triangle.16 When we add the International Highway to that drawing, we find that this roadway passes adjacent to our triangle. For travelers of the ancient world, Israel was a land bridge that allowed passage between the trackless desert to the east and the forbidding waves of the Mediterranean Sea to the west. The International Highway that connected the people of Asia, Africa, and Europe passed directly through the Promised Land and near Korazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. People from countless nations and families passed through this region. As they did, news about God’s Kingdom through Jesus’s teachings and miracles traveled with them. Those exposed to the Good News in the Evangelical Triangle would then return via that road system to the far-flung nations of the world so that those who never set foot in the Promised Land might learn about God’s Anointed and his plan of rescue and restoration.

Plain of Magdala (view looking northeast).

The site of Bethsaida Julias in Gaulanitis (view looking southeast).

Jesus’s miracles occurred in the Evangelical Triangle for a reason. A casual reading of the Gospels might suggest that Jesus’s miracles were randomly scattered across the countryside. But Jesus performed more miracles in the Evangelical Triangle than in any other place both to reach out to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and to reach beyond the bounds of Israel to the Gentiles of the world with the life-giving message that the Rescuer had arrived.

The Evangelical Triangle

Reconstructed village of second-century Korazin (view looking northwest).