As already remarked, _Kerazeh_ (Chorazin), north-west of _Tell Hum_, has sometimes been confounded with _Khersa_, which was on the eastern side of the lake. Khersa is Gergesa, where Christ was met by the two demoniacs coming out of the tombs (Matt. ix. 1). It is situated on the left bank of _Wady Semakh_, and at the point where the hills end and the plain stretches out towards the lake. Sir C. Wilson is of opinion that there is only one spot where the herd of swine could have run down a steep place into the lake. It is a place about a mile south of Khersa, where the hills, which everywhere else on the eastern side are recessed from a half to three-quarters of a mile from the water’s edge, approach within 40 feet of it, and _there_ do not end abruptly but descend in a steep, even slope. Some time after Sir C. Wilson’s survey, the eastern coast was carefully examined by Mr Macgregor in his canoe, and he came to exactly the same conclusion.
A difficulty has arisen with regard to this locality in consequence of the different readings in the three Gospels. In Matthew Christ is said to have come into the country of the Gergesenes; in Luke and John into that of the Gadarenes. The old MSS. do not give any assistance here, but the similarity of the name Khersa to that of Gergesa is, as Dr Thomson points out, in “the Land and the Book,” a strong reason for believing that the reading of Matthew is correct; and we have also the testimony of Eusebius and Origen that a village called Gergesa once existed on the borders of the lake. Perhaps the discrepancy may be explained by supposing that Gergesa was under the jurisdiction of Gadara. Gadara itself, now _Umm Keis_, is a good two hours’ distance from the lake, else here we find rock-hewn tombs which are actually occupied by fellahin, while there do not appear to be any such at Khersa. To meet the difficulty which might be felt from the absence of tombs at Khersa, Sir C. Wilson has suggested that the demoniacs may have lived in a tomb built above ground, like one still existing at _Tell Hum_, a rectangular building, capable of holding a large number of bodies, and which appears to have been whitewashed within and without. It is possibly this description of tomb to which our Lord refers in Matt. xxiii. 27, where he compares the Scribes and Pharisees to “whited sepulchres,” beautiful in outward appearance, but within “full of dead men’s bones.”