Pella

One of the ten cities that gave its name to the Decapolis, Pella is not mentioned in the Bible but has gained a notable place in Church history as the city to which the Christians of Jerusalem fled to escape the impending siege of Jerusalem during the First Jewish Revolt.

Pella—located about 5km east of the Jordan and 32km south of the Sea of Galilee—was, like so many of the ten cities of the Decapolis, founded by Greek settlers who came east with Alexander the Great. More clearly than the other cities it retained and was extremely proud of its Greek heritage, taking the name of the original and renounced city in Greece; legends credit its founding to Alexander himself. Things did not seem to have gone well for Pella in its first century but it grew but was badly razed by the Hasmonean prince Alexander Jannaeus in about 83 BC. The city revived, is only among ruins, but received a fresh beginning when Pompey captured and reorganized the region into the Decapolis about 64 BC. Most of the Christians who fled Jerusalem would have been Hellenist who would have felt comfortable in Pella; from then on the Christian faith was established in the city, effectively enough to raise up the apologist Aristo in the 2nd Cent AD. Little is known of its subsequent history. Muslim forces took it in 635. It was badly damaged in the earthquake of 717. Another massive earthquake in 747 reduced it to the ruins from which it never revived.

Further Reading & Resources:

P.H.R. van Houwelingen, "Fleeing forward: the departure of Christians from Jerusalem to Pella," Westminster Theological Journal 65.2 (Fall 2003): 181-200.