Galilee, Sea Of

VIEW:36 DATA:01-04-2020

GALILEE, SEA OF
1. Situation, etc.?The Sea of Galilee is an expansion of the Jordan, 13 miles long, about 8 miles in maximum breadth; its surface is 680 feet below that of the Mediterranean; its maximum depth is about 150 feet. In shape it is like a pear, the narrow end pointing southward. Like the Dead Sea, it is set deep among hills, which rise on the east side to a height of about 2000 feet. At the emergence of the Jordan, however, the Lake impinges on the plain of the Gh?r.
2. Names.?The original name of the Sea seems to have been Chinnereth or Chinneroth, which a hazardous etymology connects with the Heb. kinn?r, ?harp.? The name is supposed to be given to the Sea on account of its fancied resemblance to such an instrument. It more probably takes its name from an as yet unrecognized town or district in Naphtali (which bordered the Lake on the west side) referred to in Jos_11:2; Jos_19:35, 1Ki_15:20. By this name it is referred to in assigning the border of the Promised Land (Num_34:11), in stating the boundary of the trans-Jordanic tribes (Deu_3:12, Jos_13:27), and in enumerating the kings conquered by Joshua (Jos_12:3). The Lake is referred to also by the name Gennesar in Josephus (always), and in 1Ma_11:67 (AV). This name also is of uncertain origin; strong grounds exist for questioning its derivation as a corruption of the earlier appellation. In the Gospels it is referred to under a variety of names: besides such general terms as ?the lake? (Luk_8:22 etc.), or ?the sea? (Joh_6:16), we find Lake of Gennesaret (only in Luk_5:1), Sea of Tiberias (Joh_21:1, and also as an explanatory or alternative name in Joh_6:1), but most frequently Sea of Galilee, which seems to have been the normal name. The modern name is Bahr Tubar?ya, which is often rendered in English as ?Lake of Tiberias,? by which name the Sea is now frequently described (as in Baedeker?s Syria and Palestine).
3. Importance in NT Times.?The Sea in the time of Christ was surrounded by a number of important cities, each of them the centre of a cultured population. Such were Tiberias, Bethsaida, Capernaum, Chorazin, Magdala, and others. The fishing industry was extensive, and where now but a few small boats are to be seen, there evidently were formerly large fleets of fishing vessels. The fishing trade of Galilee was of great importance, and was renowned throughout the world. Owing to the great height of the mountains surrounding the Lake, differences of temperature are produced which give rise to sudden and violent storms. Two such storms are mentioned in the Gospels?one in Mat_8:23, Mar_4:36, Luk_8:22, the other in Mat_14:22, Mar_6:46, Joh_6:16. The repetition of the event within the narrow historical limits of the Gospels indicates that such tempests, then as now, were matters of frequent occurrence.
R. A. S. Macalister.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

(Mat_4:18; Mar_7:31; Joh_6:1). So called from its washing the E. side of Galilee. In Luk_5:1 "the sea of Gennesaret," called so from the fertile plain of Gennesurer at its N.W. angle, three and a half miles long by two and a half broad (Mat_14:34). In Old Testament "the sea of Chinnereth" or Cinneroth, from the town so named on its shore (Jos_19:35), of which Gennesaret is probably the corruption, though others derive it from gannah, a "garden," and Sarown, a plain between Tabor and the lake. "The sea of Tiberias" is another designation, from the city (Joh_6:1). All its names were drawn from places on the western side. Now Bahr Tubariyeh (Tiberius, S.W. of the lake). Close to it was "His own city" Capernaum (Mat_4:13). Nine cities stood on the shores of the lake, of which only two are now inhabited, namely, Magdala, consisting of a few mud huts, and Tiberias, sadly changed from its ancient prosperity.
Silence now reigns where formerly the din of industry was heard. On its shore Jesus called His first disciples (Mat_4:18; Mat_9:9; Luk_5:1-11; Joh_1:43, etc.). The bed of the lake is but a lower section of the great Jordan valley. Its depression is 653 ft. below the level of the Mediterranean, according to Lt. Lynch. Its length is about 13 miles, its breadth is about five or six. The view from the Nazareth road to Tiberias is beautiful. The hills from the eastern side rise apparently out of the water with a uniform slope, to the height of 2,000 ft., destitute of verdure, and shut in the lake; while far to the N. is seen snowy Hermon. The eastern hills, which are flat along the summit, are the wall that supports the table land of Bashan; from which on the N. there is a gradual descent to the valley of the Jordan, and then a rise to a plateau skirting the mountains of upper Galilee.
The hills on the W., except at Khan Minyeh, where there is a small cliff, are recessed from the shore. On a western recess stands Tiberias. The whole basin betrays its volcanic origin, which also accounts for the warm spring at Tiberius The cliffs are hard porous basalt. The vegetation is tropical; the lotus thorn, palms, indigo, etc. The water is sweet, sparkling and transparent; the fish abundant as of old, many species being those of the Nile, the silurus, mugil, and sparers Galiloeus. Dr. Tristram says: "the shoals of fish Were marvelous, black masses of many hundred yards long, with the black fins projecting out of the water, as thickly as they could pack. There are the European loach, bethel, blenny and cyprinodont; the African chromis, hemichromis, and eellike clarias; and the Asiatic discognathus. The cyprinodonts are viviparous, and the sexual differences marked; they can live in cold water, or hot springs up to 90?, fresh, brackish, or briny water.
This marks a former connection between these waters and those of N.E. and S.E. Africa, the Nile, the Zambesi, and the great lakes in the interior. The papyrus also, no longer found in the Nile, is found on the shores of the sea of Galilee. As Asia, Africa, and Europe respectively were represented at Christ's cross by the Jews, Simon of Cyrene, and the Romans respectively, so the Asiatic, African, and European fish in the sea of Galilee represent the various races of mankind gathered by the spiritual fishermen into the one gospel net. Only one little boat represents the fleets of fishing vessels that once covered the lake. The fish are now taken with a hand net jerked round the fish by the fisher, usually naked, along the shore (Joh_21:7); or else crumbs of bread mixed with bichloride of mercury are scattered to poison the fish, and the floating dead bodies are picked up for the Tiberias market (Porter, Handbook, p. 432).
Sudden and violent storms agitate the waters, sweeping down the ravines and gorges converging to the head of the lake, from the vast naked plateau of the Jaulan and the Hauran and mount Hermon in the background. It was such a storm that Jesus stilled by a word, as He had a few hours before rebuked and cast out demons. Mar_4:39, "Peace, be still," Greek "Be silent, be muzzled"; addressing the sea and warring elements as rebel forces; compare Rev_21:1.
The apostles were trying to reach Bethsaida on the western coast, when the gale from. the S.W. that brought vessels from Tiberias to the N.E. coast (Joh_6:23) delayed the vessel of the former, until at the fourth watch Jesus came walking over the tempest tossed waves; then followed Peter's temporary walking through faith and sinking through unbelief in the same waters, and his rescue by Jesus; then they immediately reach their desired haven for which they had set out the evening before (Mat_14:28-29; Mat_14:33; Joh_6:17; Joh_6:21; Mar_6:45).
So impressed were the disciples that "they worshipped Him, saying, Of a truth Thou art the Son of God." Bethsaida Julias, the city of Andrew and Peter, lay on the E. bank of the Jordan where it enters the sea of Galilee on the N. Close by, and on the E. of the river and N.E. of the lake, stretched the "green grass" (Mar_6:39) plain of Batihah, the scene of feeding the 5,000. Gergesa (now Kersa) lay E. of the lake. The Jordan's outlet is at Kerak, the S.W. extremity of the lake. The lake, mirroring heaven in its union of rest and energy, represents Him who best combined the calm repose which reflected His Father's image with energetic labors for God and man.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Gal'ilee, Sea of. So called from the province of Galilee, which bordered on the western side. Mat_4:18. It was also called the "Sea of Tiberias", from the celebrated city of that name. Joh_6:1. At its northwestern angle was a beautiful and fertile plain called "Gennesaret," and from that it derived the name of "Lake of Gennesaret". Luk_5:1. It was called, in the Old Testament, "the Sea of Chinnereth" or "the Sea of Cinneroth", Num_34:11; Jos_12:3, from a town of that name which stood on or near its shore. Jos_19:35. Its modern name is Bahr Tubariyeh.
Most of our Lord's public life was spent in the environs of this sea. The surrounding region was, then, the most densely peopled in all Palestine. No less than nine very populous cities stood on the very shores of the lake. The Sea of Galilee is of an oval long and six broad. It is 60 miles northeast of Jerusalem and 27 east of the Mediterranean Sea. The river Jordan enters it at its northern end and passes out at its southern end. In fact the bed of the lake is just a lower section of the Great Jordan valley.
Its more remarkable feature is its deep depression, being no less than 700 feet below the level of the ocean. The scenery is bleak and monotonous, being surrounded by a high and almost unbroken wall of hills, on account of which it is exposed to frequent sudden and violent storms. The great depression makes the climate of the shores almost tropical. This is very sensibly felt by the traveller in going down from the plains of Galilee.
In summer, the heat is intense, and even in early spring, the air has something of an Egyptian balminess. The water of the lake is sweet, cool and transparent; and as the beach is everywhere pebbly is has a beautiful sparkling look. It abounds in fish now, as in ancient times. There were large fisheries on the lake, and much commerce was carried on upon it.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

Sea of Galilee [SEA]
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

Galilee, Sea Of
(ἡ θάλασσα ηῆς Γαλιλαίας, Mat_4:18; Mat_15:29; Mar_1:16; Mar_7:31; Joh_6:1), called also the Sea of Tiberias (Joh_6:1; Joh_21:1; hence its modern name Bahr el-Tubarigeh), the Lake (λίμνη) of Gennesaret (Luk_5:1), or emphatically the Sea (ἡ θάλασσα simply, Mat_4:15); in the O.T. rarely alluded to (Num_34:11; Jos_12:3; Jos_13:27) as the Sea of Cinnereth or Cinneroth (q.v.). It is the second of the three lakes into which the Jordan flows (Tacitus, Hist. 5:6). This sheet of water is particularly described by Pliny and Josephus. The former says, "The Jordan discharges itself into a lake, by many writers known as Genesera, 16 miles long and 6 wide, which is skirted by the pleasant towns Julias and Hippo on the east, of Tarichene on the south (a name which is by many persons given to the lake itself), and of Tiberias on the west" (Jos_5:15). Josephus refers to other features. " The Lake of Gennesareth derives its appellation from the adjacent district. It is 40 furlongs (five Roman miles) broad, by 140 (17l miles) long. Its waters are sweet, and extremely pleasant to drink, as they flow in a clearer stream than the muddy collections of marshes, anti they can be drawn free from impurities, beginning throughout confined by abrupt and sandy shores. They are of a muedium temperature, milder than those of the river or the fountain, yet uniformly colder than, might be expected from the expanse of the lake. The kinds of fish found here differ from those elsewhere met with" (War, 3:10, 7). Both these are so near the truth that they could scarcely have been mere estimates. Its extreme length is 124 geographical miles, and its breadth 6; equal to about 16 by 74 Roman miles. It is of an oval shape, or rather the form of an egg, with the large end to the north. The Sea of Galilee has none of those picturesque or sublime features for which the lakes of Italy and Switzerland are justly celebrated; it has not even the stern grandeur of the Dead Sea. The shores are singularly uniform. There are no hold cliffs jutting far out into deep water; there are no winding bays running away inland. The bed of the sea is like a huge basin. Along its eastern and western sides the banks rise steep, bare, and rugged, to the height of nearly 2000 feet; and their tops, especially those on the east, are as level as a wall. At the north and south ends, where the Jordan enters and passes out, there are wide openings, through which views are gained up and down the valley. Yet nature has not left this scene altogether destitute of ornament. The scenery is not quite so dreary, nor are the hues of the landscape so dead and sombre as Dr. Traill would have us imagine (Traill's Josephus, 2, page 106). True, when the sun is high and the sky cloudless, and when the pilgrim looks down from the top of the mountains, there is a dreariness in the landscape, and a uniformity of cold gray color, which wearies the eye; but let him go down to the shore and wait till the sun declines, and he will be enchanted with the deep ethereal blue of the smooth water, and the tints, "rose-colored, pearl-gray, and purple, blended together," and thrown in soft shades over the sides of the encircling hills. The pale blue cone of Hermon, with its glittering crown of snow, forms a glorious background (Van de Velde, 2:388; Robinson, 2:380 sq.; Stanley, Palestine, page 362; Porter, Handbook, page 418).
Round the whole shore, with only one or two short interruptions, there is a broad strand of white pebbles, mixed with little shells. The Jordan enters at the extreme northern end of the lake, and leaves again at the southern. In fact, the bed of the lake is just a lower section of the great Jordan valley. The utter loneliness and absolute stillness of the scene are exceedingly impressive. It seems as if all nature had gone to rest, languishing under that scorching heat. How different it was in the days of our Lord! Then all was life and bustle along the shores; the cities and villages that thickly studded them resounded with the hum of a busy population, while from hill-side and cornfield come the cheerfully of shepherd and plowman. The lake, too, was dotted with dark fishing-boats, and spangled with white sails. Now, a mournful and solitary silence reigns alike over sea and shore. The cities are in ruins. Capernaum, Chorazin, the two (?) Bethsaidas, Hippo, Gamala, and Taricheae, are completely deserted. Tiberias and Magdala are the only inhabited spots; and for several miles inland in every direction the country looks waste and desolate. The inhabitants — merchants, fishermen, and peasants — are nearly all gone. The few that remain in the shattered houses of Tiberias, and the mud hovels of Magdala, and the black tents of the wandering Bedouin, seem worn and wasted by poverty and sickness. In 1858 the Sea of Galilee could just boast of one small boat, and it was so rotten and leaky as not to be seaworthy. The fish, however, are as abundant as ever; for though only little handnets are used, a considerable sum is paid to the government for the privilege of fishing (Burckhardt, Travis in Syria, page 332; Robinson, 2:386). It was observed by Hasselquist that some of the same species of fish are found in the Sea of Galilee as in the Nile (Travels, page 158); the same fact had been noted by Josephus (War, 3:10, 8). The kinds referred to are Cyprinus Benni, Silurus, Mormyrus, etc. (See Wilson's Lands of the Bible, 2:113; Robinson, 2:386). Two modes are now employed to catch the fish. One is a hand-net, with which a man, usually naked (Joh_21:7), stalks along the shore, and, watching his opportunity, throws it round the game with a jerk. The other mode is still more curious. Bread-crumbs are mixed up with bichlorid of mercury, and sown over the water; the fish swallow the poison and die. The dead bodies float, are picked up, and taken to the market of Tiberias! (Porter, Handbook, page 432.) The water of the lake is sweet, cool, and transparent; and as the beach is everywhere pebbly, it has a beautiful sparkling look. This fact is somewhat strange, when we consider that it is exposed to the powerful rays of the sun, that many warm and brackish springs flow into it, and that it is supplied by the Jordan which rushes into its northern end, a turbid, ruddy torrent.
The most remarkable fact in the physical geography of the Sea of Galilee is its great depression. The results of barometrical observations have varied between 845 feet and 666 feet, but according to the trigonometrical survey of Lieut. Symonds, R.E., in 1841, its depression is only 328 feet. In this Van de Velde thinks there must have been some mistake, and he adheres to the figures of Lieut. Lynch, which give 653 feet, as probably the most accurate (Memoir, pages 168, 181). This has a marked effect on the temperature, climate, and natural products. The heat is intense during the summer months. The harvest on the shore is nearly a month earlier than on the neighboring high lands of Galilee and Bashan. Frost is unknown, and snow very rarely falls. The trees, plants, and vegetables are those usually found in Egypt; such as the palm, the lote-tree (Zizyphus lotus), the indigo plant, etc. (Robinson, 2:388; Josephus, War, 3:10, 7 and 8). The surrounding hills are sometimes described as bare and barren, sometimes as green and fertile. In April the tops of the hills are gray and rocky, and destitute of vegetation. Lower down, the grass, which during the winter rains had flourished, is there withering in the sun (Mat_13:6); but in the valleys and ravines, wherever any of the many fountains and streams gushed forth, there is verdure and cultivation (Mat_13:8). Though the whole basin of the lake, and indeed the Jordan valley, is of volcanic origin, as evidenced by the thermal springs and the frequent earthquakes, yet the main formation of the surrounding wall of mountains is limestone. A large number of black stones and boulders of basaltic tufa are scattered along the slopes and upland plains, and dikes of basalt here and there burst through the limestone strata in the neighborhood of Tiberias and along the northern shore. Although the surface of the lake is usually very placid yet travelers (Thomson, Land and Book, 2:332; Hackett, Illustra. of Scripture, page 319) testify to the sudden fury of storms bursting down into this sunken basin through the ravined shore as in the days of our Savior (Luk_8:23; see Michaelis, De tempestate, etc. Hal. 1739; also De sensu spirituali tempestatis, etc., ib. eod.; Duthovius, Divinitas Chr. ex miraculo hoc demonstrata, in the Bibl. Brenz. 1:60-85; 2:484-7). SEE GENNESARETH; SEE SEA

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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