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GALILEE, SEA OF

A freshwater lake in northern Palestine, part of the Jordan River system. The name Chinnereth or Chinneroth (Heb. yām kinnereṯ and variants kinnerôṯ, kinĕrôṯ) is derived from Heb. kinnôr, “harp,” which describes the shape of the lake (Num. 34:11; Deut. 3:17; Josh. 12:3; 13:27). It was later known as Gennesaret (Luke 5:1; 1 Macc. 11:67; Josephus Ant. 18.2; BJ 3.462, 515-16), Tiberiados (Josephus BJ 3.57; 4.456), and the Sea of Tiberias (John 6:1; 21:1). Gennesaret, or Gennesareth (Pliny Nat. hist. 5.15.71), was also the name of a town and a plain above the northwest shore. The name Tiberias comes from the town at the southwest shore named after the Roman emperor (modern Arab. Tabariyeh). Warm springs are located just outside Tiberias, and people would come there for the medicinal properties of the springs. Other towns around the sea were Capernaum to the northwest and Bethsaida to the north.

The lake is 14.5 km. (9 mi.) long and 8 km. (5 mi.) wide and rests in a basin formed by a geological fault. The surface of the lake is between 208.5 m. (684 ft.) and 213 m. (700 ft.) below sea level, depending on the season. The deepest point in the lake is 254 m. (833 ft.) below sea level.

Some 25 species of fish are found in the lake, and the NT includes frequent references to fishing, the size of nets and catches, and boats. Cured fish from Gennesaret were sent as far away as Rome during the 1st century. Josephus (BJ 3.520-21) mentions the common view of an underground connection with the Nile River because both the Sea of Galilee and the Nile were home to coracine, a type of black eel.

In 1986 a boat dating to the 1st century was recovered from the bottom of the lake off the northwest shore near Magdala. It provided an example of the kind of fishing craft used in the sea in biblical times.

Bibliography. N. Glueck, The River Jordan (1946, repr. New York, 1968); E. W. G. Masterman, “The Fisheries of Galilee,” PEQ 40 (1908): 40-51; S. Wachsmann, “The Galilee Boat,” BARev 14/5 (1988): 18-33.

Lawrence A. Sinclair

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

GALILEE, SEA OF

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)