Sea
Sea of Galilee
SEE uv GAL-ih-lee · Modern Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret), Israel · Also called Lake Gennesaret, Sea of Tiberias, Lake Kinneret
Sea of Galilee is a sea of the biblical world.
What is known
- Setting of numerous Gospel miracles: calming the storm, walking on water, the miraculous catch of fish, and (nearby) the feeding of the 5,000
- A freshwater lake roughly 13 miles long and 8 miles wide, fed and drained by the Jordan River
History
- Population
- Estimated 15,000–25,000 residents combined across the ring of fishing towns on its shore — Tiberias (~10,000), Magdala (~2,000–4,000), Capernaum (~1,000–1,500), and Bethsaida (~1,000–3,000)
- Industry
- A major fishing industry — the livelihood of Peter, Andrew, James, and John — with fish-salting and export trade
- Coordinates
- 32.8062° N, 35.5892° E
Rulers and powers
- Herod Antipas (founded Tiberias on its shore c. AD 20) — 4 BC – AD 39
Archaeology
In 1986, a drop in the Sea of Galilee's water level exposed the hull of a 1st-century fishing boat (the "Jesus Boat"), radiocarbon- and pottery-dated to roughly 50 BC–AD 50, giving a real example of the wooden vessels used by Galilean fishermen. At Magdala, on the lake's western shore, excavations beginning in 2009 uncovered a 1st-century synagogue with the carved "Magdala Stone," the earliest known depiction of the Jerusalem Temple menorah — physical evidence of the kind of synagogue setting described throughout the Gospels' accounts of Jesus's Galilean ministry.
Scripture references
- Matthew 4:18
- Matthew 8:24-27 — Jesus calms the storm
- Matthew 14:25 — Jesus walks on water
- Mark 4:39
- Luke 5:1-11 — Miraculous catch of fish
- John 6:1
- John 21:1-14
On a modern map
Further reading
Reflect
Storms rise fast on this lake, and Jesus slept through one — what storm are you in that could use his kind of calm?
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