Sea of Galilee
A freshwater lake in northern Israel through which the Jordan flows. The towns on its shores, among them Capernaum and Bethsaida, are the setting of most of the Galilean ministry of Jesus.
The lake has several names. The Old Testament calls it the sea of Chinnereth (Numbers 34:11). Mark and Matthew call it the sea of Galilee (Mark 1:16), Luke the lake of Gennesaret, after the district beside it (Luke 5:1), and John the sea of Tiberias, after the city that Herod Antipas built beside it (John 6:1) (Josephus, Antiquities 18.36). Josephus gives its length as 140 stadia and its breadth as 40, praises its fresh water and its fish, and notes that the Jordan runs through the middle of it (Josephus, Jewish War 3.506–508, 515).
The Gospels place on its shores the call of the first disciples, who were fishermen (Mark 1:16–20), and on its waters the stilling of a storm and the night on which the disciples saw Jesus walking on the sea (Mark 4:35–41) (Mark 6:45–52). John’s Gospel sets an appearance of the risen Jesus on its shore (John 21:1). The marker stands at the middle of the lake.
What happened here
- c. AD 28–29, estimated dateJesus Begins His Ministry in Galilee
Mark and Matthew tell how, after John’s arrest, Jesus returns to Galilee, announces that the kingdom of God is at hand, calls four fishermen and makes Capernaum, on the lake, the centre of his teaching and healing.
- c. AD 28–29, estimated dateJesus Appoints the Twelve
From his wider following Jesus chooses twelve men to be with him and to be sent out to preach and heal. Mark, Matthew and Luke list their names from Simon Peter to Judas Iscariot; Acts lists the eleven who remained.
- c. AD 28–29, estimated dateThe Sermon on the Mount
Matthew presents the teaching of Jesus as one long discourse on a hillside in Galilee. It includes the Beatitudes, the command to love enemies, the Lord’s Prayer and the Golden Rule. Luke has a shorter version.
- c. AD 29 or 32, estimated dateThe Feeding of the Five Thousand
In a lonely place by the Sea of Galilee, all four Gospels relate, Jesus feeds a crowd of about five thousand with five loaves and two fish. John adds that the crowd wanted to make him king, and the discourse on the bread of life.
- AD 30 or 33, estimated dateThe Appearances and the Great Commission
The Gospels and Paul report that the risen Jesus appeared to his followers, in Jerusalem, on the road to Emmaus and in Galilee, and sent them to make disciples of all nations. The accounts differ on where and in what order.