A Note on Tiberias





Tiberias is where we stayed for two nights during our excursions in the Galilee region. On the north-west side of Lake Galilee, Tiberias was established in 20 A.D. by Herod Antipas (Herod the Great's son), and named in honor of Tiberius Caesar. Besides the gorgeous view of the lake and the Golan Heights on the opposite shore, the emperor no doubt picked the spot for its famous mineral springs, which are still in use today.

Mentioned in the New Testament only once (John 6:23), the prominence of the city meant the Sea of Galilee was also known as the Sea of Tiberias (John 6:1; 21:1). It is very close to the region where Jesus carried out much of his ministry.

It's a beautiful city as this shot from our boat ride on the lake shows. From the 2nd-10th centuries, it became the largest Jewish city in the Galilee region, and the most important one for Judaism on many levels. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the Sanhedrin (highest legal body in Judaism) took up residence in Tiberias around 150 A.D. In the Middle Ages, Tiberias was the site of the great Jewish scribal school known as the Massoretes who were scrupulously careful in their copying of the Scriptures and produced the Massoretic Text, which is the foundational text for our modern Old Testament Scriptures. In addition to copying the text with great reverence and care, the scribes standardized Hebrew vowel points (Hebrew orginally was just consonants) and produced the Mishnah (Jewish rabbinal law) and Jerusalem Talmud here.

Sea of Galilee

Day 2 was more gorgeous weather--unusual for January, our guide said. After breakfast we headed down to the lake and boarded a boat. Here's a view last night from our room (I'm sharing with another pastor, named Tom). What has struck me is how incredibly hilly the Galilee region is. Not just little pimple hills, but ones that would put some impressive calf muscles on Jesus and the disciples. Isaiah 53 should be amended to read: "he had no beauty that we should be attracted to him, but he had some pretty serious calf muscles." It has been so cool to see these places Jesus often was and to be able to picture him right there.

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Plugged-In & Ready to Write

It's 8:16 pm in Stoughton and I'm ready for the new day here.

(As I write this at 4:42 am local time I'm at the Sea of Galilee with the door open for a bit of breeze. I just heard a boat engine start up, and the sound of geese honking. Why did I never hear geese honking in all my Sunday School lessons of Jesus by the lake?)

Here's a shot of the moon over the Sea of Galilee, taken from my hotel window in Tiberias. The far shore is the Golan Heights, which Israel took from the Syrians in the 1967 Six Day War.

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