Biblical Context: Sea of Galilee

While the crowd pressed in on him and listened to God’s word, this happened: he was walking by the Sea of Galilee (the Lake of Gennesaret) and saw two boats standing beside the lake, but the fishermen had come out of them and were cleaning their nets. Two of the fishermen he saw were brothers: Simon, who was called Peter, and Simon’s brother Andrew, who was throwing a net into the sea. Going on from there, he saw another pair of brothers: James and his brother John, who were Zebedee’s sons and Simon’s partners, in the boat with their father Zebedee repairing their nets. Then he got into one of the boats (Simon’s) and asked him to go a little out from land. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he told Simon, “Go out into the depths and lower your nets for a catch.”

— The Story of Jesus 5.7 

[adapted from Mt 4:18-22; Mk 1:16-20; Lk 5:1-5]

About 100 km north of Jerusalem lies the largest freshwater lake in Israel. The Sea of Galilee is fed primarily by the Jordan River, but also by underground springs. It was also called the Sea of Gennesaret (by Jews) and the Sea of Tiberias (by Romans). Its elevation is well below sea level (220 meters), surrounded by steep hills rising into the fertile mountains of the Golan heights. These sharp changes in elevations made for strong winds that could quickly stir up storms on the water. Yet despite the steep slopes and unpredictable weather, cities flourished on its shore. 

On the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee was the Galilean town of Gennesaret, also called Kinnereth or Chinnereth. The surrounding land had rich, fertile soil in a plain extend­ing from the sea. Although it was previously a fortified city in the region of Naphtali, remains of Gennesaret haven’t survived to this day. 

Tiberias, on the other hand, was a wealthy city just south of Gennesaret that still has both ancient ruins and modern inhab­itants. Tradition holds that it was originally the Hebrew vil­lage of Rakkat, also in the region of Naphtali. Just a few years before Jesus’ visit to Tiberias, Herod Antipas founded the city there and named it in honor of the Roman emperor at the time, Tiberius. However, the city was reportedly built on a graveyard, so it was considered unclean by Jews, who refused to enter the city. Because Tiberias was situ­ated on rocky cliffs with a view of the sea and had numer­ous hot springs in the area, it was a popular lakeside resort for Romans.

Fishing around the Sea of Galilee was a thriving industry, with hundreds of boats working the lake daily. The warm waters supported a wide variety of fish, particularly tilapia (pictured below), a 1-2 pound cichlid found throughout lakes in the Middle East and Africa. 

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