Tiberias

Founded during Jesus's ministry and mentioned in John 6, Tiberias later became the center of rabbinic Judaism and the place where the Jerusalem Talmud was completed.

Tiberias (Hebrew Tverya) is a city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret) in northern Israel. It was founded around 20 CE by Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great and the tetrarch of the Galilee and Perea, who named it in honor of the reigning Roman emperor Tiberius. Antipas made Tiberias his new capital, replacing Sepphoris, and the city quickly became the most important urban center on the shores of the lake that came to bear its name (the "Sea of Tiberias" in John 6:1 and 21:1).

Archaeological work in Tiberias has been conducted in fits and starts, complicated by the continuous occupation of the site. Moshe Dothan of the Hebrew University excavated portions of the ancient city in the 1950s and 1960s, uncovering parts of a Roman theater, a gate structure, and ceramic evidence spanning the Roman and Byzantine periods. Yizhar Hirschfeld of the Hebrew University conducted more extensive excavations from 2004 until his death in 2006, followed by Katia Cytryn-Silverman and others. Recent salvage excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority during construction projects have added significantly to the archaeological picture.

Josephus provides the most detailed ancient account of the city's founding. He reports that Antipas built Tiberias on a site that included an ancient cemetery, which made it ritually impure for observant Jews (contact with the dead was a major source of impurity under Jewish law). This meant that many Jews initially refused to live there, and Antipas had to settle the city partly by compulsion, bringing in foreign settlers and freed slaves alongside some willing Jewish settlers. Josephus himself served as governor of Tiberias during the early stages of the Great Revolt (66-67 CE) and provides accounts of the city's fractious politics during that period.

The city was laid out on a Roman grid plan oriented along the lakeshore. Hirschfeld's excavations uncovered a major north-south street (cardo) paved with basalt flagstones and flanked by columned porticoes and shops. This cardo ran parallel to the lake and was the commercial spine of the city. A Roman-period gate complex was found on the southern end, marking the entrance from the road to the hot springs of Hamat Tiberias.

The Roman theater, partially excavated by Dothan and more recently investigated by the Israel Antiquities Authority, could seat an estimated 7,000 spectators. It was built into the hillside west of the cardo, taking advantage of the natural slope. The theater's size confirms Tiberias' status as a major Roman city and would have hosted entertainments that many observant Jews avoided, consistent with the tensions between Jewish law and Roman urban culture that characterized the Galilee.

The hot springs at Hamat Tiberias, about 2 kilometers south of the city center, have been a major attraction since antiquity. The mineral springs, which emerge at temperatures above 60 degrees Celsius, were renowned for their therapeutic properties. A magnificent synagogue from the 4th century CE was discovered at Hamat Tiberias in 1947, featuring a stunning mosaic floor with a zodiac wheel, images of Helios and the four seasons, a Torah ark flanked by menorahs, and Greek and Hebrew inscriptions. The Hamat Tiberias synagogue mosaic is one of the finest examples of ancient synagogue art and demonstrates the high level of Jewish artistic culture in late Roman Galilee.

After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE and especially after the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-135 CE), the center of Jewish life shifted to the Galilee, and Tiberias became the most important city in Jewish religious life. The Sanhedrin (supreme Jewish court) relocated to Tiberias in the late 2nd or early 3rd century CE. The Jerusalem Talmud (Talmud Yerushalmi) was largely compiled in Tiberias in the 4th-5th centuries CE, despite its name. The Tiberian system of vowel pointing (nikkud) for the Hebrew text of the Bible was developed in Tiberias between the 7th and 10th centuries CE by the Masoretes, a group of Jewish scribes who standardized the biblical text. The most important Masoretic family, the Ben Asher family, worked in Tiberias, and their text is the basis of virtually all printed Hebrew Bibles today.

Tiberias was conquered by the Arabs in 634 CE and became the capital of the Jund al-Urdunn (Jordan military district). A major earthquake in 749 CE devastated the city, and remains of the destruction level have been found across the site. The city was later held by the Crusaders, Ayyubids, and Mamluks before falling into relative decline.

• Roman cardo paved with basalt flagstones and flanked by columned porticoes, the commercial spine of Antipas's capital city
• Roman theater seating approximately 7,000 spectators, confirming Tiberias' status as a major Roman city in the Galilee
• 4th-century synagogue at Hamat Tiberias with spectacular zodiac mosaic floor, one of the finest examples of ancient synagogue art
• Seat of the Sanhedrin from the late 2nd century CE and center of compilation of the Jerusalem Talmud (4th-5th centuries CE)
• Birthplace of the Tiberian Masoretic vowel-pointing system, the basis of all modern Hebrew Bibles
• Founded c. 20 CE by Herod Antipas on a site including an ancient cemetery, creating ritual purity issues described by Josephus
• Evidence of the 749 CE earthquake destruction found across the site during multiple excavation campaigns

Tiberias is mentioned by name only once in the Gospels, in John 6:23, where boats from Tiberias arrive near the place where Jesus had fed the five thousand. The Sea of Galilee is also called the Sea of Tiberias in John 6:1 and John 21:1, reflecting the city's growing importance in the region. The city was founded just a few years before Jesus's public ministry began, meaning it was a new and prominent presence on the western shore of the lake throughout the events recorded in the Gospels. Although the Gospels do not record Jesus visiting Tiberias itself, he frequently traveled by boat across the lake and ministered in towns around it. The feeding of the five thousand in John 6 took place near Bethsaida, on the northeastern shore, and the boats from Tiberias that arrived the next morning suggest regular lake traffic connecting the city to other communities. After 70 CE, when Jerusalem was destroyed, the Sanhedrin eventually settled in Tiberias, and the city became the center of rabbinic Judaism for several centuries. This post-biblical role gives the site lasting importance for understanding the religious world that shaped both Judaism and early Christianity.