Tiberias
Tiberias is an ancient city mentioned in the New Testament, located in the region of Galilee in modern-day Israel. It appears across 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
Tiberias appears in the New Testament as a city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, which the Gospel of John identifies alternatively as 'the Sea of Tiberias' (John 6:1; 21:1). The city itself is mentioned by name in John 6:23, where boats from Tiberias arrive near the place where Jesus had fed the five thousand. Built by Herod Antipas around AD 20 and named in honor of the Roman Emperor Tiberius, the city was constructed over an ancient cemetery, making it ritually unclean for observant Jews. This likely explains why, despite being near the center of Jesus's Galilean ministry, Tiberias receives no record of Jesus visiting it in the Gospels. It was predominantly Gentile in character during Jesus's ministry. After the Jewish-Roman wars, however, Tiberias became a major center of Jewish scholarship; the Jerusalem Talmud was compiled there, and the city became home to the Sanhedrin and numerous noted rabbis. Its name given to the Sea of Galilee by John reflects the city's regional prominence in the late first century when the Gospel was written.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Tiberias is modern Tiberias (Hebrew: Tverya) on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in Israel, one of Judaism's four holy cities. Archaeological work has been ongoing and challenging due to the city's continuous occupation. Excavations have uncovered portions of the ancient city wall, a colonnaded street (cardo), a gate complex, a basilical building, and a large public bathhouse from the Roman-Byzantine period. The ancient synagogue and other Jewish institutional buildings reflect the city's post-70 AD transformation into a center of rabbinic Judaism. Underwater surveys of the Sea of Galilee have also identified ancient harbor installations near Tiberias, consistent with its role as a significant port and fishing center in antiquity.
Verse Appearances (1)
John
Sources: ISBE Encyclopedia · OpenBible Geocoding (CC BY) · Pleiades Gazetteer View all →