Bethsaida #60

Bethsaida was a town near the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, on or close to the point where the Jordan River enters the lake. Its name is generally understood to mean house of fishing, which suits its setting. It was the home of the apostles Peter, Andrew, and Philip, and the Gospels connect it with several of Jesus’ miracles.

Biblical Significance

John records that Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter (John 1:44), and later refers to Philip as being from Bethsaida in Galilee (John 12:21). When some Greeks came to Philip wanting to see Jesus, he went to Andrew and the two of them told Jesus (John 12:20-22). Bethsaida lay on the east side of the Jordan in the territory of Philip the tetrarch, while Galilee proper lay on the west, so the description in John may reflect a looser use of the term Galilee.

The Gospels connect the town with two miracles. After Jesus withdrew to a city called Bethsaida with the apostles, the crowds followed him, and he taught them and healed the sick, and then fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fish (Luke 9:10-17). Mark then records that the disciples were sent by boat to the other side, to Bethsaida, after the feeding (Mark 6:45). Later, when Jesus came to Bethsaida again, people brought him a blind man. He took him by the hand and led him outside the village, spat on his eyes, and laid hands on him. The man first saw people like trees walking, and after a second touch, he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home and told him not to go into the village (Mark 8:22-26).

Jesus also spoke sharply about the town. Along with Chorazin, Bethsaida is rebuked for its failure to repent in the face of his mighty works, and he said that Tyre and Sidon would have repented in sackcloth and ashes had they seen the same (Matthew 11:20-22; Luke 10:13-14).

Today

The location of Bethsaida is debated. Most excavators favor et-Tell, a large mound northeast of the lake in the Golan Heights, where a dig has been carried out since 1987. It has produced a fortified Iron Age city gate, which the excavators associate with the capital of the kingdom of Geshur, and remains of a Hellenistic and Roman town, including houses that contained fishing tools such as weights and hooks. Josephus reports that Philip the tetrarch raised the village to the status of a city and named it Julias in honor of the emperor’s daughter. A few scholars argue that et-Tell is too far from the lake to have been a fishing village and prefer el-Araj, a site nearer the shore, where excavations have recently found a Roman-period settlement and a Byzantine church. Others suggest there may have been two nearby sites, a fishing village and a city. The question remains open.