powered by FreeFind	Bethsaida 53 pictures     2.15 minutes HQ video Location, History and Identification Tel Bethsaida (e-Tel) is situated 1.5 Km, off the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Bethsaida is one of the largest artificial mounds ever discovered in Israel and has a commanding view of the entire Sea of Galilee. Research revealed that Bethsaida was probably a fortified city known as Zer on the Sea of Galilee and mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. The town was located in the territory of Geshur which played a key role in the Kingdom of David. According to the Bible, David married Maachah, the daughter of Talmai, King of Geshur. Absalom, their son, stayed for sometime in the Geshurite city of his grandfather. Bethsaida is frequently mentioned in Second Temple period sources. Bethsaida means "House of the Fisherman". According to the New Testament, Jesus performed some of his most important miracles there, including the "Feeding of the Multitudes", and the "Healing of the Blind Man", and from Bethsaida's shores, he was seen walking on the Sea of Galilee. Three major Apostles: Peter, Andrew and Phillip, were from Bethsaida, and later Christian traditions associate other apostles with the city. Ultimately, Jesus condemned the city stating: "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!" The ancient Jewish historian, Josephus Flavius, recounts that in the year 30 CE Phillip, the son of Herod the Great, raised the village of Bethsaida to the status of a Greek city and renamed it Julias, after Livia-Julia, the wife of the late Emperor Augustus. Four years later, Phillip died and was buried at his beloved Bethsaida. According to Josephus, Bethsaida also played a role in the opening battles of the First Revolt against Rome in 67 CE. Bethsaida was well-known in rabbinic literature as a town located at the historic borders of the Land of Israel. According to second century figures, Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel and the Emperor Hadrian speak of the abundant fish and fowl present at the city. Despite the large number of literary accounts in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Christian pilgrim accounts throughout the Middle Ages could not pinpoint its location. In 1838, the American scholar, Edward Robinson, suggested that a mound known as e-Tel, although set back from the Sea of Galilee, was probably the ancient city of Bethsaida. A few decades later, Gottlieb Schumacher, a scholar from the German colony in Haifa, maintained that it was implausible that a fisherman's village could be located so far from the Sea. Excavations and geological surveys began in 1987 and have concluded that Robinson was right. E-Tel is Bethsaida. Evidence now suggests that the Sea of Galilee in antiquity was larger than its present size and may have included a series of estuaries leading off of a large lagoon just north of the present day coast (today it is the Bethsaida plain). The Archaeological finds City Gate and Palace in the Iron Age (1000-586 B.C.) The inhabitants of Bethsaida during the Iron Age surrounded their city with a massive fortification system which has no parallel in the military architecture of the period. Two large towers flanked the entrance. A well-preserved, four-chambered city gate was found complete with a cultic "High Place". Massive steles stand at the gate opening and one is a decorated stone with a bull-faced warrior. The gate was destroyed in a fierce conflagration during the Assyrian conquest in 732 BCE. The city gate led to a large palace complex with a spacious paved plaza. Among the outstanding discoveries made in the palace was a small faience figurine of the Egyptian fertility god Pataikos. The Second Temple Period Houses The excavations revealed a residential quarter which included a few simple courtyard houses. One building, the so-called "Fisherman's House" gets its name from the many fishing implements found there. "The Wine Maker's House" consists of a wine cellar with wine jars and pruning hooks. Above the city gate there was a structure which may have been the temple dedicated to the Roman Imperial Cult of Livia-Julia. Among the outstanding finds was a bronze incense shovel which is common in Roman temples. Back to Israel Index