BETHSAIDA (Meaning House of Fish(ing) in Hebrew)

Bethsaida was listed as the birth place or home of the disciples of Jesus named Philip, Andrew, and Simon.  Bethsaida was by one account in the region where the feeding of the 5,000 occurred.  A blind man was healed near Bethsaida.  Jesus listed Bethsaida as an unrepentant city. 

Et Tell has been identified as Bethsaida by numerous scholars.

Syria and Palestine, in 1851 and 1852, Van de Velde, 1854, Vol II

...Bethsaida Gaulonites is evidently spoken of, the ruins of which have been recognized by Dr. Eli Smith and other travelers on a hill called et-Tell, on the east bank of the Jordan, close to the northern shores of the lake.  Josephus calls this Bethsaida-Julias, and informs us that Philip the Tetrarch of Iturea and Trachonites gave it this epithet in honour of Julias Caesar, having enlarged the town, and adorned it with public buildings. 

Pliny wrote that Julias and Hippos were on the east side of the Jordan.

Remains of the Ancient City of Bethsaida--Basalt Building Blocks

Bethsaida was along a Roman road carrying traffic from Damascus and to the Mediterranean Coast and Jerusalem. A survey of coins found at nearby Capernaum included coins from Syria, Asia Minor, and Cyprus within the Roman empire.  Syria bordered on the Euphrates and areas to the east within the Parthian empire.  Bethsaida was a border town where customs agents may have collected indirect taxes used to fund Philip's court and government projects.  According to Tacitus the provincial governor's yet used Publicani to collect indirect taxes while the Romans used their own agents to collect direct taxes for Rome.  A Roman road was indicated by some archaeologists between Capernaum and Et Tell.  The river ford was easier near Et Tell.  One pilgrim indicated there was probably a Roman bridge at one time.  Centuries of sometimes intense flooding and earthquakes may have erased any traces of such a structure.  A hill top survey of areas near the fifty foot high Et Tell indicate other buildings were erected in the regions adjacent to the hill.

In the Jordan River plain there were impenetrable areas  The reeds in the background were nearly twenty feet high.  The area had a long history of malaria.  Horsemen found the footing difficult in the winter as frequent rains created mud holes in addition to boulders strewn across other areas by flooded stream channels.  In the days of John MacGregor there was a ford of the Jordan River close to Et Tel as the way by the shore was not easily passable. 

A Canoe Cruise in Palestine, Egypt, and the Waters of Damascus, The Rob Roy on the Jordan, by J. MacGregor, 1870 

Macgregor measured the mouth of the Jordan as 70 feet wide.  He noted a ford in the marsh of the delta.  He recorded there was a more popular ford about a mile and a half upstream where he saw people crossing and this was probably where Jesus’ followers crossed as they followed along the shore of the lake toward the location of the feeding of the 5,000.  The location of the feeding of the 5,000 was presumed by a majority of pilgrims whose books I read to have occurred along the shore of the lake east of the Jordan River.

Tel Araj near the shore of the lake has been identified as Bethsaida by others.  A pottery survey indicated Byzantine occupation, another reported Roman era pottery as well.  Current theory favors Et Tell as Bethsaida.  Three Roman coins from the days of Jesus were found at Bethsaida.  The situation of Et Tell at a prominent ford of the Jordan made it an ideal location for a border town where customs duties may have been collected by the government of Philip the Tetrarch.  Bethsaida was a Roman walled city with city gate.  A well spring was located near the base of the SW slope.  It lay along an important route to Damascus and within a few hundred meters of the Jordan River.          
 

Nazareth Synagogue
Churches of the Annunciation
Latin Tradition -- Mount of Precipitation
Nazareth Aerial View
Museum of the Basilica
Hot Springs at Tiberias
Stone Water Jars at Capernaum
Capernaum
Tabgha
Bethsaida
House of Anchors Museum
A 1909 Galilee Fishing Description
The Giant Mustard Plant
Kursi and the Gadarene Demoniac
Jar of Ointment

Home Page