TABGHA

Tabgha is east of Magdala about two miles west of Capharnaum.  It is at the site of the heptapegon meaning seven springs in Greek.  There were reports that two of the seven have ceased flowing.

Egeria (c. 382) said there was a church in memory of the multiplication of the loaves at Tabgha. 
 

 
 Church Mosaic Floor Constructed in the Fourth Century -- Tabgha 

In 1932 the mosaic showing the fish and the loaves on a tile mosaic was uncovered by Dr. Mader and Dr. Schneider.

New Guide To The Holy Land, Father Barnabas Meistermann, 1907, London

     St. Jerome described St. Paula’s journey to Lake Galilee and Tabor about 380.  In St. Paula’s letter to Marcella she makes it clear she visited the place of the first multiplication of loaves on the western shore of the lake.
     St. Sylva of Aquitaine, who went to Galilee a few years later, says, after speaking of  Capharnuam:  “There, on the shore of the lake, stretches a plain covered with grass and palms in the middle of which area is seven springs, each one with a great abundance of water.  It is the plain on which the Saviour fed the crowd with five loaves and two fishes.  A church has been built above the stone on which the Saviour placed the loaves. 
     Theodosius (530) points out at 5 miles from Magdala, “Bersabee, which means seven fountains, the place where the Saviour baptized His apostles, and fed the 5000 men with five loaves and two fishes.
     9^th cent. St. Epiphanius, the Hagapolite, points out 2 miles to the west of Capernaum, on the shore of the lake, the great church called Heptapegon and the plain where the Saviour worked the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves. 

Saewulf, Daniel, Fretellus, John of Wruzburg, Theodoric, Phocas, Burchard, and all other pilgrims agree in assigning to this spot the first multiplication of loaves.   

For whatever reason, some early investigators assigned this site as the place of the feeding of the 5,000.  Some early travelers may have thought the place might be Bethsaida, for in the winter and early spring fish swarmed to soak in the warm waters that sprang forth from the banks and hillside into the water.  Bethsaida meant "House of Fish."  Later scholars using Josephus as a guide located Bethsaida at Et Tell to the east of the Jordan.

   Another large spring at Tabgha

 

Cross-shaped limestone baptismal at Tabgha.  There were cross shaped basins at other
Byzantine era churches in Israel in the Negev.  One form of baptism may have been immersion by pouring.  

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
Cana

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