LANDS AND PLACES
While the individual gospel authors often chose different events in the life of Christ to emphasize, all four of them considered the feeding of the 5,000 so significant that they included the incident in each gospel. But they indicate where it happened by different descriptions. Luke has it taking place in the vicinity of a town called Bethsaida (Luke 9:10), Matthew at “a deserted place” (Matt. 14:15), Mark also at “a deserted place” (Mark 6:35), and John at a site with “much grass” (John 6:10) across the Sea of Galilee from where Jesus had been previously teaching.
While the exact location of the miracle is not inside the city but in a deserted place, its exact location may never be answered from the archaeological record and illustrates the problems the modern world faces when it tries to pinpoint biblical places. Consequently, the scholarly debate centers more on the location of the nearest possible archaeological site, the city of Bethsaida itself.
One recent discovery on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee in Bethsaida Valley Nature Reserve is, according to Mordechai Aviam, director of the Kinneret Institute for Galilean Archaeology at Kinneret Academic College in Israel, that of the city of Bethsaida Julias, a place that the New Testment indicates was also the home of the disciples Philip, Andrew, and Peter (John 1:44). El-Araj, the name of the site, has occupational layers dating from the early Roman period until the Byzantine era, thus indicating the presence of what the excavators regard as a major city. The layer associated with the time of the miracle contains a Roman style bathhouse, coins, and pottery sherds dating from the first to the third centuries AD.
Perhaps the discovery of the bathhouse is the most significant find because they were not yet that common in Palestine during the first centuries of the Christian Era, and only major towns would have them. It led Dr. Aviam to conclude the site might indeed be that of the city of Bethsaida. The bathhouse also contains a mosaic floor and other artifacts commonly used in such luxurious complexes favored by the Romans. A silver denarius depicting Nero also suggests the possibility of el-Araj being a major city during the Roman era.
Nevertheless, it is not the only potential location for Bethsaida. Eutychius of Alexandria, (tenth century AD), in his work describing Christian holy places, identified the church at Koursi as the site for the miracle, and his conclusions might rest on earlier documents. Tabgna on the northern shore of the sea of Galilee, according to Bargail Pixner, is the site nearest where the miracle happened. However, the biblical text does not clearly indicate the exact location of this miracle. Afterward Jesus and His disciples went to the region of Gennesaret and Bethsaida (Matt. 14:22; Mark 6:45).
Two important extra-biblical references mention Bethsaida. First, Josephus writes that Herod Philip raised the status of the fishing village during the Roman period to that of a city and renamed it Julias in honor of the emperor Augustus’ daughter and mother of Tiberius, the Roman emperor during the adult life of Jesus (Ant. 18:28). Second, Josephus argues that he was wounded in battle in a swamp near the city of Julias and then taken to Kfar Nahum for treatment. He describes the city as being close to the Jordan River with a harbor used for dispatching reinforcements on the northern shore of the lake. Another argument places el-Araj as Bethsaida of Galilee on the western side of the Jordan (John 12:21), separating it politically from Bethsaida-Julias and identifying the latter with et-Tell as the site for the miracle. This site is 700 feet north of the Sea of Galilee and on the east bank of the Jordan River which fits both the biblical account as well as Josephus’ description. Furthermore, the modern lagoon, es-Saki, may have extended north of et-Tell during the Roman period which would have put the site literally on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. While many scholars consider the latter site as the strongest candidate, it is important to remember that no definite identification is possible due to the lack of inscriptional evidence. All we know for sure is that both sites had important Roman cities during the time when the miracle happened, though more recent archaeological findings appear to lean toward a site for the city along the lake.