LANDS AND PLACES
The most ancient known source of the place name Bethsaida (“house of fishing” or “house of hunting”) is the New Testament, where the word appears seven times (Matt 11:21; Mark 6:45, 8:22; Luke 9:10, 10:13; John 1:44, 12:21). The location is also mentioned by first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (Antiquities 18:28).
New Testament Bethsaida was located on the northeast coast of the Sea of Galilee to the east of the Jordan River in the district of Gaulanitis. The proximity of Bethsaida to Galilee or the expansion of the term Galilee at the time the Gospel of John was written may account for the identification of Bethsaida with Galilee in the latter part of the first century (cf. John 12:21). Bethsaida was only a fishing village until Philip, the son of Herod the Great, improved and enlarged it to the status of a city (polis) c. AD 30 and renamed it Julius. Interestingly, this is the status which the Gospels most often refer to (Matt. 11:20, Luke 9:10; 10:8, 12; John 1:44). The exception is the Gospel of Mark (8:26), which retains the older memory of Bethsaida as a village (kõmē). Philip also altered the name of the place to Julias (Josephus, Antiquities 18:28). Though Julias is also recorded by Pliny the Elder (Natural History 5.15) and Ptolemy (Geographia 5.16) in the first and second centuries respectively, this Roman name seems to have been short-lived in Palestine for it was not retained by New Testament authors.
First-century Bethsaida is significant for Bible students because it is the place from which at least three disciples of Jesus— Andrew, Peter, and Philip— originally came from (John 1:44). Besides, the place is associated with the area in which Jesus healed a blind man (Mark 8:22-26), fed 5,000 (Luke 9:10-17), and close to the place where Jesus walked on water (Mark 6:45-51).
Besides the positive accounts, the New Testament also reports Jesus’ having spoken negatively of Bethsaida (Matt. 11:20-24; Luke 10:13-15). From such speeches, one can infer that, along with Chorazin and Capernaum, Bethsaida was a town that was much favored by the presence and miracles of Jesus and that he expected the inhabitants of those places to respond in repentance for their sins. By failing to reform their lives after Jesus’ acts of mercy on their behalf, their condition in the final judgment was pronounced worse than that of the dwellers of heathen cities such as Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom.
In the second century, after wars and earthquakes, the ruins of Bethsaida seem to have been abandoned. Following its demise, the place name may have survived in rabbinic literature as Tzaidan (note similarity between betzaidan“in Tzaidan” and bethsaida). By the fourth century, knowledge of the site appears to have been lost. The information we gather from church historian Eusebius, adding nothing to previous descriptions, seems to confirm this perception. For centuries pilgrims journeyed to the northern coast of the Sea of Galilee trying to locate the place.
In the nineteenth century (1838), American scholar Edward Robinson identified et-Tell nearly 2 km from the sea as Bethsaida. Four decades later, the German Gottlieb Schumacher proposed el-Araj, by the seashore, as the location of the ancient town. Remains predominantly from the Byzantine period in el-Araj have posed difficulties for its connection with Bethsaida. Recently, however, Roman remains have been found and also evidence for a Byzantine church built over what was believed to be the house of Peter and Andrew, which have revived the possibility that this is the site of Bethsaida-Julius. In 1987 Rami Arav had initiated the Bethsaida Excavation Project and sided with Robinson in identifying Bethsaida as et-Tell. But Arav’s position has been challenged based on the distance of the mound from the lake and on the scarceness of archaeological findings dating from the Roman period. At present, though the search for first-century Bethsaida revolves around et-Tell, el Araj, their surroundings, or a combination of these areas, its precise location remains uncertain. Further research is needed to clarify the identification of this first-century town.
Aravand Freund.Bethsaida: A City by the Shore of the Sea of Galilee.
Strickert, Bethsaida: Home of the Apostles.
Savage, Biblical Bethsaida: An Archaeological Study of the First Century.
Raineyand Notley. “The Search for Bethsaida,” 356–359.