A History of Bethsaida With Emphasis on Hellenistic and Roman Occupation




Alexander Metternich
Archaeology of Biblical Lands
Professor Bernbeck
2001



I. Introduction
II. Old Testament Bethsaida
III. New Testament Bethsaida
IV. Biblical References to Bethsaida
V. Archaeological Background
VI. Description of the Site
VII. Bibliography




I. Introduction
The settlement at Bethsaida has been one of the most sought-after biblical sites. Being the second-most mentioned city in the New Testament, Bethsaida has been a destination and goal for religious pilgrims and academic researchers alike. From Christianity’s earliest times, people have journeyed tremendous distances to visit this, the town where Jesus reportedly performed many of his most miraculous works. The actual location of the site of Bethsaida was in dispute for much of history. Recently, however, archaeologists have come to somewhat of a consensus as to where Bethsaida lay. In the search for this biblical city, researchers have found that the site of Bethsaida, located approximately 2.5 Kilometers north of the present day coast of the sea of Galilee, has a much earlier history than is evidenced by New Testament accounts (Meyers, 1997).

II. Old Testament Bethsaida
It is now believed that an Iron Age Bethsaida (10th Century, B.C.E.) was the capital of the kingdom of Geshur. Geshur is notable in the Hebrew Bible for its visit by King David, and his subsequent marriage to Ma'achah, the daughter of the king of Geshur. (Bethsaida Consortium, 2001)

History's first mention of Geshur is as a city-state, as it appears in the el-Amarna letters, an archive of cuneiform tablets found at Tell el-Amarna, Egypt. The letters consist of diplomatic correspondence between two pharaohs, Akhenaten (also known as Amenophis IV, 1352-1338 B.C.E.) and his father Amenophis III (1390-1352 B.C.E.), and the rulers of small states in Palestine and elsewhere that were under Egyptian hegemony. (Amav, Freund, Schroder, 2001)

II. New Testament Bethsaida
In the New Testament, Bethsaida plays an even more prominent role, with some of the key events in Jesus' Galilean ministry taking place in or near Bethsaida. The name “Bethsaida” means literally “house of fish,” referred to its location on the banks of the Sea of Galilee, and it’s main industry of fishing. This was the city where Jesus found his first disciples, calling them to be “fishers of men.” (Booth, 1933)

IV. Biblical References to Bethsaida:
Feeding the Five Thousand
"And [Jesus] took [the apostles] and withdrew apart to a city called Bethsaida ...The day was drawing to a close, and the twelve came to him and said, 'Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside, to lodge and get provisions; for we are here in a deserted place.' But he said to them 'You give them something to eat.' They said, 'We have no more than five loaves and two fish unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.' For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, 'Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each.' They did so and made them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And all ate and were filled. What was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces." Luke 9:10,12-17

Curing the Blind Man
"They came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to [Jesus] and begged him to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, 'Can you see anything?' And the man looked up and said, 'I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.' Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly." Mark 8:22-25

Walking on the Water
"Immediately [Jesus] made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After saying farewell to them, he went up on the mountain to pray. When evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. When he saw that they were straining at the oars against an adverse wind, he came towards them early in the morning, walking on the sea. He intended to pass them by. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out; for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, 'Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.' Then he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded..." Mark 6:45-51

Cursing Three Cities in Galilee
"Then [Jesus] began to reproach the cities in which most of his deeds of power had been done, because they did not repent. 'Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades. For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.'" Matthew 11:20-23


V. Archaeological Background:
An interesting piece of linguistic evidence is invoked to clarify some of the ancient history of the area surrounding Bethsaida: The Hellenistic and Roman conquerors (300 B.C.-A.D. 200) renamed the area of Gilead, once home of the exiled Israelite tribes of Gad, Reuben and half of Manasseh, “Gaulanitis.”

Curiously, the term Gaul, whether gallo or gallus in Latin, galler or waller in Celtic, waller or walah in German or gaullois in French, seems to carry the same meaning: "stranger, traveler or exile." To the Celts the words Gael and Scythe both meant "stranger" or "traveler." God had told the 10 tribes of Israel they would become wanderers (Hosea 9:17).

The ancient Jewish historian, Josephus Flavius, recorded that Philip the Tetrarch, who ruled Gaulanitis from 4 B.C.E.. to 34 C.E., (Arav and Freund, 1995) developed the village of Bethsaida in 30 C.E., raising it to the status of a "city" (polis) by strengthening its fortifications, increasing its population, and naming it "Julias" in honor of the Emperor Augustus’ daughter. (Oakman, 1986; Sherwin-White, 1965) The bible is unclear, however, as to Bethsaida’s status either as “village” or “city” during the time of Jesus’ ministry there.

Matthew and Luke portray Bethsaida as a “city,” contrasting it with its surrounding “villages”(Matthew 9:35, 10:8-15; Luke 9:45), while Mark labels it a village in contrast to the “villages of Caesaerean Philippi” (Mark 8:26-27), which are known to satisfy many criteria of cities, controlling a vast territory, and holding the rare privilege of coining money. (Sherwin-White, 1965) One argument for the validity of the New Testament Bethsaida’s label of “city” is the stratified social structure of its inhabitants, as indicated by the Gospels. According to the Bible, much of Jesus’ time was spent ministering to the ‘poor.’ This category includes widows, members of despised trades and the sick and physically impaired. However, these were not the only people with whom Jesus dealt. One such well-to-do individual was Zebadee, of Bethsaida, who was able to afford hired servants. (Mark 1:20; Oakman, 1986) This dichotomy of rich and poor living in such close proximity to one another is indicative of a city structure.

The exact location of the settlement of Bethsaida was known to early Christian pilgrims until the time of the Crusades. In 530 C.E., Theodosius described Bethsaida’s location as being six miles from Capernaum, and fifty miles from the place where the Jordan River “rises from the two places Ior and Dan.”(Pixner, 1985). The first archbishop of Eichstaett, Bavaria also made a pilgrimage to the famous city in 725 C.E., describing it as the city of Peter and Andrew, where there is a “church in the place where their house stood.” (Pixner, 1985) During the Crusades, the exact location of Bethsaida became uncertain, and it wasn’t until 1738 when Pococke, an Anglican archbishop, made his pilgrimage that a serious discussion of Bethsaida’s actual whereabouts was posited. (Pixner, 1985)

When the American minister Edward Robinson explored the Holy Land in 1838, he clambered atop the largest mound he could see: a nameless rise called simply et-Tell (“the Mound”), located about one and a half miles from the shore and suggested that it may have been Bethsaida. Half a century later, the German scholar Gottlieb Schumacher raised the key problem with that identification: How could a site so far from the water be home to the New Testament fishing village? He suggested instead that two ruins nearer the shore, el-Araj and Mesadiyye, were better candidates. (Arav, Freund and Schroder, 2001)

Another major problem concerning proponents of et-Tell’s authenticity as Bethsaida, was the fact that it lay on the wrong side of the Jordan River. According to the Gospel of John, Bethsaida was in Galilee (John 12:21), which is west of the Jordan. In 1985, an attempt to resolve the problem was proposed by Bargil Pixner, a historian of early Christianity. Referring to the work of the topographer Gustav Dallman, Pixner suggested that the Jordan River changed its course over time; therefore, Bethsaida could have been located on the Golan shores of the lake during one period and on the Galilee shores in another. (Pixner, 1985)

In 1987, Rami Arav began the Bethsaida Excavations Project on behalf of the Golan Research Institute under the auspices of Haifa University. (Meyers, 1997) In 1991 the Consortium for the Excavations Project was formed. Today the consortium consists of 17 universities and colleges throughout America and Europe and is jointly sponsored by the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the University of Hartford. (CBEP, 2001) Arav and Richard Freund turned to the geological expertise of Jack Shroder. “It only took one look at the geological maps of the region for Jack to formulate the hypothesis that would eventually solve the riddle: Today's shoreline is not necessarily the ancient shoreline.” (Amav, Freund, Schroder, 2001) Et-Tell’s position, above one of the world's most active fault lines made for a fine solution to the dilemma, as the shorelines of bodies of water near fault lines are in constant flux. Second, lake levels change over time, and their shorelines shift, usually downward from where they receive their water. Third, rivers, including the northern branch of the Jordan, build up deltas: They carry silt downstream and deposit it at the mouth of the river. As a result, ancient port cities typically lie farther inland today than they did in antiquity.

Geological investigation proved Shroder’s initial hypothesis to be correct, also verifying Pixner’s theory. Against the base of the et-Tell mound, were found lake clays containing crustacean microorganisms. Also at the base of the tell lie terraced deposits of gravel and boulders on top of the lake clays. Carbon 14 dating of bovine bones and other organic matter underneath the boulders has yielded a date between 68 and 375 C.E. (Amav, Freund, Schroder, 2001) One hypothesis proposed by the Consortium is that a cataclysmic event, perhaps a major earthquake in 363 C.E., swept a large amount of boulders, rock, gravel, soil and artifacts across the plain on which et-Tell lies, cutting Bethsaida off from the shore. (Amav, Freund, Schroder, 2001)

VI. Description of the Site:
From the Hellenistic period (332-37 B.C.E.) was excavated a residential quarter of private homes, each of which had several rooms surrounding a roughly paved courtyard. The area interpreted as a kitchen was typically east of the courtyard, with the dining room-like enclosure to the north. Arav and the Consortium speculate that the bedrooms were probably on a second floor. (Arav, Freund, Shroder, 2001)

In one house, known as the “Fisherman's House” was found considerable material culture associated with the industry of fishing, including lead net weights, anchors, needles and fishhooks. One of the fishhooks had not yet been bent, indicating that it was manufactured at the site. (Arav, Freund, Shroder, 2001) Also found was a clay seal, depicting two figures casting a net from a Phoenician-style ship with a horse head-shaped prow. (Arav, 1991) The scene seems to be set in shallow, reed-filled water rather than on the open sea, an indication that it depicts a view near the shore. (Arav, Freund, Shroder, 2001)

A second house boasted a wine cellar with four large wine jars and pruning hooks. This piece of architecture was quickly dubbed the “Wine Maker's House.” (Arav, Freund, Shroder, 2001)

Among the finds were two bronze incense shovels. These shovels are similar to those used in other Roman temples, also resembling incense shovels depicted in synagogue mosaics from the Byzantine period. (Arav, Freund, Shroder, 2001)







VII. Bibliography:

1.Arav,Rami, “Bethsaida, 1989” in Israel Exploration Journal 41,(1991):184-186
2.Arav, Rami and Richard A. Freund, eds. A City by the North Shore of the Sea of Galilee.
Volume One: Bethsaida Excavations Project, (1995) Kirksville, MO: The Thomas Jefferson
University Press at Truman State University.
3.Arav, Rami, Freund, Richard A. and Shroder, John F., Jr. “BethsaidaRediscovered” in
Biblical Archaeology Review, (2001) January/February, Washington, DC, Biblical Archaeology
Society
4. Booth, Henry Kendall, The World of Jesus: A Survey of the Background of the Gospels,
(1933) New York, Charles Scribnerís Sons
5. Consortium of the Bethsaida Excavations Project (CBEP), (2001); “Bethsaida Today”;
http://209.35.213.122/bethsaida/
6. Meyers, Eric M. Ed., “Bethsaida” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near
East, Vol. 1 (1997): 302-305, Oxford, Oxford University Press
7. Oakman, Douglas E., Jesus and the Economic Questions of His Day: Studies in the Bible and
Early Christianity Volume 8, (1986), New York, The Edwin Mellen Press
8. Pixner, Bargil, “Searching for the New Testament Site of Bethsaida” in Biblical
Archaeologist 48, (1985): 207-216
9. Sherwin-White, A.N., Roman Society and Roman Law in the New Testament (1965) Oxford,
Oxford University Press