The Sea of Galilee: Development of an Early Christian Toponym

Abstract

New Testament scholarship has long recognized that there are toponyms that find no mention outside of the NT. Prominent among those are two sites that appear in the passion narratives of Jesus: e a (Matt 26:36; Mark 14:32) and a (Matt 27:33; Mark 15:22; John 19:17). These terms draw immediate notice because they appear to transliterate Semitic toponyms. Less attention has been given to another place-name of equal rarity: a a a a a a (Matt 4:18; 15:29; Mark 1:16; 3:7; 7:31; John 6:1). The uncommon nature of this toponym is indicated in the Fourth Gospel by the evangelist's need to define it further with an additional genitive more familiar to his readers: "After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee [which is the Sea] of Tiberias" (John 6:1). The city of Tiberias, built by Herod Antipas on the lakeshore (Ant. 18.36; /. W. 2.68), appears again at the end of the Gospel to iden tify the lake (John 21:1: a a ?e a ) without the previous determinant a a a . The use of Tiberias to identify the lake parallels Jose phus (/. W. 3.57: ?e a ), rabbinic literature (e.g., t. Sukkah 3:9), and the classical authors, Pausanias (Descr. 5.7.4: ?e a a a ) and Solinus (Collectanea Kerum Memorabilium 35.3: Est et lacus Sara extentus passuum sedecim milibus... Sed lacus Tiberiadis). The fourth-century writer Julius Honorius likewise employed the city of Tiberias to distinguish the body of water, but he alone among the Latin authors uses the term mare rather than lacus to describe the lake (Cosmographia 2: mare Tiberiadem). There is some question whether Julius was a pagan or a Christian.1