Bethsaida

 ( Populated Places Established In The 10th Century Bc ) 

Most imposing archaeological finds, mainly from the Stratum V city gate, date to the 8th century BCE, but as of 2024, archaeologists have found the northwestern chamber wall of the Geshurite city gate of Stratum VI, dating to the 11th-10th centuries BCE. The et-Tell site would have been easily the largest and strongest city to the east of the Jordan Valley during the Iron Age II era.

The archaeologists tentatively identify the city with biblical Zer, a name used during the First Temple period.

According to Josephus, around the year 30/31 CE (or 32/33 CE) Philip raised the village of Bethsaida in Lower Gaulanitis to the rank of a polis and renamed it "Julias", in honor of Livia, also called Julia Augusta, (edd.), Prosopographia Imperii Romani saeculi I, II et III ( PIR), Berlin, 1933 – L 301 the wife of Augustus. It lay near the place where the Jordan enters the Sea of Galilee.Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XVIII, ii, 1; The Jewish War, II, ix, 1; III, x, 7; The Life of Flavius Josephus, 72.

Julias/Bethsaida was a city east of the Jordan River, in a "desert place" (that is, uncultivated ground used for grazing), if this is the location to which Jesus retired by boat with his disciples to rest a while (see and ). The multitude following on foot along the northern shore of the lake would cross the Jordan by the ford at its mouth, which is used by foot travelers to this day. The "desert" of the narrative is just the barrīyeh of the Arabs, where the animals are driven out for pasture. The "green grass" of , and the "much grass" of John 6:10, point to some place in the plain of el-Baṭeiḥah, on the rich soil of which the grass is green and plentiful, compared to the scanty herbage on the higher slopes.

In 2017, archaeologists announced the discovery of a Thermae at el-Araj, which is taken as proof that the site was a polis in the Roman Empire period. The bathhouse was located in a layer below the Byzantine layer, with an intervening layer of mud and clay that indicated a break in occupation between 250 and 350 CE. They also found what might be the remains of a Byzantine church building, matching the description of a traveller in 750 CE. On account of these discoveries, the archaeologists believe that el-Araj is now the most likely candidate for the location of Bethsaida.

In 2019, what some describe as the Church of Apostles was unearthed by the El-Araj excavations team during the fourth season at the site of Bethsaida Julias / Beithabbak (El-Araj), on the north shore of Sea of Galilee near where the Jordan river enters the lake. The excavation was carried out by Prof. Mordechai Aviam of Kinneret College and Prof. R. Steven Notley of Nyack College. This Byzantine period church is believed by some to have been built over the house of the apostle brothers, Peter and Andrew. Only the southern rooms of the church were excavated. A well-protected ornamental mosaic floor, gilded glass tesserae, and a marble chancel decorated with a wreath have been found in some of the excavated rooms. According to Professor Notley:

In 2022, the archaeological team uncovered a large mosaic that is over 1500 years old containing an inscription. This invokes St. Peter as "the chief and commander of the heavenly apostles". and mentions a donor named "Constantine, a servant of Christ". These terminologies are consistent with Byzantine usage. Because of this, Notley said that this "strengthens our argument that it should be considered the leading candidate for first century Bethsaida."

Galilee ran right round the lake, including most of the level coastland on the east. Thus Gamala, on the eastern shore, was within the jurisdiction of Josephus, who commanded in Galilee.Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War, II, xx, 4. Judas of GamalaFlavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XVIII, i, l. is also called Judas of Galilee.Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XVIII, i, 6 If Gamala, far up the slope towering over the eastern shore of the sea, were in Galilee, a fortiori Bethsaida, a town which lay on the very edge of the Jordan, may be described as in Galilee.

Josephus makes it plain that Gamala, while added to his jurisdiction, was not in Galilee, but in Gaulanitis.Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War, II, xx, 6 Even if Judas were born in Gamala, and so might properly be called a Gaulanite, he may, like others, have come to be known as belonging to the province in which his active life was spent. "Jesus of Nazareth" for instance was said to be born in Bethlehem in Judaea. Josephus also explicitly says that Bethsaida was in Lower Gaulanitis .Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War, II, ix, 1 Further, Luke places the country of the Gerasenes on the other side of the sea from Galilee (Luke 8:26) – antipéra tês Galilaías ("over against Galilee").

• To go to the other side – eis tò péran (Mark 6:45) – does not of necessity imply passing from the west to the east coast of the lake, since Josephus uses the verb diaperaióō of a passage from Tiberias to Taricheae.Flavius Josephus, The Life of Flavius Josephus, 59 But
1. this involved a passage from a point on the west to a point on the south shore, "crossing over" two considerable bays; whereas if the boat started from any point in el-Baṭeiḥah, to which we seem to be limited by the "much grass", and by the definition of the district as belonging to Bethsaida, to sail to et-Tell or el-Araj, it was a matter of coasting not more than a couple of miles, with no bay to cross.
2. No case can be cited where the phrase eis tò péran certainly means anything else than "to the other side".
3. Mark says that the boat started to go unto the other side to Bethsaida, while John, gives the direction "over the sea unto Capernaum" (John 6:17). The two towns were therefore practically in the same line. Now there is no question that Capernaum was on "the other side", nor is there any suggestion that the boat was driven out of its course; and it is quite obvious that, sailing toward Capernaum, whether at Tell Ḥūm or at Khirbat al-Minya, it would never reach Bethsaida Julias
• The words of Mark (), it is suggested,William Sanday, Sacred Sites of the Gospels, 42. have been too strictly interpreted: as the Gospel was written probably at Rome, its author not being a native of Galilee. Want of precision on topographical points, therefore, need not surprise us. But as we have seen above, the "want of precision" must also be attributed to the writer of . The agreement of these two favors the strict interpretation.

In support of the single-city theory it is further argued that

1. Jesus withdrew to Bethsaida as being in the jurisdiction of Philip, when he heard of the murder of John the Baptist by Herod Antipas, and would not have sought again the territories of the latter so soon after leaving them.
2. Medieval works of travel notice only one Bethsaida.
3. The east coast of the sea was definitely attached to Galilee in AD 84, and Ptolemy (c. 140) places Julias in Galilee. It is therefore significant that only the Fourth Gospel speaks of "Bethsaida of Galilee".
4. There could hardly have been two Bethsaidas so close together.

But:

1. It is not said that Jesus came hither that he might leave the territory of Antipas for that of Philip; and in view of , and Luke 9:10, the inference from Matthew 14:13 that he did so, is not warranted.
2. The Bethsaida of medieval writers was evidently on the west of the Jordan River. If it lay on the east, it is inconceivable that none of them should have mentioned the river in this connection.
3. If the Gospel of John was not written until well into the 2nd century, then John the Apostle was not the same person as the author John the Evangelist. But this is a very precarious assumption. John, writing after AD 84, would hardly have used the phrase "Bethsaida of Galilee" of a place only recently attached to that province, writing, as he was, at a distance from the scene, and recalling the former familiar conditions.
4. In view of the frequent repetition of names in Palestine the nearness of the two Bethsaidas raises no difficulty. The abundance of fish at each place furnished a good reason for the recurrence of the name.

• The Sea of Galilee Boat
• New Testament places associated with Jesus
• Woes to the unrepentant cities

• Heinz-Wolfgang Kuhn (2025). 9783525540251, Vandenhoech & Ruprecht. . ISBN 9783525540251

• Arav R and RA Freund (2004) Bethsaida: A City by the North Shore of the Sea of Galilee Truman State University. .
• Bethsaida: An Ancient Fishing Village on the shore of the Sea of Galilee , 2001, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

• Bethsaida, Jacqueline Schaalje
• "Archaeologists discover lost home of Jesus's Apostles" by Benyamin Cohen, The Grapevine, August 7, 2017