Bethsaida

In week 3 of our Holy Land tour, we visit Bethsaida.

Bethsaida was the home town of Peter, Andrew, and Philip (3.1).  Among the miracles that Jesus worked here, was healing a blind man(3.2). In the nearby fields, Luke located the miraculous feeding of a multitude, starting from two fish and five loaves of bread (3.3).

Bethsaida lay east of the Jordan in the domain of Herod Philippus. One possible location is a tel (mound of ruins) more than a mile from the Sea of Galilee.  In antiquity, a lagoon connected it to the lake.

In spring or summer, when the dig is in progress, we can view the magnificent four-chambered city gate from the 9th century BC.  Among its shrines diggers found a smashed, 3-foot-high stone, portraying a bull-headed god with a sword that was destroyed in 735 BC.  By the time of Jesus’ mission, the hill held a village containing several large rustic houses built of basalt fieldstones. In one. diggers found fishhooks, lead sinkers and needles for mending nets. Could these have been Peter’s tools? Quite possibly we are standing in his house.  We can also visit the neighbor’s wine cellar. This house contained jars and pruning hooks, as well as an iron key (3.4). The second possibility for Bethsaida, today called El-Araj, lies nearer to the lake, but it still awaits excavation.

3.1. John 1:44

3.2. Mark 8:22-26

3.3. Luke 9:10

3.4. A replica was given to Pope John Paul II on his visit to the Holy Land in March 2000.