TIBERIAS

A city of Galilee, founded by Herod Antipas, and namely by him in honor of the emperor Tiberius. A more ancient and greater city, perhaps Chinneroth, seems previously to have flourished and gone to ruin near the same site, on the south. Tiberias was situated on the western shore of the lake of Gennesareth, about two hours’ ride from the place where the Jordan issues from the lake. In the vicinity of the city were hot springs, which were much celebrated. The lake is also sometimes, called from the city, the sea of Tiberias, Joh 6:1,23 21:1. See SEA 4. After the destruction of Jerusalem, Tiberias was celebrated as the seat of a flourishing school of Jewish learning. The crusaders held it for a time, and erected a church, in which the Arabs have since housed their cattle. Modern Tubariyeh lies on a narrow undulating plain between the high table-land and the sea. It was half destroyed by an earthquake in 1837, and has a population of only twenty-five hundred souls, nearly one-third of whom are Jews. The walls are little more than heaps of ruins, the castle is much shattered, and the place has an aspect of extreme wretchedness and filth. As the Arabs say, "The king of the fleas holds his court at Tubariyeh." South of the town are numerous remains of the ancient city or cities extending for a mile and a half, nearly to the hot springs. The waters of these springs are nauseous and salt, and too hot for immediate use, 136 degrees to 144 degrees; but the baths are much resorted to for the cure of rheumatic diseases, etc.

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Tiberias. Tiberias
A city, the modern Tubarich, on the western shore of the Sea of Tiberias. It is said to have been founded by Herod Antipas (A.D. 16), on the site of the ruins of an older city called Rakkath, and to have been thus named by him after the Emperor Tiberius. It is mentioned only three times in the history of our Lord (John 6:1,23; 21:1).

In 1837 about one-half of the inhabitants perished by an earthquake. The population of the city is now about six thousand, nearly the one-half being Jews. “We do not read that our Lord ever entered this city. The reason of this is probably to be found in the fact that it was practically a heathen city, though standing upon Jewish soil. Herod, its founder, had brought together the arts of Greece, the idolatry of Rome, and the gross lewdness of Asia. There were in it a theatre for the performance of comedies, a forum, a stadium, a palace roofed with gold in imitation of those in Italy, statues of the Roman gods, and busts of the deified emperors. He who was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel might well hold himself aloof from such scenes as these” (Manning’s Those Holy Fields).

After the fall of Jerusalem (A.D. 70), Tiberias became one of the chief residences of the Jews in Palestine. It was for more than three hundred years their metropolis. From about A.D. 150 the Sanhedrin settled here, and established rabbinical schools, which rose to great celebrity. Here the Jerusalem (or Palestinian) Talmud was compiled about the beginning of the fifth century. To this same rabbinical school also we are indebted for the Masora, a “body of traditions which transmitted the readings of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, and preserved, by means of the vowel-system, the pronunciation of the Hebrew.” In its original form, and in all manuscripts, the Hebrew is written without vowels; hence, when it ceased to be a spoken language, the importance of knowing what vowels to insert between the consonants. This is supplied by the Masora, and hence these vowels are called the “Masoretic vowel-points.”

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Tiberias. good vision; the navel

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TIBERIAS. 1. A city next to Lake Galilee Joh 6:23 2. The sea of, a name given to Lake Galilee Joh 6:1; 21:1
* See GALILEE, Number two

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sea of Joh 6:1,23 --SEE Galilee, Sea of, GALILEE, SEA OF