THE SEA OF GALILEE A FOCUS OF LIFE AND ACTIVITY.

A MERE glance at the life of the lake is all that we can devote to this topic, before we pass on to consider the cities lying about it and those that were scattered throughout the province. In those days the sea was covered with ships and boats, engaged either in fishing or traffic, or carrying travellers or parties of pleasure from shore to shore. 'Merchants come and go from Hippos to Tiberias.' Hippos was on the east side of the lake, and Tiberias on the west. Once, when Josephus planned a certain movement against Tiberias, which was to start by water from Tarichaea, he collected for the purpose at that point, apparently in a short time, two hundred and thirty ships from the vicinity of Tarichaea alone. He says in his Life, that 'the sight of the lake covered with these vessels struck the Tiberians with terror.' Later, when this city expected an attack from the Romans, the citizens got ready a great number of vessels, to which they might flee in case of a repulse. The day went against them, and they fled to their ships; in these they made a bold resistance, and cost the Romans a fierce and bloody struggle before they could be overcome. That is a bloody sea-fight in which from four to six thousand are slaughtered on one side alone, as was the case here, and not a 'sharp skirmish,' as one has termed this event. As all could hardly have perished, the number of Jews killed is a hint, at least, that the number of ships on the side of the Tarichaeans was large. We are speaking of Tarichaea alone; but when we think of all the cities and towns by which the lake was surrounded, we can easily understand that in Christ's time its ships and boats were very numerous. The difference between ships and the small boats which are attached to them is clearly brought out in the Greek of John xxi. 3, 6, 8. The phrase in Josephus ' climbing up into their ships,' is a significant hint as to the size of some of their vessels. And as to the appearance of the lake then: ' when we add to the fishermen the crowd of ship-builders, the many boats of traffic, pleasure, and passage, we see that the whole basin must have been a focus of life and energy; the surface of the lake constantly dotted with the white sails of vessels flying before the mountain gusts, as the beach sparkled with the houses and palaces, the synagogues and temples of the Jewish or Roman inhabitants¹.'

1) Sinai and Palestine, p. 367.