TIBERIAS. — A city of Palestine, almost at the centre of the western shore of the lake of the same name, founded near the ancient Rekath (Jos. 19:36) between the years 18 and 22 by Herod Antipas (q.v.), tetrarch of Galilee, who named it T. in honour of the Emperor Tiberius.
At first the more observant Jews decided not to live there, because T. was considered an impure place, having been built in part over the necropolis of the nearby city; Herod therefore summoned the poor and the outcasts, who formed the first urban nucleus. When the ban was lifted by the rabbis, the Jews flocked there in large numbers, making up the majority of the city, which became the most populous in Galilee.
The city had a Hellenistic constitution, with a council of 600 members, presided over by an archon; an internal affairs strategos and an agoranomos to oversee the markets. The royal palace was decorated with animal figures, a cause of scandal to the Jews, who in 66 razed it to the ground; there were also a stadium, a forum, a temple for pagans and numerous synagogues for Jews. Favoured by Claudius, the city inscribed on its coins the title Tiberias Claudiopolis Syriae Palestinae. In AD 55 it was assigned by Nero to Agrippa II, a friend of the Romans, and in 66, as the legions approached, although defended and fortified by Flavius Josephus, it surrendered to Vespasian. After the fall of Jerusalem, it became the religious centre of the nation: the Sanhedrin resided there; a famous rabbinic school arose, which in the 4th century compiled the Jerusalem Talmud around the Mishnah and in the 6th century developed the Masorah (q.v.), to which it added a system of vocalic punctuation known as the Tiberian.
Constantine authorised the Jewish convert Joseph of Tiberias to open a church there, and in the 5th century the Christian community had its own bishop, suffragan of that of Scythopolis. Justinian built other churches, including one dedicated to St Peter, which survived even after the Muslim occupation of 637, when T. became the capital of the ‘province of the Jordan’. Captured by the Crusaders in 1099, it became the capital of the Principality of Galilee, entrusted to Tancred, who enclosed it with walls, erected churches and monasteries and founded a Latin bishopric. Taken in 1187 by Saladin, and returned to the Christians for a brief period in 1240, it dwindled under Arab and Turkish rule to a wretched fishing village. In the 18th century Sheikh Omar ez-Zahir, known by the name of Dāhir, promoted building development, renewed the city walls and erected a citadel, still visible today despite damage from the earthquake of 1837. The city presents no archaeological features of interest; recent constructions have reused medieval and Arab materials. Columns, capitals and remains of walls of a synagogue with a mosaic floor indicate the prosperity of the Roman city.
TIBERIAS — SANCTUARY of the Beatitudes on the lake of T., architect A. Barluzzi.
The lake still appears desolate, though cultivated areas are gaining ground and flourishing Jewish colonies have been established on its shores.
Very different was the region in the time of Jesus, who chose the lake’s shores as the centre of his apostolate, with his residence at Capernaum (q.v.). There he gathered the crowds and spoke to them, seated in a fishing boat (Mt. 13:1-3); among the lake’s fishermen he chose his Apostles (ibid. 4:18-22); in Peter’s boat he crossed it several times from one shore to the other, calming a furious storm (ibid. 8:23-27). There took place the miraculous draught of fishes (Lk. 5:1-11), the finding of the coin by Peter to pay the tribute (Mt. 17:20), the appearances of Jesus above the waters (ibid. 14:31), and finally, after the Resurrection, the confirmation of St Peter’s primacy (Jn. 21). The towns and hills around recall his apostolate, the preaching of the Beatitudes and the parables. Of the cities recorded by history, situated on the shore above the surrounding hills and now in ruins, some have been identified by archaeological excavations: Tarichea and Magdala (= the village of el-Megdel); Capernaum (= Tell Hum); Chorazin (= Hūbet Kerāzeh); Philoteria, south of T. (Hūbet Beit Jerah), where the most important archaeological excavation is currently under way. On the eastern shore are Bethsaida Julia, identified as et-Tell, and Gerasa, at el-Kursi; recent excavations have brought to light, in the bay of et-Tābighah, a 4th-century church in memory of the multiplication of the loaves, a 4th-century chapel on the hill known as the Mount of Beatitudes, and on the lake shore another chapel dedicated to the primacy of St Peter.