TIBERIAS. - A city of Palestine, almost at the center of the western shore of the lake of the same name, founded near ancient Rakkath (Josh. 19:36) between the years 18 and 22 by Herod Antipas (v.), tetrarch of Galilee, who named it T. in honor 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 on the necropolis of the neighboring city; Herod therefore summoned there the bankrupt and the disreputable, who formed its first urban nucleus. Raised to the rank of capital of Galilee and with the government offices and banks transferred there from Sepphoris, the Jews, once the rabbis had lifted the ban, flocked there in great numbers, forming the majority of the city, which became the most populous in Galilee.
The city's constitution was Hellenistic, with a senate of 600 members presided over by an archon; with a strategos for internal affairs and an agoranomos for the supervision of the markets. The royal palace was decorated with figures of animals, a cause of scandal for the Jews, who in 66 razed it to the ground; there were the stadium, the forum, the temple for the pagans and numerous synagogues for the Jews. Favored by Claudius, the city inscribed on its coins the title Tiberias Claudiopolis Syriae Palestinae. In 55 A.D. it was assigned by Nero to Agrippa II, a friend of the Romans, and in 66, as the legions drew near, although defended and fortified by Flavius Josephus, it surrendered to Vespasian. After the fall of Jerusalem, it became the religious center of the nation: the Sanhedrin resided there; there arose a famous rabbinical school, which around the Mishnah compiled in the 4th century the "Jerusalem" Talmud and in the 7th century elaborated the Masorah (v.), to which it added a vocalic punctuation known as that of T.
Constantine authorized the Jewish convert Joseph of T. to open a church there, and the Christian community had in the 5th century its own bishop, a suffragan of the bishop of Scythopolis. Justinian erected other churches, among them the one dedicated to St. Peter, which lasted even after the Muslim occupation of 637, when T. became the capital of the "province of the Jordan." Conquered by the Crusaders in 1099, it was the capital of the Principality of Galilee, entrusted to Tancred, who encircled it with walls, raised churches and monasteries there and founded a Latin bishopric there. Taken in 1187 by Saladin, returned in 1240 for a short time to the Christians, it was reduced under Arab and Turkish rule to a wretched fishing village. In the 18th century the sheikh 'Omar eṣ-Ẓāhir, known by the name of Dāhir, favored building development, renewed the circuit of the walls and erected there a citadel, visible even today, although shaken by the earthquake of 1837. The city presents no elements of archaeological interest; in recent constructions medieval and Arab material has been used. Columns, capitals, remains of the walls of a synagogue with a mosaic floor, indicate the prosperity of the Roman city.
Jewish immigration, the founding of flourishing colonies in the vicinity and, after the flood of 1934, the reconstruction on a new plan with the creation of villas and new quarters, have made T. an important center in the State of Israel, as a seaside resort.
Bibliography3 works
THE LAKE OF TIBERIAS
A Palestinian lake, formed by the river Jordan, which is both its tributary and its outlet, about 21 km. long, at most 11 wide, up to 45 m. deep. Its surface area is 144 sq. km., 212 m. below the level of the Mediterranean.
It had various names: "sea of Chinnereth" (Num. 34:11; Deut. 3:17; Josh. 11:2), from the city now buried on Tell el-Orejmeh, 25 km. north of T.; pool of Genesareth (v.) or Genesar (1 Macc. 11:67; Lk. 5:1), probably from the village that grew up at the foot of Chinnereth, or from the adjacent plain (Fl. Josephus, Bell. Iud., III, 10,8); "sea of Galilee" (Mt. 4:18; 15:29; Mk. 1:16; 7:31) from the name of the political district. In Roman times, after T. had gained predominance over all the other cities of the shore, the name lake of T. prevailed (Jn. 6:1), which has been preserved down to our own days in the Arabic name Baḥr Ṭabarijjah. On the maps of the State of Israel it is marked with the ancient biblical name jâm-Kinnêreth. Set between steep walls, with slopes consisting mostly of volcanic materials, usually bare, or covered with meager pasture, only in the north do these widen into two broad plains: that of el-Batiḥah to the northeast, toward the outlet of the Jordan, where in the 1st century there existed the city of Bethsaida (v.) Julia, a lacustrine delta formed by the Jordan and by other watercourses coming from the Gôlân; and that to the northwest, or plain of Genesar, between el-Meğdel and 'Ajn eṭ-Ṭâbiġah, praised by Fl. Josephus (Bell. Iud., III, 10,8) for its fertility. The lake has clear waters that are almost perfectly fresh and therefore drinkable; it undergoes notable variations in level, being at its lowest during the autumn and at its greatest height in spring. The rich fauna, about 22 species of fish, constitutes an inexhaustible source of sustenance for the inhabitants. Although cultivated areas are gaining ground and flourishing Jewish colonies have been established on the shores, the lake still appears desolate.
The region was different in the time of Jesus, who chose the shores of the lake as the center of his apostolate, with residence at Capernaum (v.). There he gathered the crowds and spoke to them, seated on fishing boats (Mt. 13, 1-3); among the fishermen of the lake he chose his Apostles (ibid. 4, 18-22); on 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 catch of fish (Lk. 5, 1-11), the coin found by Peter to pay the tribute (Mt. 17, 20), the appearances of Jesus upon the waters (ibid. 14, 31), and finally, after the Resurrection, the confirmation of the primacy to St. Peter (Jn. 21). The small towns and the surrounding hills recall his apostolate, the preaching of the beatitudes and of the parables. Of the cities mentioned by history, situated on the shore above the surrounding hills, fallen into ruin, the following have been identified through archaeological excavations: Tarichea or Magdala (= village of el-Megdel); Capernaum (= Tell Hüm); Corozain (= Hirbet Kerāzeh); Filateria, south of T. (Hirbet Bejt Jerah), where the most important archaeological excavation is in progress. On the eastern shore are Bethsaida Julia, identified with et-Tell, and Gergesa, with el-Kursi; recent excavations have brought to light, in the bay of et-Tābīgah, a 4th-century church commemorating the multiplication of the loaves, a 4th-century chapel on the hill known as that of the Beatitudes, and on the shore of the lake another chapel dedicated to the primacy of St. Peter.