visited here and cured a blind man (Mark 8:22). It is also mentioned as part of the “Jewish triangle” in Jesus’ time, along with Capernaum and Korazin, the focus of Jewish life and culture of which Jesus said: “Woe unto thee, Korazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.” (Matthew 11:21). Much serious archeological work remains to be done at the site. Nevertheless, its having been discovered, along with its location relatively far away from the shores of the Sea of Galilee, up on a hill, can tell us much about the way Jesus’ fishermen disciples lived and worked and went about their weekly routine. Kursi, the biblical Gergesenes, where the remains of a beautiful Byzantine monastery mark the traditional spot of the Miracle of the Gaderene Swine (Matthew,
8:28-34), is another significant site on the Sea of Galilee’s eastern side. The Galilee abounds with any number of Christian sites. Near Mt. Tabor, in what now is the Arab village of Doburiyah, Jesus cured the epileptic boy (Luke 9, 37-43). Banias, also known as Caesarea Phillipi, is the Golan Heights site of Peter’s confession (Matthew 16:13). Not all the sites in the Galilee that are significant to Christians are enriched with their uniqueness or “holiness” as a result of Jesus having preached, or performed miracles there. At Kibbutz Ginosar, the remains of a first-century boat are on display. This 2000-year-old trireme was discovered in the mud banks of the Sea of Galilee, when the lake receded during a drought in the 1980s, and it may well have been associated with
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