"

rias,and the

the Gospels, either under the same or else different names, CHAP. IV. For it is to be known that the sea of Galilee is the same called the with the sea of Tiberias, and the lake of Gennesareth, sea of TibeAs it was called the sea of Galilee from the province of lake of GenGalilee in general, so it was called the sea of Tiberias, nesareth. from a town of that name standing on its western shore; and it was called the lake of Gennesareth, from that particular tract of Galilee which lay next to, and so bounded it all along the western side. The breadth of this lake or sea, Josephus tells us, is forty furlongs, and the length an hundred: the water of it is sweet and potable, without any thing of moorishness either in the taste or colour. It lies upon a gravel, and so more conveniently to be drawn, and softer than either a river or fountain water. And with all this it is so cold, that the people of the place cannot warm it, by setting it in the sun in the hottest season in the year. It has in it great variety of fish, which for taste and shape are not to be found any where else; and the river Jordan runs through the midst of it. Josephus, Wars of the Jews, book iii, chap, xviii. L'Estrange's edition. As to the name whereby this sea went in the times of the Old Testament, it was then without doubt called the sea of Chinnereth, Num. xxxiv. 11. or Cinnereth, Josh. xiii. 27. Of which more in the following paragraph.

9.

of Genne

From the description of the lake of Gennesareth proceed we to describe the land of Gennesareth, which is mentioned of the land Matt. xiv. 34. Mar. vi. 53. and which, as Josephus ex-sareth. pressly informs us, gave name to the adjoining lake, and is thus described by the said author in his third book of the Wars of the Jews, chap. xviii. L'Estrange's edition. This lake takes its name from the country that surrounds it, which is fruitful and agreeable to admiration. As for fertility of the soil, no plant comes amiss to it; besides that it is improved by the skill and industry of the inhabitants to the highest degree; and, by a strange felicity of the climate, every thing prospers there; as nuts, palms, figs, and olive-trees, that flourish here in perfection,

PART I. though they require a quite different temperature of air in the nature of them; which looks as if Providence took delight in this place to reconcile contradictions; and as if the very seasons themselves were in a competition which should be most obliging. And the production of strange varieties of excellent fruit is not all neither; but the conserving of them so long quick and sound is another curiosity. Figs and grapes hold in season there ten months in the year, and other fruits the whole year about. And the place is not more famous for a delicious air, than it is for a crystalline flowing fountain, called by the natives Capernaum, which some take for a little gut of the Nile, because of a certain fish in it, that is no where else to be found but in Alexandria. The length of the country along the lake is thirty stadia, (or furlongs, i. e. near four miles,) and the breadth twenty stadia, (or furlongs, i. e. about two miles and a half.) Such a delicious country was the land of Gennesareth in the time of Josephus, who lived in the same age with our Saviour. And hence it is that some conjecture the word Gennesareth, or, as it is sometimes written, Gennesar, to be made up of the two words Gen and Sar; the former of which denotes in the Hebrew tongue a garden, the latter a prince, and so both together denote the garden of a prince, or princely garden. Which name, though it be not improper to so delightful and fruitful a country, as the land of Gennesareth was; yet however it is more likely that the name Gennesareth in the New Testament was by degrees framed from that of Chinnereth or Cinnereth in the Old Testament. For it is manifest from Josh. xix. 35. that Cinnereth was then a fenced or principal city in the tribe of Naphtali; and it is further manifest from 1 Kings xv. 20. that it gave name to an adjoining tract of ground; and it is still further manifest from Num. xxxiv. 11. Deut. iii. 17. Josh. xii. 3. that the city of Cinnereth lay on the coast of the lake Gennesareth, and also gave name to the said lake; this being evidently the same, as appears from the places already cited, that was in the times of Moses and Joshua called

the sea of Cinnereth. All these particulars laid together, CHAP. IV. it will, I suppose, appear more than probable that Gennesareth in the New Testament is no other than a word moulded from Cinnereth in the Old Testament. There is indeed this difference to be observed between the times of the Old and New Testament, namely, that whereas there was a considerable city named Chinnereth, or Cinnereth, in the former times, there is no mention made of any city that went under the name of Gennesareth in the times of the New Testament. But this may be very well accounted for, it being most highly probable, that the city Cinnereth was destroyed by Benhadad King of Syria, at the time mentioned 1 Kings xv. 20. and that although upon its ruins afterwards arose the city of Capernaum, so called from the excellent fountain above mentioned out of Josephus; yet the lake and adjacent tract of ground still retained the ancient name of Cinnereth, moulded by degrees or difference of dialect into Gennesareth. I shall close the description of the land and lake of Gennesareth with observing, that as the Jewish historian Josephus attributes the extraordinary fertility of the land of Gennesareth to the peculiar providence of God, as if he took more delight in this spot of ground than others; so it was a common saying of the Jews in reference to the lake of Gennesareth, that God loved that sea more than all the other seas. And indeed it does so far hold good, that this sea above all others was frequently honoured with the divine presence of our blessed Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST, after that he came and dwelt at Capernaum, within the land, and upon the lake of Gennesareth, and that not only before, but also after, his resurrection, John xxi. 1.

10.

Our Lord

Now though our Lord had made choice of Capernaum to be his dwelling-place, whence it is called his own city, visits other Matt. ix. 1; yet he frequently visited the other parts of parts of Galilee, and is Galilee, (and sometimes also the country beyond Jordan, resorted to and the sea of Galilee,) teaching in their synagogues, and from all healing all manner of diseases; so that his fame went

parts.

PART I. throughout all the adjoining parts of Syria, and there followed after him great multitudes of people from all parts of the Holy Land, from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan, Matt. iv. 13, 23, 24, 25.

11. Our Lord

But when the season for celebrating the passover was come again, JESUS went up again to Jerusalem, to celeJerusalem brate the same. And at this passover he wrought a

goes up to

to celebrate

after his

trance upon

A. D. 31.

da.

the second great miracle by curing an impotent man, who had been passover, unable to walk for eight and thirty years. Our Saviour baptism met with the man at the pool in Jerusalem, called Beand en- thesda. This pool had adjoining to it a building consisting his public of five porches, in which were laid a great multitude of lic ministry impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the movOf the pool ing of the water. For an Angel went down at a certain of Bethes- season into the pool, and troubled or stirred about the water : whosoever then first, after the troubling of the water, stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had, John v. 2-4. This is the account given by the Evangelist St. John, of the virtue appertaining to this pool. And Tertullian notes that the virtue of this pool ceased, upon the Jews persevering in their infidelity, and rejecting our Saviour. Mr. Maundrell tells us, that he went to take a view of that which they now call the pool of Bethesda; and that it is one hundred and twenty paces long, and forty broad, and at least eight deep, but void of water. At its west end it discovers some old arches now dammed up. These some will have to be the five porches in which sat that multitude of lame, halt, and blind (John v. 3.); but the mischief is, instead of five, there are but three of them. This pool is contiguous on one side to (what is now called) St. Stephen's gate, and on the other to the area of the Temple.

CHAP. V.

31 and 32.

Of our Saviour's Journeyings from the second Passover after A. D. his Baptism and Entrance upon his public Ministry, to the third Passover.

returns into

THE passover holy-days being over, our Lord returns 1. into Galilee; and when it was known, great multitudes Our Lord resorted unto him from all quarters, Mark iii. 7, 8. Some Galilee. time after he withdrew into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer; and when it was day, he called unto him his disciples, and of them he chose twelve, whom he named Apostles, or Messengers, he ordaining them to this special end, that he might send them forth to preach, Luke vi. 12, 13. Mark iii. 14. Not long after this JESUS seeing the multitudes that followed him, went up with them into a mountain, and sitting down, preached to them that divine sermon recorded in Matt. v. vi. and vii.

of Beati

This sermon beginning with beatitudes, or blessings, the mountain, on which it is generally supposed to be preached, is from hence called the mountain of Beatitudes, lying The mount north of the sea of Galilee, and not far from Capernaum; tudes. and in all probability it was the same mountain, whither our Saviour retired, and where he spent all the night in prayer, before his election and ordination of the twelve Apostles.

Our Lord having ended his sermon, came down from the mount or little hill, (for it is but a small rising,) and entered into Capernaum, where he cured the centurion's servant, Matt. viii. 1, 2, &c. Luke vii. 1, 2, &c. The day after our Lord went into a city called Naim, where he raised to life the widow's son that was dead, and then carrying to his grave. The city Naim is situated in Galilee, not many leagues from mount Tabor, of which hereafter.

2.

Of Nain or

Naim.