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Matthew 14: Bread for five thousand, a night on the sea, and the sick of Gennesaret

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Matthew 12:41ESV

The men of will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

ESV

And when they had crossed over, they came to land at .

Matthew 15:1ESV

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from and said,

Matthew 12
Matthew 15

Herod the tetrarch hears of Jesus and takes him for John the Baptist, whom he had beheaded in prison at his birthday feast for the daughter of Herodias. Jesus withdraws by boat to a desolate place, where the crowds follow him on foot and he feeds about five thousand men with five loaves and two fish. He sends the disciples ahead in the boat, and in the fourth watch of the night comes to them walking on the sea, and Peter walks on the water to him. When they have crossed over they come to land at Gennesaret, and the sick of that region are made well by touching the fringe of his garment.

Map of Matthew 14: Bread for five thousand, a night on the sea, and the sick of Gennesaret — 1 sites plotted

Regions on this map

Verses 25 to 29: the sea Jesus and Peter walk on; verses 34 to 36: Gennesaret, where the boat comes to land and the sick are brought to him.

  • Where the boat comes to land after the crossing (14:34), and whose men send around all that region for the sick (14:35-36). Matthew names it as a stretch of land on the lake shore, not a town; the gazetteer's one identification (500 votes) is El Ghuweir, the small plain on the north-west shore.

    a stretch of shore rather than a site; the pin is a representative point on the plain

  • Matthew says only "the sea" and "the water" (14:25-29): the lake the disciples are crossing when the wind is against them and Jesus comes to them walking on it. All 500 gazetteer votes go to the Sea of Galilee.

    Today: Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret), northern Israel (representative point)

Matthew 14, verse by verse

  1. Matthew 14:34And when they had crossed over, they came to land at .