What is the significance of the Sea of Galilee in the Bible?

The Sea of Galilee.

As this occasion is the last one in which the Sea of Galilee is mentioned in this Gospel, it may be of interest and help for further study to bring together the various passages where the name occurs. They serve at any rate to show how large a portion of the recorded ministry of Jesus was exercised in the northern province. Mark 1:16, walking on its shores, Jesus called Simon, Andrew, James, and John; Mark 2:13, Jesus taught the crowds gathered by the seaside; Mark 3:7, Jesus withdrew to the sea from the plottings of the Pharisees and Herodians; Mark 4:1, from a boat Jesus taught the people who were assembled on the shore; Mark 4:39, Jesus stilled the storm upon the sea; Mark 5:1, Jesus crossed the sea to the country of the Gerasenes; Mark 5:13, the herd of swine under the impulse of the demons stampeded into the sea; Mark 5:21, Jesus re-crossed the sea; Mark 6:47, Jesus walked upon the sea to His disciples during a storm, and stilled it; Mark 7:31, Jesus returned to the sea of Galilee after His journey to the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon.

This beautiful lake, which is a striking natural feature of the North of Palestine, is only mentioned three times in the Old Testament, where it is referred to as the Sea of Chinnereth in connection with the division of the land of Israel among the several tribes (Num. 34:11; Joshua 12:3; Joshua 13:27).

The events which are recorded in this chapter happened at the Sea of Galilee, the sea of Tiberias. John exclusively uses this name, an evidence that he wrote after the fall of Jerusalem. By this name the lake had become known to the Gentiles. The feeding of the five thousand is the same mentioned by the Synoptics. This great sign showed that Jehovah was in their midst, He Who had fed His Israel with manna in the wilderness and promised to satisfy the poor with bread. (Psalm 132:15.) When they had seen the great sign they acknowledged Him to be the promised Prophet who should come (Deuteronomy 18:15) and wanted to make Him King. But He departed into a mountain. He knew that all they meant by making Him King was to become the leader of a carnal movement to overthrow the hated Roman government.

Jesus went away beyond the sea of Galilee, and sat there upon a mountain with His disciples. Now the passover was near; and this fact gives the tone to all the discourse we have here. Lifting up His eyes, Jesus sees the multitude that had followed Him, and asks Philip where they should buy bread for all this people, knowing well what He would do. The disciples think, not according to the thoughts of faith, but considering the resources upon which man can calculate; one thinks of what would be needed, the other, of what there was. There was indeed an immense disparity between the five loaves of bread and the five thousand men. Now one of the promises made for the time of the Messiah, was, that Jehovah would satisfy His poor with bread (Psalm 132); and Jesus accomplished this promise, working a miracle, which had its effect on the crowds which surrounded Him; there was abundance, and there remained over and above.

Our Lord departed away beyond the Sea of Galilee, of Tiberias. A multitude followed Him. This was a sort of link between the Lord's service and the Jewish nation or body generally; but they were not necessarily, properly speaking, Jews, but there were Jews among them. They followed Him, we may observe, because of the signs done upon the sick, but without, as before, really receiving Jesus as come down from heaven, or the Sent One of God. Jesus therefore went up into the mountain, and sat there with His disciples. Upon this, Jesus, lifting up His eyes, and seeing that a great multitude was coming, at once entered on the subject with Philip, the fact of their necessity being developed by the enquiry to Philip, showing also the familiar exercise of the disciples' mind habitual to the Lord, and His entire interest in them, the case requiring it. For it was customary (and is) with the Lord to meet every need His people are in. It is His occasion of miracle. Another in the same confidence in Him tells Him of the five loaves and two small fishes. Minute circumstances are pleasant when connected with things of deep interest, and showing forth the occasion of the glory of One whose glory is ours.

THIS CHAPTER BRINGS US back again to Galilee, and we read of another of the great "signs" which Jesus did. The miracle of feeding the five thousand has evidently a special importance, since it is related in each of the four Gospels. Our chapter gives us the teaching, based upon it and relating to it, which makes apparent its significance. The miracle itself is described in such a way as to emphasize the Lord's resource and foreknowledge.

The Lord retires into the wilderness, the type of the world in the condition to which sin has reduced it, in the Old Testament as well as in the New. Here disciples, hands minister to the need of the multitude out of their own provision multiplying through His blessing on it. Five loaves and two fishes feed, and more than feed, five thousand men. The application is of the easiest, and made by Christians generally; and we have been through it in Matthew already: the fullness of its blessed meaning is as little to be exhausted, as the loaves were at the time here brought before us. It is one of those scenes, exceptional in the evangelic history, to which its four writers all contribute, while in John the Lord Himself develops from it His teaching as to the bread of life.

"After these things Jesus went away beyond the sea of Galilee, of Tiberias, and a great crowd followed Him because they saw the signs which he wrought on the sick. But Jesus went up into the mountain, and there sat with His disciples; and the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. Jesus then, lifting up His eyes, and seeing that a great crowd cometh unto Him, saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy loaves that these may eat? But this He said, trying him, for He Himself knew what He was about to do. Philip answered Him, Loaves for two hundred pence are not sufficient for them, that each of them† may have some little. One of His disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, saith to Him, There is a little boy116 here that hath five barley-loaves and two fishes; but these, what are they for so many?" Without αὐτοῦ ℵABDKLSΔII, many cursives, and almost all the ancient versions; with it EFGHMUVΓΔ, etc. † ℵABLΠ, six cursives, and most versions reject αὐτῶν.

The scene is wholly changed from Jerusalem. We see the Lord in Galilee, and in that part of the lake called from the city of Tiberias, as well as from the province bordering on its western side. A great crowd follow Him because of the signs He wrought on the sick. The Lord withdraws to the high land, where He sits with His disciples, the Passover being then at hand. None of the motives mentioned in the Synoptic accounts do we find here: neither the beheading of John Baptist, nor the Apostles' return from their mission, nor the need of rest after toils in teaching or other work. Jesus fills the picture: all is in His hand. It is He Who takes the initiative; not that the disciples may not have previously been perplexed, nor as if John did not know this as well as Matthew and the rest, but because it pleased the Holy Spirit to give us Christ Himself alone master of the situation, as always in his Gospel. The nearness of the Passover is noted as repeatedly in this Gospel. Here, too, there was the reason for it, that the discourse that follows, as well as the sign wrought, is grounded on eating and drinking as the token of communion.

beginning of John 5 is striking. For here grace shines out beautifully, available for all, the miracle of the loaves and fishes being a sign to illustrate the gospel of free grace. But the sea of Galilee is called also Tiberias, named for the Roman Emperor, a reminder of Israel's humbling captivity and subjection to Rome. Great crowds follow Him, but not because they are concerned about His words. Curiosity as to His miracles seems to be the motive (v. 2).

The Lord returned to Capernaum on the coast of the Sea of Galilee. The emphasis is placed upon His preaching there, which He did on the sabbath days. People were astonished at His doctrine (as in Nazareth, but there resented), for there was manifest power in the words He spoke. Such power necessarily faces people with a decision to make: will they bow to that word or will they refuse it? No indifference can be allowed.

Accordingly, as in chapter 2 we found Gentiles from the East coming up to own the born King of the Jews, when His people were buried in bondage and Rabbinic tradition — in heartless heedlessness, too, while boasting of their privileges; so here our Lord, at the beginning of His public ministry, as recorded in Matthew, is seen taking up His abode in these despised districts of the north, the way of the sea, where especially Gentiles had long dwelt, and on which the Jews looked down as a rude and dark spot, far from the centre of religious sanctity. There, according to prophecy, light was to spring up; and how brightly was it now accomplished? Next, we have the call of the disciples, as we have seen. At the end of the chapter is a general summary of the Messiah's ministry, and of its effects, given in these words: "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and He healed them. And there followed Him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan." This I read, in order to show that it is the purpose of the Spirit, in this part of our gospel, to gather a quantity of facts together under one head, entirely regardless of the question of time. It is evident, that what is here described in a few verses must have demanded a considerable space for its accomplishment. The Holy Ghost gives it all to us as a connected whole.