BETHSAIDA (beth'sal-da), (Gr. lirreactad, bayth sakee-dah', fishing-town), a town orox‘r, John i:44; NI ark Viii:22) (John Xii:21), on the west ern side of the sea of Tiberias, towards the middle, and nut far from Ca pernaum (Mark vi:45; It was the native place of Peter, Andrew, and Philip, and the frequent residence of Jesus. This gives some notion of the neighborhood in which it lay ; but the precise site is utterly unknown, and the very name has long eluded the search of travelers. The last historical notice of it is by Jerome, but he affords no more information than may be derived from the intimations in the New Testament. It is true that I'ococke (ii;p. 99) finds Bethsaida at Irbid ; Seetzen at Khan NI inyeh (Zach's Corrcsp. xviii: 343); Nau at Mejdcl (Voyage, p. 578; Quaresmius, tom. ii. 866), apparently between Khan Nlinyelt and Mej del ; and others at Tabighah—all different points on the western shore of the lake. But Dr. Robin son expresses his deliberate persuasion that these identifications can have no better foundation than the impression of the moment. (Robinson's Re searches, iii, 304; King, Temple Hill).
Christ fed the 5,ouo 'near to a city called Bethsaida' (Luke ix :no) ; but it is evident from the parallel passages (Matt. xiv :13 ; Mark vi :32 45), that this event took place not in Galilee. but on the eastern side of the lake. This was held to be one of the greatest diflicillties in sacred geogra phy (Cellar. Notit. Orb. ii. 536). till the ingenious Reland afforded materials for a satisfactory solu tion of it, by distinguishing two Bethsaidas; one on the western, and the other on the northeastern border 01 the lake (/'abestilm, p. 653). The
former was undoubtedly 'the city of Andrew and Peter and. although }Wand did not himself think that the other Bethsaida is mentioned in the New Testament, it has been shown by later writers that it is in perfect agreement with the sacred text to conclude that it was the Bethsaida near which Christ fed the five and also, probably, where the blind man was restored to sight This, and not the western Bethsaida (as our English writers persist in stating), was the Bethsaida of Gaulonitis, afterwards called Julias, which Pliny (111st. Nat. xv.) places on the eastern side of the lake and of the Jordan, and which Josephus describes as situated in lower Gaulo nitis, just above the entrance of the Jordan into the lake (De Bell. Jud. ii. 9, 1; iii. to, 7). It was originally only a village, called Bethsaida, but was rebuilt and enlarged by Philip the Tetrarch not long after the birth of Christ, and received the name of Julias in honor of Julia, the daughter of Augustus (Luke iii :1 ; Joseph. Antiq. xviii: 2, ). Philip seems to have made it his occa sional residence, and here he died and was buried in a costly tomb (Antiq. xviii :4, 6).
Thomson is opposed to the idea of two Beth saidas. He thinks it highly probable that the whole city on both banks of the river was ordi narily attached to Galilee. He believes that there was but one Bethsaida at the head of the lake and that it was at the mouth of the Jordan (The Land and the Book, vol. ii, pp. 31, 32).