GENNES'ARET, SEA OF, called also in the New Testament, The Sea of Galilee, and The Sea of Teberias (from the city of Tiberias), and in the Old Testament The Sea qf Chinnereth or Cianeroth, from an ancient town of that name situated on or near its shores. The word Gennesaret itself is supposed by sonic to be merely a corruption of Chiunereth; but others derive it from Gannah, a " garden," and Sharon, the name of a plain,. between Mt. Tabor and the lake. The sea, or rather, lake of Gennesaret is about 13 m. long and 6 broad. It lies in the bottom of a great basin, and is undoubtedly of volcanic origin. Although the Jordan runs into it red and turbid from the n., and many warm and brackish springs also find their way thither, its waters are cool, clear, and sweet. Its shores are also enlivened with sparkling pebbles. Now, as formerly, it abounds in fish; but the fisheries are almost entirely neglected. The surrounding scenery is not very beautiful, but its associations are among the most sacred in Pales tine. " Where'er we tread, 'tis haunted, holy ground." '• Like Jerusalem, the sea of Gennesaret is enshrined in the heart from childhood. The home of Christ—' his own
city '—Capernaum, lay on its shores; many of his miracles were performed around and upon it; he taught the multitudes that followed him, on the heights over it, along its pebbly beach, and from a boat on its surface; most of the apostles were fishermen, who here gained their daily bread; and one of Christ's last earthly interviews with them, after the crucifixion, was on that occasion when, driven probably by necessity, they had temporarily resumed their old occupation, and bad toiled a long night without success" (Porter, Handbook for Syria and Palestine, part ii. page 418). In the time of Christ, the region round about was the most densely populated in Galilee. Nine cities and towns stood on the shores of the lake, while the neighboring plains and eminences were dotted with numerous large villages. Of the nine cities, seven are now uninhabited ruins; half a dozen mud-hovels are sufficient to house all the human life at Magdala, and only Tiberias continues to exhibit some feeble traces of its former prosperity.