DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4641#0091
THE LAKE OF TIBERIAS, LOOKING TOWARDS HERMON.
The ancient City of Tiberias, built by Herod Antipas, and named in honour of his patron, the Emperor
Tiberius, has long since perished. With the mixture of violence and policy which characterised the
Oriental governments, Herod compelled a population from the surrounding provinces to fill his City;
adorned it with structures, of which the very fragments are stately; gave it peculiar privileges; and
building a palace, which was one of the wonders of the land, declared Tiberias the capital of Galilee.1
The ruins in the Sketch are those of the modern City, prostrated by the earthquake.
The view commands various sites, memorable from their connexion with Scripture. On the West
coast lies El-Medgel, the site of Magdala, the City of Mary Magdalene; Capernaum, Chorazin, and
Bethsaida once lay on the same coast; and in the vicinity, more to the South, was the City of
Tarichsea. On the East coast was the scene of the great miracle, the feeding of the four thousand;
and in the horizon is the majestic Hermon, 10,000 feet above the Mediterranean.
The Rabbins held that the former City stood on the site of Rakkath, while Jerome records a
tradition that it was once Chinnereth;2 but, leaving those laborious triflings to their natural obscurity,
it is evident that the original Tiberias occupied a site farther to the north. There the ground is
still strewed with fragments of noble architecture,— baths, temples, and perhaps theatres; giving full
proof of a Capital raised with the lavish grandeur of a Herodian City. In the great, final war, which
extinguished Judah as a nation, and commenced the longest calamity of the most illustrious and unhappy
race of mankind, Tiberias escaped the general destruction. Submitting to the authority of Vespasian,
without waiting to be subdued by his arms, the City retained its population, and, probably, its privileges.
In the national havoc, it even acquired the additional wealth and honours of a City of Refuge. It
had a coinage of its own, exhibiting the effigies of several of the Emperors, down to Antoninus Pius.
It appears to have peculiarly attracted Imperial notice, for Hadrian, though pressed with the cares of
the Roman world, commenced the rebuilding of a temple, or palace, which had been burnt in an
insurrection.3
But the history of this beautiful City has a still higher claim on human recollection, as the last
retreat of Jewish literature. On the fall of Jerusalem, and the final expulsion of the Jews from the
central province, the chief surviving portion of the state, the rank, the wealth, and the learning, were
suffered to take shelter within the walls of Tiberias. In the second century, a Sanhedrin was formed
there, and the broken people made their last attempt to form a semblance of established government.4
The two great Hebraists, Buxtorf and Lightfoot, have given the history of the School of Tiberias,
more interesting than the details of massacre, or the description of ruins. The protection of the City
drew the principal scholars from the cells and mountains where they had concealed themselves from
the habitual severities of Rome. Under the presidency of Rabbi Judah Hakkodesh the School flourished,
and acquired the acknowledged title of the Capital of Jewish learning. The first natural enterprise of
such a School was the collection of the ancient interpretations and traditions of the Law; and those
were embodied by Rabbi Judah in the Mishna (about a.d. 220). In the third century, Rabbi Jochanan
compiled the Gemara, a supplement to the Mishna (about a.d. 270), now known as the Jerusalem
Talmud. In the sixth century, the Babylonian Jews also compiled a Gemara, named the Talmud of
Babylon, now more esteemed by the Jews. But the School of Tiberias is said also to have produced
the Masora, or Canon for preserving the purity of the text in the Old Testament,—a labour whose
value, however the subject of controversy, is admitted to be incontrovertible.
The civil history of Tiberias is the common recapitulation of Eastern sieges and slaughters. Fortified
by Justinian, it fell successively into the hands of the Saracens, the Crusaders, Saladin, the Syrians,5
and the Turks. The French invasion brought Tiberias into European notice once more (a.d. 1799).
On their retreat it sank into its old obscurity, and must wait another change, of good or evil fortune,
to be known.
1 John vi. 23; xxi. 1. Josrph. Antiq. xviii. 2, 3. Bell. Jud. ii. 9, 4. 2 Josh. xix. 35. Hieron. Comm. in Ezech. xlviii. 21.
3 Epiphan. ad Haeret. i. 12. 4 Lightfoot, Ap. ii. 141. Buxtorf, Tiberias, 10, &c. 5 Niebuhr, Reisc. iii. Volney, Voyage, c. xxv.
The ancient City of Tiberias, built by Herod Antipas, and named in honour of his patron, the Emperor
Tiberius, has long since perished. With the mixture of violence and policy which characterised the
Oriental governments, Herod compelled a population from the surrounding provinces to fill his City;
adorned it with structures, of which the very fragments are stately; gave it peculiar privileges; and
building a palace, which was one of the wonders of the land, declared Tiberias the capital of Galilee.1
The ruins in the Sketch are those of the modern City, prostrated by the earthquake.
The view commands various sites, memorable from their connexion with Scripture. On the West
coast lies El-Medgel, the site of Magdala, the City of Mary Magdalene; Capernaum, Chorazin, and
Bethsaida once lay on the same coast; and in the vicinity, more to the South, was the City of
Tarichsea. On the East coast was the scene of the great miracle, the feeding of the four thousand;
and in the horizon is the majestic Hermon, 10,000 feet above the Mediterranean.
The Rabbins held that the former City stood on the site of Rakkath, while Jerome records a
tradition that it was once Chinnereth;2 but, leaving those laborious triflings to their natural obscurity,
it is evident that the original Tiberias occupied a site farther to the north. There the ground is
still strewed with fragments of noble architecture,— baths, temples, and perhaps theatres; giving full
proof of a Capital raised with the lavish grandeur of a Herodian City. In the great, final war, which
extinguished Judah as a nation, and commenced the longest calamity of the most illustrious and unhappy
race of mankind, Tiberias escaped the general destruction. Submitting to the authority of Vespasian,
without waiting to be subdued by his arms, the City retained its population, and, probably, its privileges.
In the national havoc, it even acquired the additional wealth and honours of a City of Refuge. It
had a coinage of its own, exhibiting the effigies of several of the Emperors, down to Antoninus Pius.
It appears to have peculiarly attracted Imperial notice, for Hadrian, though pressed with the cares of
the Roman world, commenced the rebuilding of a temple, or palace, which had been burnt in an
insurrection.3
But the history of this beautiful City has a still higher claim on human recollection, as the last
retreat of Jewish literature. On the fall of Jerusalem, and the final expulsion of the Jews from the
central province, the chief surviving portion of the state, the rank, the wealth, and the learning, were
suffered to take shelter within the walls of Tiberias. In the second century, a Sanhedrin was formed
there, and the broken people made their last attempt to form a semblance of established government.4
The two great Hebraists, Buxtorf and Lightfoot, have given the history of the School of Tiberias,
more interesting than the details of massacre, or the description of ruins. The protection of the City
drew the principal scholars from the cells and mountains where they had concealed themselves from
the habitual severities of Rome. Under the presidency of Rabbi Judah Hakkodesh the School flourished,
and acquired the acknowledged title of the Capital of Jewish learning. The first natural enterprise of
such a School was the collection of the ancient interpretations and traditions of the Law; and those
were embodied by Rabbi Judah in the Mishna (about a.d. 220). In the third century, Rabbi Jochanan
compiled the Gemara, a supplement to the Mishna (about a.d. 270), now known as the Jerusalem
Talmud. In the sixth century, the Babylonian Jews also compiled a Gemara, named the Talmud of
Babylon, now more esteemed by the Jews. But the School of Tiberias is said also to have produced
the Masora, or Canon for preserving the purity of the text in the Old Testament,—a labour whose
value, however the subject of controversy, is admitted to be incontrovertible.
The civil history of Tiberias is the common recapitulation of Eastern sieges and slaughters. Fortified
by Justinian, it fell successively into the hands of the Saracens, the Crusaders, Saladin, the Syrians,5
and the Turks. The French invasion brought Tiberias into European notice once more (a.d. 1799).
On their retreat it sank into its old obscurity, and must wait another change, of good or evil fortune,
to be known.
1 John vi. 23; xxi. 1. Josrph. Antiq. xviii. 2, 3. Bell. Jud. ii. 9, 4. 2 Josh. xix. 35. Hieron. Comm. in Ezech. xlviii. 21.
3 Epiphan. ad Haeret. i. 12. 4 Lightfoot, Ap. ii. 141. Buxtorf, Tiberias, 10, &c. 5 Niebuhr, Reisc. iii. Volney, Voyage, c. xxv.