After Jesus fasted 40 days He went to Nazareth where He announced His divine Sonship, but He was rejected. He then went to Capernaum, "a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days." (Luke 4:16-31.) Capernaum "is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Napthalim." (Matt. 4:13.)
Galilee, in its Canaanitic or Hebrew origin, signifies a "ring" or "circuit." The name came to be associated with the ring of cities lying about the hill country north of Samaria.In Jesus' time, the Sea of Galilee was surrounded by a number of important cities, such as Tiberias, Bethsaida, Capernaum, Chorazin and Magdala. The sea - known also as Lake of Gennesareth, Sea of Tiberias and Chinnereth - was the setting of many New Testament events.
In The Life of Christ, Frederic W. Farrar, described the region of Galilee as an "earthly paradise."
"There were no such trees, and no such gardens, anywhere in Palestine as in the land of Gennesareth," wrote Farrar. "The very name means garden of abundance,' and the numberless flowers blossom over a little plain which isin sight like unto an emerald.' It was doubtless a part of Christ's divine plan that His ministry should begin amid scenes so beautiful, and that the good tidings, which revealed to mankind their loftiest hopes and purest pleasures, should be first proclaimed in a region of unusual loveliness. . . .
"If every vestige of human habitation should disappear from beside it [Galilee], and the jackal and the hyena should howl about the shattered fragments of the synagogues where once Christ taught, yet the fact that He chose it as the scene of His opening ministry will give a sense of sacredness and pathos to its lonely waters till time shall be no more."
(ADDITIONAL INFORMATION)
Articles on this page may be used in conjunction with the Gospel Doctrine course of study.
Information compiled by Gerry Avant
Sources: Jesus the Christ, by Elder James E. Talmage; The Life of Christ, by Frederic W. Farrar; and October 1944 General Conference Report
