Sea of Galilee
The Sea of Galilee isn’t really a sea, but actually Israel’s largest freshwater lake (13 by 8 miles), located in the northern part of the country. Today, the lake is also known as Lake Galilee and Lake Tiberias. In the Bible, the Sea of Galilee was also known as the Sea of Gennesaret.
The Sea of Galilee was the location where Jesus conducted much of his ministry. Because of local trade and fishing, there were many small settlements all around the lake. On the shores of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus called four of his early disciples, the fishermen Peter, Andrew, John and James. (see Matthew 4:18-22 and Mark 1:14-20).
Many of Christ’s miracles were performed on or around the Sea of Galilee, including his walking on water (Matthew 14:22-32, Mark 6:45-51) and calming the sea (Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:35-41). Jesus gave his Sermon on the Mount on a hill overlooking the lake (Matthew 5,6,7) and he performed the miracle of the loaves and the fishes at Tabgha right on the lake’s shoreline (Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, John 6:1-15).