Tiberias: A city, the modern Tubarich, on the western shore of the Sea of
Tiberias. It is said to have been founded by Herod Antipas (A.D.
16) on the site of the ruins of an older city called Rakkath, and
to have been thus named by him after the Emperor Tiberius. It is
mentioned only three times in the history of our Lord
(John 6:1,23)
(John 21:1) In 1837 about one-half of the inhabitants perished by an
earthquake. The population of the city is now about six thousand,
nearly the one-half being Jews. "We do not read that our Lord ever
entered this city. The reason of this is probably to be found in the
fact that it was practically a heathen city, though standing upon
Jewish soil. Herod, its founder, had brought together the arts of
Greece, the idolatry of Rome, and the gross lewdness of Asia. There
were in it a theatre for the performance of comedies, a forum, a
stadium, a palace roofed with gold in imitation of those in Italy,
statues of the Roman gods, and busts of the deified emperors. He who
was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel might well
hold himself aloof from such scenes as these" (Manning's Those Holy
Fields). After the fall of Jerusalem (A.D. 70) Tiberias became one
of the chief residences of the Jews in Palestine. It was for more
than three hundred years their metropolis. From about A.D. 150 the
Sanhedrin settled here, and established rabbinical schools, which
rose to great celebrity. Here the Jerusalem (or Palestinian) Talmud
was compiled about the beginning of the fifth century. To this same
rabbinical school also we are indebted for the Masora, a "body of
traditions which transmitted the readings of the Hebrew text of the
Old Testament, and preserved, by means of the vowel-system, the
pronunciation of the Hebrew." In its original form, and in all
manuscripts, the Hebrew is written without vowels; hence, when it
ceased to be a spoken language, the importance of knowing what vowels
to insert between the consonants. This is supplied by the Masora, and
hence these vowels are called the "Masoretic vowel-points."
