King James Bible Dictionary

House of fish.

1. A town in Galilee, on the west side of the sea of Tiberias, in the "land of Gennesaret." It was the native place of Peter, Andrew, and Philip, and was frequently resorted to by Jesus (Mark 6:45; John 1:44; 12:21). It is supposed to have been at the modern Ain Tabighah, a bay to the north of Gennesaret.

2. A city near which Christ fed 5,000 (Luke 9:10; comp. John 6:17; Matthew 14:15-21), and where the blind man had his sight restored (Mark 8:22), on the east side of the lake, two miles up the Jordan. It stood within the region of Gaulonitis, and was enlarged by Philip the tetrarch, who called it "Julias," after the emperor's daughter. Or, as some have supposed, there may have been but one Bethsaida built on both sides of the lake, near where the Jordan enters it. Now the ruins et-Tel.

house of fruits, or of food, or of snares

1. A city of Galilee

The city of Philip, Andrew, and Peter
John 1:44; John 12:21

Jesus visits
Mark 6:45

Jesus cures a blind man in
Mark 8:22

Jesus prophesies against
Matthew 11:21; Luke 10:13

2. Desert of, east of the sea of Galilee, Jesus feeds five thousand people in
Luke 9:10; Matthew 14:13; Mark 6:32

(house of fish) of Galilee, (John 12:21) a city which was the native place of Andrew, Peter and Philip, (John 1:44; 12:21) in the land of Gennesareth, (Mark 6:46) comp. Mark 6:53 And therefore on the west side of the lake. By comparing the narratives in (Mark 6:31-53) and Luke 9:10-17 It appears certain that the Bethsaida at which the five thousand were fed must have been a second place of the same name on the east of the lake. (But in reality "there is but one Bethsaida, that known on our maps at Bethsaida Julias." L. Abbot in Biblical and Oriental Journal . The fact is that Bethsaida was a village on both sides of the Jordan as it enters the sea of Galilee on the north, so that the western part of the village was in Galilee and the eastern portion in Gaulonitis, part of the tetrarchy of Philip. This eastern portion was built up into a beautiful city by Herod Philip, and named by him Bethsaida Julias , after Julia the daughter of the Roman emperor Tiberius C'sar. On the plain of Butaiha, a mile or two to the east, the five thousand were fed. The western part of the town remained a small village.

ED.)