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tiberias

tiberias

 

  2  definitions  found 
 
  From  Easton's  1897  Bible  Dictionary  [easton]: 
 
  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;  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." 
 
 
  From  Hitchcock's  Bible  Names  Dictionary  (late  1800's)  [hitchcock]: 
 
  Tiberias,  good  vision;  the  navel