BETHSAIDA: (Luke 9:10-17).

Hometown of Philip the disciple and the town of Andrew and Peter. John 12:21 calls it Bethsaida of Galilee. It was the scene of the feeding of the 5,000. Mentioned in Mark 6:45 as a place Jesus traveled to by boat across from, so it must have been across the Sea of Galilee from Capernaum, which we know was the home of Peter's house where Jesus healed his mother-in-law. (Mark 8:22 we see Jesus there again after visiting Tyre and Sidon and returning to feed the 4,000.

(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; Matt. 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.