Editing Sea of Galilee (section)

==Names==
{{See also|Galilee#Etymology}}
The lake has been called by different names throughout its history, usually depending on the dominant settlement on its shores. With the changing fate of the towns, the lake's name also changed.

The modern Hebrew name ''Kineret'' comes from the [[Hebrew Bible]], where it appears as the "sea of Kineret" in {{bibleref|Numbers|34:11|HE}} and {{bibleref|Joshua|13:27|HE}}, and spelled כנרות "Kinerot" in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] in {{bibleref|Joshua|11:2|HE}}. This name was also found in the scripts of [[Ugarit]], in the [[Danel|Aqhat Epic]]. As the name of a [[Kinneret (archaeological site)|city, ''Kinneret'']] was listed among the "fenced cities" in {{bibleref2|Joshua|19:35|9}}. A persistent, though likely erroneous, popular etymology presumes that the name ''Kinneret'' may originate from the Hebrew word ''[[kinnor]]'' ("harp" or "lyre"), because of the shape of the lake.<ref>''Easton's Revised Bible Dictionary,'' "Chinnereth". Another speculation is that the name comes from a fruit called in Biblical Hebrew ''kinar'', which is thought to be the fruit of [[Ziziphus spina-christi]].</ref> The scholarly consensus, however, is that the origin of the name is derived from the important [[Bronze Age|Bronze]] and [[Iron Age]] city of Kinneret, excavated at Tell el-'Oreimeh.<ref name="Negev">{{cite encyclopedia |editor-last= Negev |editor-first= Avraham |editor-link= Avraham Negev |editor-last2= Gibson |editor-first2= Shimon |editor-link2= Shimon Gibson |title= Kinneret |encyclopedia= Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land |year= 2001 |location= New York and London |publisher= Continuum |page= 285 |isbn=978-0-8264-1316-1 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=l3JtAAAAMAAJ |access-date=26 July 2021}}</ref> The city of Kinneret may have been named after the body of water rather than vice versa, and there is no evidence for the origin of the town's name.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McKenzie |first=John L. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/34111634 |title=Dictionary of the Bible |date=1995 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-0-684-81913-6 |edition=1st Touchstone |location=New York |pages=130 |oclc=34111634}}</ref>

All [[Old Testament|Old]] and [[New Testament]] writers use the term "sea" (Hebrew יָם ''yam'', Greek θάλασσα), with the exception of [[gospel of Luke|Luke]], who calls it "the Lake of Gennesaret" ({{bibleref2|Luke|5:1|9;TR1550}}), from the Greek λίμνη Γεννησαρέτ (''limnē Gennēsaret''), the "Grecized form of Chinnereth".<ref>Easton, ''Gennesaret''.</ref> The [[Babylonian Talmud]] as well as [[Josephus|Flavius Josephus]] mention the sea by the name "Sea of Ginosar" after the small fertile [[Kinneret (archaeological site)#The plain|plain of Ginosar]] that lies on its western side.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.israelandyou.com/sea-of-galilee/|title=Sea of Galilee – Aerial View *|last=Israel and You|date=28 February 2019|website=Israel and You|language=en-US|access-date=1 January 2020}}</ref> Ginosar is yet another name derived from "Kinneret".<ref name="Negev" />

The word ''Galilee'' comes from the Hebrew ''Haggalil'' (הַגָלִיל), which literally means "The District", a compressed form of ''Gelil Haggoyim'' "The District of Nations" (Isaiah 8:23). Toward the end of the 1st century CE, the Sea of Galilee became widely known as the ''Sea of Tiberias'' after the city of [[Tiberias]] founded on its western shore in honour of the second Roman emperor, [[Tiberius]]. In the New Testament, the term "sea of Galilee" ({{Langx|el|θάλασσαν τῆς Γαλιλαίας}}, ''thalassan tēs Galilaias'') is used in the [[Gospel of Matthew]] {{bibleref2|Matthew|4:18;15:29|9|4:18; 15:29}}, the [[Gospel of Mark]] {{bibleref2|Mark|1:16;7:31|9|1:16; 7:31}}, and in the [[Gospel of John]] {{bibleref2-nb|John|6:1|9}} as "the sea of Galilee, which is [the sea] of Tiberias" (θαλάσσης τῆς Γαλιλαίας τῆς Τιβεριάδος, ''thalassēs tēs Galilaias tēs Tiberiados''), the late 1st century CE name.<ref>Easton, ''Tiberias''</ref> Sea of Tiberias is also the name mentioned in Roman texts and in the [[Jerusalem Talmud]], and it was adopted into Arabic as {{Audio|ArTiberias.ogg|''Buḥayret Ṭabariyyā''}} (بحيرة طبريا), "Lake Tiberias". Some writers use the spelling "Gallilee", for example [[Selah Merrill]] in a nineteenth century journal article.<ref>Merrill, S., [https://www.proquest.com/openview/0e8a007a389d2aec7426dd878078bab2/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=24481 Oriental Department: Palestine Explorations], in ''The American Antiquarian: A Quarterly Journal Devoted to Early American History, Ethnology and Archaeology'', Chicago, Volume 2, Issue 2, (1 October 1879), p. 155, accessed on 29 November 2024</ref>

From the [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad]] through the [[Mamluk Sultanate|Mamluk]] period, the lake was known in Arabic as ''Bahr al-Minya'', the "Sea of Minya", after the Umayyad ''[[Ksar|qasr]]'' complex, whose ruins are still visible at [[Khirbat al-Minya]]. This is the name used by the medieval [[Persian people|Persian]] and [[Arabs|Arab]] scholars [[Al-Baladhuri]], [[Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari|Al-Tabari]] and [[Ibn Kathir]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jalili48.com/pub/xENShowGallery.aspx?sub=What_Remained_of_the_destroyed&sub2=Khirbet_Al-Minya&Cid=1294 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20150203065722/http://www.jalili48.com/pub/xENShowGallery.aspx?sub=What_Remained_of_the_destroyed&sub2=Khirbet_Al-Minya&Cid=1294 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=3 February 2015 |title=Khirbet Al-Minya |work=Jalili48 |publisher=Moslih Kanaaneh |date=12 May 2006 |access-date=3 February 2015 }}</ref>