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Bethsaida was a fishing town on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, near where the Jordan River flows into the lake. Its name means "house of fishing." It was the hometown of three of Jesus' apostles, Peter, Andrew, and Philip (John 1:44). Luke places the feeding of the five thousand near Bethsaida (Luke 9:10), and Mark tells of Jesus healing a blind man there in two stages (Mark 8:22-26). Yet Bethsaida is also one of the towns Jesus condemned for seeing his miracles and refusing to repent: "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!" (Luke 10:13). In Jesus' day it belonged to the territory of Herod Philip, who rebuilt it as a city and renamed it Julias. Archaeologists still debate where exactly it stood, with two leading candidates, et-Tell and el-Araj.
Where Is Bethsaida in the Bible?
Bethsaida sat at the northeast corner of the Sea of Galilee, just east of the point where the Jordan River enters the lake. That location mattered. The Jordan formed a border, and Bethsaida lay on its eastern side, outside Galilee proper, in the region called Gaulanitis (the modern Golan Heights). Capernaum, Jesus' base for his Galilean ministry, was only about five miles to the west along the shore.
The town was within easy reach of both, and Jesus and his disciples moved between them often by boat. A short sail across the top of the lake took you from the territory of Herod Antipas into the territory of his half-brother Philip. When Herod Antipas began asking who Jesus was (Luke 9:7-9), Luke tells us Jesus withdrew with the apostles to Bethsaida (Luke 9:10), across the line from Herod's reach.
The name Bethsaida comes from the Aramaic and Hebrew for "house of fishing" or "house of the fisherman." It was a fitting home for men who made their living with nets.
Bethsaida, Hometown of Peter, Andrew, and Philip
John's Gospel tells us, "Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter" (John 1:44). At least three of the Twelve grew up in this small town by the lake.
Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist before he followed Jesus, and he brought his brother Simon to meet him (John 1:40-42). See The First Disciples Follow Jesus (John 1:35-42).
Peter, Andrew's brother, grew up in Bethsaida. By the time of Jesus' ministry, he had a house and a family in Capernaum (Luke 4:38; Mark 1:29). See Jesus Calls the First Disciples (Luke 5:1-11).
Philip was called by Jesus with the words "Follow me," and he went and found Nathanael (John 1:43-45). See Philip and Nathanael Called (John 1:43-51).
Philip's Bethsaida roots come up again near the end of Jesus' ministry. Some Greeks in Jerusalem for Passover "came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, 'Sir, we wish to see Jesus'" (John 12:21). Bethsaida lay in a region with many Greek-speaking residents, and both Philip and Andrew have Greek names. It is possible that these two from Bethsaida were natural go-betweens for Greek visitors. See Jesus Predicts His Death (John 12:20-36) and who were the twelve disciples of Jesus.
PLACE THE TABLE HERE (BETHSAIDA IN THE GOSPELS)
The Feeding of the Five Thousand Near Bethsaida (Luke 9:10-17)
"On their return the apostles told Jesus all they had done. Then, taking them along, he slipped quietly into a city called Bethsaida" (Luke 9:10). The crowds found out and followed, and Jesus welcomed them, taught them about the kingdom of God, and healed the sick.
As evening came, the Twelve wanted to send the people away to find food. Jesus said, "You give them something to eat" (Luke 9:13). They had only five loaves and two fish. Jesus had the people sit down in groups of about fifty, took the loaves and fish, looked up to heaven, blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to distribute. "And all ate and were filled, and what was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces" (Luke 9:17).
The feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle of Jesus recorded in all four Gospels. Luke alone names Bethsaida as the setting. Mark says that afterward Jesus sent his disciples by boat "to the other side, to Bethsaida" (Mark 6:45), which suggests the meal happened somewhere else along the shore. Most interpreters read Luke as meaning the deserted countryside around Bethsaida, not the town itself, since the disciples say, "we are here in a deserted place" (Luke 9:12).
See Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand (Luke 9:10-17) and John's account in Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand (John 6:1-15). In John's version, it is Philip, the man from Bethsaida, whom Jesus asks, "Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?" (John 6:5), and Andrew who finds the boy with five barley loaves and two fish (John 6:8-9). Two men from Bethsaida are at the center of the miracle near their hometown.
The Blind Man of Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26)
Mark tells a healing found in no other Gospel. "They came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him" (Mark 8:22). Jesus led the man out of the village, put saliva on his eyes, and laid his hands on him. When Jesus asked whether he could see anything, the man said, "I can see people, but they look like trees, walking" (Mark 8:24). Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again, "and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly" (Mark 8:25).
It is the only healing in the Gospels that happens in two stages. Mark places it right before Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi, where Peter sees that Jesus is the Messiah but does not yet see that the Messiah must suffer. The disciples, like the man of Bethsaida, see partly before they see clearly. Luke's version of that confession comes right after the feeding: see Peter's Confession (Luke 9:18-20).
"Woe to You, Bethsaida" (Luke 10:13-15)
For all that happened there, Bethsaida did not respond. When Jesus sent out the seventy, he pronounced judgment on the towns around the lake: "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes" (Luke 10:13; also Matthew 11:21). He added a warning to Capernaum as well (Luke 10:15).
Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum formed a small triangle at the north end of the lake. Jesus did more of his mighty works in that area than anywhere else, and it is where he met the least repentance. The towns that saw the most were held most accountable. See Woe to Unrepentant Cities and the Return of the Seventy (Luke 10:13-20) and the seventy or seventy-two disciples.
Bethsaida-Julias: Herod Philip's City
When Herod the Great's kingdom was divided in 4 BC, the region east of the Jordan went to his son Philip, the tetrarch. (He is a different Philip from the apostle, and different from the Philip named as Herodias' first husband in Mark 6:17.) The Jewish historian Josephus tells us Philip raised Bethsaida from a village to the status of a city and renamed it Julias, in honor of the emperor Augustus' family. Philip was buried there when he died around AD 34. See the Herodian dynasty family tree.
The Gospels still call it Bethsaida, the name the fishermen who grew up there would have used.
Where Was Bethsaida? The Archaeology
No one is completely sure where Bethsaida stood. Two sites near the northeast shore are the leading candidates.
Et-Tell is a mound about a mile and a half north of the present shoreline. Excavations there since 1987 have uncovered an Iron Age city with a large gate complex, often identified with Geshur, the Aramean kingdom of Absalom's mother (2 Samuel 3:3), and remains from the Roman period, including fishing equipment. Its critics point out that it lies well inland and has limited evidence of a first-century city.
El-Araj sits closer to the lake, near where the Jordan enters it. Excavations since 2016 have found first-century Roman remains, including a bathhouse, a sign of a town with city status, and a Byzantine church that some excavators believe is the Church of the Apostles, which ancient pilgrims said was built over the home of Peter and Andrew.
The debate is ongoing. Ancient Bethsaida may even have spread across both areas, with the shoreline shifting over time as the Jordan deposited silt into the lake.
What Bethsaida Teaches Us
Bethsaida is a picture of both privilege and warning. It gave Jesus three of his apostles. It saw the crowds fed and the blind made to see. And yet Jesus pronounced woe on it, because most of its people saw it all and did not turn to God.
The story of the blind man of Bethsaida offers a gentler word. Sometimes we see Jesus only partly, as people who look like walking trees. He does not leave us there. He lays his hands on us again.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Bethsaida in the Bible? Bethsaida was a town on the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee, near where the Jordan River enters the lake, about five miles east of Capernaum.
What does Bethsaida mean? Bethsaida means "house of fishing" or "house of the fisherman."
Which disciples were from Bethsaida? Peter, Andrew, and Philip were from Bethsaida (John 1:44; 12:21).
What happened at Bethsaida? Luke places the feeding of the five thousand near Bethsaida (Luke 9:10-17), and Mark records Jesus healing a blind man there in two stages (Mark 8:22-26).
Why did Jesus curse Bethsaida? Jesus pronounced woe on Bethsaida because its people saw his mighty works and did not repent (Luke 10:13; Matthew 11:21).
Is Bethsaida the same as Bethesda? No. Bethsaida was a town on the Sea of Galilee. Bethesda (John 5:2) was a pool in Jerusalem where Jesus healed a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
Has Bethsaida been found? Archaeologists have proposed two sites, et-Tell and el-Araj, near the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee. Excavations continue at both, and scholars still debate which is the biblical town.
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Works Consulted
Rami Arav and Richard A. Freund, eds., Bethsaida: A City by the North Shore of the Sea of Galilee
R. Steven Notley, "Et-Tell Is Not Bethsaida," Near Eastern Archaeology 70 (2007)
Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke (New International Commentary on the New Testament)
Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, Book 18
