Gennesaret(h), Land of

The fertile plain on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, toward the northern end, 1 mile broad and 2½ miles long, 500 feet below the level of the Mediterranean. In our Lord’s day it was considered the best part of Galilee, but it became desolate and uncultivated until the rise of modern Israel (Matt. 14:34; Mark 6:53). The “lake of Gennesaret” refers to the Sea of Galilee. See Galilee, Sea of.