THE LAKE OF GALILEE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 54, Issue 3899, 10 May 1937, Page 14 (Supplement)

THE LAKE OF GALILEE

A LAKE OF ROMANCE. (By U.K.) If Palestine is the Holy Land, this •is the Holy Lake, the most sacred sheet of water in the world. The very’ word “Galilee” has a clinging seductiveness. Renan speaks of the lake as “a fifth Gospel.” Half of the ministry of our Lord was spent round its shores, and He made a tryst with His apostles to meet them there after His resurrection. Galilee was the mcst northerly of the Provinces of Palestine and was renowned for its fertility, its world highways from the Mediterranean to the East, and from the Nile to the Euphrates. It had a

busy population and was known as “Galilee of the' Gentiles,” because heathen districts around it poured their alien influences into it.

Few of us realise how strange it was that this small lake, thirteen miles long and eight at its broadest part should become the scene of such wonders. It lies at the bottom of what has been called a trench, 680 feet below the level of the Mediterranean. It has other names, Chinnereth or Genessaret, words which mean a harp and were suggested by the shape of the lake. The title “Sea of Tibei-ias” was given to it after Herod had built on its shore the city which he named after the Roman Emperor. That the lake should be associated, with two such persons is a mere incident, but its soft and enduring name is the Sea of Galilee.

Even the most reverent of travellers cannot go into raptures over its

beauty. It has often been likened to one of the Scottish lochs, but as George Adam Smith points out, itwould need to be one of the least wooded. The whole basin seems destitute of trees, the mountains are bare and grey slopes are suggestive of - an upward-sloping Scottish moor. ■ln the days of Christ there were woods and marshes and noble gardens, the lake had fishing fleets and nine or ten towns dotted round its shores. Some of these are said to have had not less than 15,000 inhabitants. How different it is to-day! The Turks made Palestine what Sir Frederick Treves calls “The land that is desolate.” Morton in his charming work “In the Steps of the Master” points out that with the exception of the white town of Tiberias, it is a deserted lake. “When you look at the pink and mauve hills opposite, you see that they are wild and desolate, slashed with brown thirsty valleys as with the slashes of knives. Dotted about them here and there are little black squares, sometimes near the shore, but more often higher on the hills. They are the goat-hair tents of Bed ouin tribes.”

It is highly interesting to note the impressions made upon different travellers by the first sight of the lake. Qne looks through a pile of their books, and places them in chronological order. Most, visitors approach the lake by way of the Plain of Esdraelon and the long, low ridge, only about 60 feet above the plane near the lake. The Hill is called from its two tops “the Horns of Hattin,” and is believed to be the scene of the sermon on the mount. It was here that on the sth July, 1187, the army of Saladin inflicted a crushing defeat on the Crusaders. From that hill the traveller sees the lake. Whether he is disappointed or thrilled depends upon his mental and spiritual equipment. Whether he thinks it tame or pre-eminently beautiful he cannot but feel that it has something about it which stamps it as unique. Americans, with the Great Lakes of the new world in mind, think the Sea of Galilee quite insignificant, and the Englishman with memories of his northern lakes, cannot shake off the sense of smallness. Dr Leach writes glowingly of its glory and beauty, but one remembers that he is a doctor of divinity. Farrar describes the deserted shores, with only the small and decaying tower of Tiberias to relieve the scene and “the one miserable, crazy boat,” whicli represents its former bustling fleet. The ordinary tourist, with proper feeling for all that is sacred, will probably be forced to admit that the charm of the Sea of Galilee does not lie in natural beauty, but in its incomparable associations and memories. The truly modern man, alert, practical and progressive as he claims to be, will visit with enthusiasm the point where the sacred sea is lending its waters to generate electric light and power to the whole of Palestine. He will sympathise generously as he thinks with the protest raised in the British Parliament against the destruction of sacred sites in order to raise the level of the lake and provide sufficient power for the undertaking, and he will probably assert that the economic demand will finally override what he calls sentiment. He is not practical enough to see that his is the spirit that would fain 'drive reverence, love and beauty from off the earth. Of the cities formerly round the Lake we know with certainty the sites

of four—Tiberias and Magdala on tlhe western shore, and of Gadare and Hippuos on the eastern hills. Tiberias was built by Herod Antipas five or six years before our Lord began to preach by the Lake, and the ruins still indicate a wall three miles long. They cnee protected a palace, a forum and a synagogue, but the true Jew would not set foot in a town “defiled by the bones which had been uncovered in digging the foundations, and by the great heathen images which stared down from the castle walls. Failing to get respectable citizens, Herod swept into his city the scum of the land.” The records of Christ’s ministry make no mention of a visit to Tiberias. He seems to have avoided the half-Greek cities. Tiberias remains, while Bethsaida and Capernaum have vanished, but that is because it was the seat of Government. But if our Lord never set foot in Tiberias, it is significant and delight-, ful to learn that long years ago the Free Church of Scotland founded and equipped a noble hospital in His name, and its beneficiaries recall the odor of the ointment poured upon His head. Can you forget that, in contrast with this, the founder of Tiberias, the murderer of the innocents of Bethlehem, died hated and detested, eaten by a loathsome disease and maddened by remorne and terror.

To the north of Tiberias lies the supposed site of Capernaum, “His own city.” It contains what is called the ruin oif the synagogue, in which Christ preached. That may be mere conjecture, but, as Morton points out, it is certain that Christ lived here “during the two or three most important years in the world’s history.” Here He called his earliest disciples. One cannot forget, and remembers with a shudder, that this exalted and favoured city had its fate pronounced in lurid language by Him who sought in vain to win it, and it long ago went down to its doom. Its very site is now uncertain. The bii'thplace of the Gospel is now a spot where the waves beat on an abandoned shore.

What memories, what romances, cluster round the Sea of Galilee, memories of diseases healed, disordered minds restored to sanity, new life and hope brought to multitudes, unprecedented hauls of fish at Christ’s word, a meeting of surprised disciples and their Master where He had prepared their breakfast on the shore, and a ministry of love which seemed to know no limit save that of unbelief! Not the least impressive is the story of the walking on the water and its everlasting reminder that the stormy waves which threaten to engulf us are but a pathway for Him who brings a message of joy.

The Arabs have a tradition connected with a tree -which stands on a spot in commemoration of a miracle. It is called the Tree of Blessing, and it is believed that a branch of it burned inthe five will cure all diseases. The spiritual meaning is evident. The influence of the life and teaching of Him who walked on the sea as if He were on dry land will never perish. The Jordan, turbid and troubled, flows in at the Lake’s upper end, and is cleansed and sweetened. No commanding temple in honour of Christ stands on shore or hill by the Lake. Better far is it that His memorial is in -every humble heart. Greater than any calm that ever lay on the blue Galilean Sea is the peace that broods on the believing soul.