Sea Of Chinnereth

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( יָםאּכַּנֶּרֶת ; Sept. [ Ἡ ]θάλασσα' Χενέρεθ ,  Numbers 24:11;  Joshua 13:27) or Chinneroth ( כַּנְּרוֹה , Χενέρεθ ,  Joshua 12:3), the inland sea, which is most familiarly known to us by its New- Test. name as the "Lake of Gennesareth," or the "Sea of Tiberias" or "of Galilee." This is evident from the mode in which it is mentioned in various passages in the Pentateuch and Joshua as being at the end of Jordan, opposite to the " Sea of the Arabah," i.e. the Dead Sea, as having the Arabah or Ghor below it, etc. (Deuteronomy in, 17;  Joshua 11:2;  Joshua 13:3. In the two former of these passages the word "sea" is perhaps omitted). The word is by some derived from the Hebrews כַּנּוּר , Kinnur ( Κιννύρα , cithara), a "harp," as if in allusion to the oval shape of the lake. But it is possible that Cinnereth was an ancient Canaanite name existing long prior to the Israelite conquest, and, like other names, adopted by the Israelites into their language. The subsequent name "Gennesar" was derived from "Cinnereth" by a change of letters of a kind frequent in the East. (See Gennesareth)