Kinneret (Hebrew: כִּנֶּרֶת) is the name of an important Bronze and Iron Age city situated on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, mentioned in the 14th century BC Aqhat Epic of Ugarit, and in the Old Testament and New Testament. Older Bible translations spell the name alternatively Kinnereth or Chinnereth, and sometimes in the plural as Chinneroth.[1][2] In time the name became Gennesaret and Ginosar (Hebrew: גִּנֵּיסַר). The remains of Kinneret have been excavated at a site called Tell el-'Oreimeh (Tell el-‘Orēme) in Arabic and Tel Kinrot in Modern Hebrew.
Etymology
"Kinneret"
"Kinnor" instrument
One theory is that Kinneret is derived from kinnor, an ancient Israelite musical instrument, on account of the shape of the lake resembling that of the instrument.[3]
Talmud
According to the Jerusalem Talmud (Megillah 1:1), the name Kinneret is derived from the name of the kinnar trees which grow in its vicinity, explained by lexicographer M. Jastrow to mean the Christ's thorn jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi),[4] and by Moses Margolies to mean cane reeds.[5]
Another Talmud passage says that it is so-called because its fruits[dubious – discuss] are as sweet as those of the kinnara[dubious – discuss] (Ziziphus spina-christi).[6][dubious – discuss]
"Gennesaret" and "Ginosar"
Adrian Room sees the origin of 'Ginosar' in a combination of Hebrew words, ge ('valley') and either netser ('branch') or natsor ('to guard', 'to watch').[7]
The late-19th-century Easton's Bible Dictionary offers a very different etymology, by stating that the initial Hebrew name 'Kinneret', in the plural 'Kinnerot', was Grecized to Gennesaret, with Ginosar as yet another transformation of the Hebrew name.[8]
Historical use of the name
The lake
Due to its prominence, the city gave its name to the lake (the "Sea of Galilee") for long periods of history, as the Sea of Kinneret, Kinnerot, Gennesaret, or Ginosar.[8]
As other places around the lake rose to prominence, such as Tiberias and Qasr al-Minya, the name of the lake also changed to Lake Tiberias[9] or Lake Minya ("Bahr el-Minya" in Arabic).[10]
The plain
The name has also been used for the "Plain of Gennesaret", which stretches south of the ancient city. The plain's modern names are Plain of Ginosar in Hebrew and el-Ghuweir in Arabic.
Modern settlements
The Israeli Kibbutz Ginosar derives its name from the ancient town, though it is not located on its precise site. The settlements of Moshavat Kinneret and Kvutzat Kinneret are even further south, on the southwestern shore of the lake.
[34] And having passed the water, they came into the country of Genesar. (Matthew 14:34).
Josephus and Babylonian Talmud
Flavius Josephus, as well as the Babylonian Talmud mention the lake by the name "Sea of Ginosar" after the small fertile plain of Ginosar that lies at the foot of Tell el-'Oreimeh, ancient Kinneret. Josephus refers to the area as having very rich soil.[13]
Identification and location
The Plain of Gennesaret marked on an 1850 German map of the Sea of Galilee as "El-Ghuweir / Genezareth" (western shore, stretching from "Khan Minyeh" to "el-Mejdel / Magdala")
The site of the fortified Bronze and Iron Age city of Kinneret is identified with the mound known in Arabic as Tell el-'Oreimeh and in modern Hebrew as Tel Kinrot, halfway between Capernaum and Magdala.[14][15] Situated on an important trade route, its elevated position meant that it also overlooked and guarded the Plain of Ginosar from its northern end.
The tell was first explored by Paul Karge in 1911, with a main focus on prehistoric remains. Robert Köppel was the first to excavate (1932 and 1939), but only few results were published.[19]
The premises of the future Mekorot pumping station and a number of spots at the foot of the hill were surveyed in the 1950s by Israeli archaeologists Gershon Edelstein and Bezalel Rabbani (published by Fritz, 1978). In the 1980s, Shan M. M. Winn of the University of Southern Mississippi and Jak Yakar of the University of Tel Aviv cut a small and deep trench near the shore, where they discovered the expected evidence of Early Bronze Age occupation (Winn & Yakar, 1984). Volkmar Fritz of the University of Mainz/Giessen, Germany, then directed the first systematic and continuous excavations: 1982-1985 at the peak ("acropolis"), and in 1995-1999 and 2001 on the lower part of the southeastern slope of the tell (Fritz & Münger, 2002).[19]
In 2002, the Kinneret Regional Project (KRP) took over, continuing the work initiated by Volkmar Fritz on Tel Kinrot, as well as in the wider region around the site (Pakkala, Münger & Zangenberg, 2004). The KRP is jointly run by the Universities of Berne (Switzerland), Helsinki (Finland), Mainz (Germany) and Leiden (Netherlands), and is directed by Stefan Münger, Juha Pakkala and Jürgen Zangenberg.[19] Since 2008 excavations on Tel Kinrot have been "temporarily halted", the KRP team dealing with analysis and publication while continuing the exploration of Horvat Kur and its surroundings.[20]
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