Luke 5:1
And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret,
And it came to pass, that as the people pressed upon him,.... As Christ went through Galilee, and preached in the synagogues there, great crowds of people attended on him, and they followed him wherever he went; and so large were their numbers, and so very eager were they to see him, and hear him, that they were even troublesome to him, and bore hard upon him, and were ready to press him down, though they had no ill design upon him, but only
to hear the word of God; the scriptures of the Old Testament explained, and the doctrines of the Gospel preached; and which were preached by him, as never were before or since, and in such a manner as were not by the Scribes and Pharisees; and both the matter and manner of his ministry drew a vast concourse of people after him:
he stood by the lake of Gennesaret; the same with the sea of Chinnereth, Numbers 34:11 where the Targums of Onkelos, Jonathan, and the Jerusalem, call it, rowngd amy, "the sea of Geausar" or "Gennesaret": and so it is elsewhere called {a}, and is the same which is called the sea of Galilee, and of Tiberias, John 6:1 and is, by other writers {b}, as here, called the lake of Gennesaret, and said to be sixteen miles long, and six broad. Josephus says {c}, it is forty furlongs broad, and an hundred long. The Jews say {d}, that
"the holy, blessed God created seven seas, but chose none of them all, but the sea of Gennesaret.''
And indeed, it was a place chosen by Christ, and honoured, and made famous by him, by his preaching at it, his miracles upon it, and showing himself there after his resurrection.
{a} Targum in Ezek. xxxix. 11. Zohar in Gen. fol. 3. 2. & 17. 2. & in Exod. fol. 52. 4. & 61. 4.
{b} Plin. l. 5. c. 15. Solin, c. 48. Ptolom. l. 5. c. 15.
{c} De Bello Jud. l. 3. c. 18.
{d} Pirke Eliezer, c. 18.