other
kinneres
כנרת · גניסר · טבריה · כנור
Bottom line
One lake, three names, each taken from whichever city on its shore was most prominent at the time: Kinneret in Tanach, Ginosar in the Targumim and in the works of that era, Josephus included, and Yamah shel Tiveria, the Sea of Tiberias, in the Gemara. It seems, the article says, that the lake has no name of its own at all. Render each name as the source gives it and do not harmonize them into "the Sea of Galilee," which is a later regional label and not the term any of these sources uses.
At a glance
| Hebrew | translit | English | what sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| כנרת | Kinneres | Kinneret | the Biblical name, from the city in Naftali's portion (Yehoshua 19:35) |
| גניסר | Ginosar | Ginosar | the same city renamed (Megillah 6a); the Targumim's rendering of Yam Kinneres |
| טבריה | Tiveria | Tiberias | the Talmudic name, once Tiveria became the leading city on the shore |
| כנור | kinnor | harp, lyre, or a berry | the word behind the city's name, on the Gemara's own derivation |
Where the authorities disagree
Which name to write in a get. A get must name the city where it is written and fix its location by the nearest body of water, so a get written in Tiveria must name this lake. Which of its three names is the correct one was disputed at length between Rabbi Yosef Karo and Rabbi Moshe ben Yosef of Trani, who sat together on the beis din of Tzefas. The article records the dispute without setting out either position, so no ruling is reported here; anyone needing the practical answer must go to their responsa rather than rely on this entry.
Where the name Kinneres comes from. A popular account says the lake is called Kinneres because its pear shape resembles a kinnor, a musical instrument. The article states flatly that there is no real source for this. The Gemara (Megillah 6a), which identifies the Biblical Kinneres with Ginosar, derives the name differently and applies it to the city, not the lake: its fruits are as sweet as the sound of a kinnor. Rabbi Nosson of Rome (Sefer HeAruch) defines kinnor either as a kind of berry, which the column notes Jastrow identifies as a thorn jujube (compare Rashi to Bava Basra 48b), or as a musical instrument, a harp or lyre, so the derashah may be about the fruit twice over. The Bottom line follows the Gemara and treats the harp-shape story as folklore.
Whether Tiveria is a Biblical city. The column sets two accounts against each other. Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews XVIII:8) has Herod, the Herodian tetrarch of the Galilee, found the city and name it in honor of the Roman emperor Tiberius. The Gemara (Megillah 5b-6a), on the other hand, identifies it with one of two cities named in Yehoshua 19:35, Chamas or Rakas: Chamas, "hot," for the natural hot springs there, and Rakas, "empty," because even the empty and unlearned among its people were as full of mitzvos as a pomegranate is of seeds. For the name Tiveria itself the Gemara gives two accounts: the city sits at the tabur, the navel of Eretz Yisrael, in importance rather than in geography, and the name is tovah re'iyasah, "its sight is good," which Tosafos explains as its beauty, its gardens and orchards.
Why the rabbinic sources drop the name Kinneres. The column closes with what it calls another fascinating theory that it found. Archaeologists at ancient Ugarit (Ras Shamra, in modern Syria) found a list of old Canaanite gods carrying a god named Kinnaru, and kinnor appears in Ugaritic for a stringed instrument in the same sense as the Hebrew; on this some academic scholars have argued that Kinnaru was the Canaanite god of music and that the city Kinneres was named after him. The late Dr. Dov Ginzberg of the Geological Survey of Israel argued from this that perhaps Chazal avoided the Biblical name because of its idolatrous origins and named the lake instead for one of the Jewish cities nearby, Ginosar or Tiveria. The column presents all of this as a possibility only, and adds that if nothing else, perhaps it accounts for the city Kinneres being renamed Ginosar.
Distinctions
Kinneres (כנרת)
The name the Torah uses in fixing the eastern border of Eretz Yisrael (Bamidbar 34:11; Devarim 3:17; Yehoshua 12:3, 13:27). Yehoshua 19:35 lists a fortified city Kinneres in the territory of Naftali, captured in Yehoshua's day, and the column notes that this city's name turns up in various ancient inscriptions as well. The lake is called the Sea of Kinneres because that city was then the leading settlement on its shore. Topographically it is a lake, not a sea, but yam covers both.
Ginosar (גניסר)
The Targumim render Kinneres as Ginosar and Yam Kinneres as Yam Ginosar, and Josephus (War of the Jews III:10) likewise calls it the Lake of Genezareth, an anglicization of the Greek form of Ginosar. The Gemara (Megillah 6a) states that the Biblical city Kinneres is Ginosar. The fruit of Ginosar is praised in the highest terms (Berachos 44a), and the Midrash (Bereishis Rabbah 98:17) expounds the name as ganei sarim, gardens of officers, for the fertility of that land and the fruit it produced. By the Second Temple period the city was known as Ginosar and still prominent, so the lake took its name, and that is the term the works of that era use.
Yamah shel Tiveria (ימה של טבריה)
The Bavli calls the lake Yamah shel Tiveria (Shabbos 87a-87b, Moed Katan 18b, Bava Kamma 81a-81b, Bava Basra 74, Bechoros 55a) and the Yerushalmi Yam shel Tiveria (Shekalim 6:2, Bava Basra 5:1); both mean the Sea of Tiberias. The shift in name tracks the rise of Tiveria on the western shore past Kinneres and Ginosar. The Arabic name for the lake, Buhairet Tabariyya, carries the same sense.
kinnor (כנור)
Ordinarily a stringed instrument. Its place here is only through the Gemara's derashah on the city's name and the possibility, from Rabbi Nosson of Rome, that the word also names a berry.
Rendering guidance
- Use the name the source uses: "Kinneres" in a pasuk, "Ginosar" in a Targum, "the Sea of Tiveria" in a sugya. Substituting one for another silently erases the chronology, which is the article's whole point.
- Trap: English "Sea of Galilee" absorbs all three, and it renders none of them. The column traces the phrase to the Christian Bible, which occasionally calls the lake the Sea of Tiberias but more often the Sea of Galilee, and which is why English speakers know it by that name; Galilee was the administrative name of the whole northern region of Eretz Yisrael in Hasmonean and Herodian times, so this too, the column says, is the lake named for its surroundings rather than a name of its own. Keep it out of a Torah text; if a reader needs the identification, put it in a note.
- Second trap: kinnor elsewhere is a harp or lyre and should stay so. Do not import "harp" into the lake's name on the strength of the shape story, for which no early source is given.
- Yam here is a lake. "Sea" is the conventional rendering and is fine, but where the geography matters, say so.
- Chamas and Rakas are city names, not adjectives; keep them transliterated and let the derashah on "hot" and "empty" be carried in a note.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "The Shining Sea of Galilee," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 2 Av 5779 (2019-08-03): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/8351-the-shining-sea-of-galilee.md. Primary loci the article cites: Bamidbar 34:11; Devarim 3:17; Yehoshua 12:3, 13:27, 19:35; Megillah 5b-6a; Berachos 44a; Shabbos 87a-87b; Moed Katan 18b; Bava Kamma 81a-81b; Bava Basra 74 and 48b; Bechoros 55a; Yerushalmi Shekalim 6:2 and Bava Basra 5:1; Bereishis Rabbah 98:17; Sefer HeAruch s.v. kinnor; Josephus, War of the Jews III:10 and Antiquities of the Jews XVIII:8; Jastrow on the berry; the Ugaritic god-list from Ras Shamra with the deity Kinnaru, and the late Dr. Dov Ginzberg of the Geological Survey of Israel on it. The article's responsa reference for the get dispute is given by name only, without a siman, so none is supplied here.