Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

It is often assumed that Beth-saida means "House of the hunters", with the 
form being Aramaic rather than Hebrew. Assuming the site to be on or near 
the Sea of Galilee, the "hunters" would actually be fishermen. "Sidon", the 
well-know Pheonician port, would be dirived from the same word.

Rami Arav, who for years has been excavating a major site just north of the 
Sea of Galilee which he identifies as Bethsaida, has also suggested that the 
"Ziddim Zer" (the Z here stands for Sade, as in Beth-saida and in Sidon) 
mentioned in Josh 19:35 in the inheretance of Naphtali, is the Iron Age form 
of the same name, perhaps originally "Hacayyadim".

Yigal Levin
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <JBarach AT aol.com>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, January 16, 2009 3:39 AM
Subject: [b-hebrew] Bethsaida


> BHaverim --
>
> What does the name "Bethsaida" mean?  "Beth," obviously, means  "house." 
> But
> what about the "Saida"?  I'm not even sure what the  Hebrew root word here
> might be.  One commentary I have says it means  "House of Provisioning" 
> (Austin
> Farrer) and another says "House of Fishermen"  (John Donahue & Daniel
> Harrington) -- and all the rest that I have say  nothing about the meaning 
> of the name
> at all.
>
> I'd be glad to hear what you think.  (I ask this on the B-Hebrew list, 
> even
> though "Bethsaida" appears only in the Greek, because it's obvious a 
> Hebrew
> name.  Hope this isn't a problem.)
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> John
>
>
>
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