Chinnereth, Chinneroth

This term has multiple meanings in the Bible:

  1. A fortified town in the territory of the tribe of Naphtali (Joshua 19:35). An Egyptian list of towns from the time of Thutmose III in the 15th century BC also names it. The site isidentified as Tell el-’Oreimeh on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. Archaeologists believe people lived in the town from about 2000 to 900 BC.

    → View encyclopedia entry

  2. A district in Naphtali’s territory that included the town mentioned above (#1). Ben-hadad, king of Aram (Syria), conquered it in the early ninth century BC during the reign of Baasha, king of northern Israel (1 Kings 15:20).

  3. An early name for the Sea of Galilee (Numbers 34:11; Deuteronomy 3:17; Joshua 11:2; 12:3; 13:27). It is uncertain whether the city was named after the sea or the sea after the city. The name means “lyres,” possibly because the sea is shaped like a lyre (a stringed instrument similar to a harp). In New Testament times, the name became Gennesaret (Luke 5:1).

    See Sea of Galilee.

From Tyndale Bible Dictionary, adapted by Mission Mutual. CC BY-SA 4.0.