he devoted his life, before he received the summons that sent him forth to the world, on a far higher errand. Of such a humble family, he was born at Bethsaida, in Galilee, on or near the shore of the sea of Galilee, otherwise called lake Tiberias, or Gennesaret. Upon this lake he seems to have followed his laborious and dangerous livelihood, which very probably, in accordance with the hereditary succession of trades, common among the Jews, was the occupation of his father and ancestors before him. Of the time of his birth no certain information can be had, as those who were able to inform us, were not disposed to set so high a value upon ages and dates, as the writers and readers of later times. The most reasonable conjecture as to his age, is, that he was about the same age with Jesus Christ; which rests on the circumstances of his being married at the period when he was first called by Christ,—his being made the object of such high confidence and honor by his Master, and the eminent standing which he seems to have maintained, from the first, among the apostles. Still there is nothing in all these circumstances, that is irreconcilable with the supposition that he was younger than Christ; and if any reader prefers to suppose the period of his birth so much later, there is no important point in his history or character that will be affected by such a change of dates.
Bethsaida.—The name of this place occurs in several passages of gospel history,
as connected with the scenes of the life of Jesus. (Matt. xi. 21; Mark vi. 45, viii. 22-26;
Luke ix. 10, x. 13; John i. 45, xii. 21.) The name likewise occurs in the writings
of Josephus, who describes Bethsaida, and mentions some circumstances of its
history. The common impression among the New Testament commentators has
been, that the Bethsaida which is so often mentioned in the gospels, was on the western
shore of lake Gennesaret, near the other cities which were the scenes of important
events in the life of Jesus. Yet Josephus distinctly implies that Bethsaida was situated
on the eastern shore of the lake, as he says that it was built by Philip the tetrarch,
in Lower Gaulonitis, (Jewish war, book ii. chapter 9, section 1,) which was on the
eastern side of the Jordan and the lake, though not in Peraea, as Lightfoot rather
hastily assumes; for Peraea, though by its derivation (from [Greek: peran], peran, "beyond,")
meaning simply "what was beyond" the river, yet was, in the geography of Palestine,
applied to only that portion of the country east of Jordan, which extends from
Moab on the south, northward, to Pella, on the Jabbok. (Josephus, Jewish war,
book iii. chap. 3, sect. 3.) Another point in which the account given by Josephus
differs from that in the gospels, is, that while Josephus places Bethsaida in Gaulonitis,
John (xii. 21,) speaks of it distinctly as a city of Galilee, and Peter, as well as others
born in Bethsaida, is called a Galilean. These two apparent disagreements have led
many eminent writers to conclude that there were on and near the lake, two wholly
different places bearing the name of Bethsaida. Schleusner, Bretschneider, Fischer,
Pococke, Reland, Michaelis, Kuinoel, Rosenmueller, and others, have maintained
this opinion with many arguments. But Lightfoot, Cave, Calmet, Baillet, Macknight,
Wells, and others, have decided that these differences can be perfectly reconciled,
and all the circumstances related in the gospels, made to agree with Josephus's account
of the situation of Bethsaida.
The first passage in which Josephus mentions this place, is in his Jewish Antiquities, book xviii. chap. 2, sect. 1. "And he, (Philip) having granted to the village
