Chinnereth

Or CINNEROTH, a town on the west shore of the sea of Galilee, Num 34:11 Deu 3:17 Jos 11:2 19:35 1Ki 15:20. It was a "fenced city" of Naphtali, and gave its name to the lake on which it stood. Tiberias is supposed by Jerome to have afterwards occupied its site.\par

Chin’nereth. (circuit). Accurately Cinnareth, a fortified city in the tribe of Naphtali, Jos 19:35 only, of which no trace is found in later writers, and no remains by travellers.

(Hebrews Kinne´reth, כַּנֶּרֶת; in pause Kinna´reth [Josh.], כַּנָּרֶת; Sept. Χενέρεθ v. r. [in Deuteromomy] Μαχαναρέθ), the sing. form (Deu 3:17; Jos 19:35) of a town, also called in the plur. CHINNEROTH (Hebrews Kinneroth, כַּנְּרוֹת, 1Ki 15:20; Sept. Χενέρεθ; A. V. "Cinneroth;" or Kinnaroth’, כַּנֲּרוֹת, Jos 11:2, Χενερώθ); or perhaps the latter form designates the region of which the other was the metropolis. A similar variety appears in the name of the adjoining lake, which is perhaps intended in some of the above passages. The town was a fortified city in the tribe of Naphtali, mentioned between Rakkath and Adamah (Jos 19:35), the only certain reference to the city exclusively. Whether it gave its name to or received it from the lake, which was possibly adjacent, is uncertain. Jerome identifies Chennereth (Onomast. s.v., Eusebius Χενερώθ) with the later Tiberias. This may have been from some tradition then existing: the only corroboration which we can find for it is the mention in Joshua of Hammath as near it, which was possibly the Emmaus (modern Hummain), near the shore of the lake, a little south of Tiberias. This situation of Chinnlereth is denied by Reland (Palest. p. 161) on the ground that Capernaum is said by Matthew (Mat 4:13) to have been on the very borders of Zebulun and Naphtali, and that Zebulun was to the south of Naphtali. But the evangelist’s expression hardly requires this strict interpretation. The town, or the lake, appears to have given its name (slightly altered) to a district — "all Cinneroth" (1Ki 15:20). SEE CINNERETH.

Chinnereth or Chinneroth (kĭn’ne-rĕth or kin’ne-rŏth), harps. Jos 11:2. A fenced city of Naphtali, on the lake, or sea, of the same name; afterward called Gennesar, or Gennesaret, and about three miles northwest of Tiberias, according to Fuerst.

CHINNERETH.—A city (Deu 3:17, Jos 11:2 [in latter spelt Chinneroth] Jos 19:35) which gave its name to the Sea of Chinnereth (Num 34:11, Jos 12:3; Jos 13:27), the OT designation of the Sea of Galilee. The site of the town is uncertain, but it follows Rakkath (probably Tiberias), and may have been in the plain of Gennesaret (cf. 1Ki 15:20).

Chinnereth was another name for Gennesaret. It applied both to the Lake of Gennesaret (the Sea of Galilee) and to the small Plain of Gennesaret on the lake’s western shore (Num 34:11; Jos 19:35; Luk 5:1). For fuller details see PALESTINE, sub-heading ‘Upper Jordan and Sea of Galilee’.