about
half-past three o'clock, I found a covered rig with two seats, and three
horses hitched to it side by side. I filed no objection to the size of
the carriage, nor to the manner in which the horses were hitched. As the
driver could not speak English and the passenger could not speak Arabic,
there was no conversation on the way. As we drove out of Nazareth, I
observed a large number of women at the Virgin's Fountain, filling their
jars with water. At a distance of a little more than three miles we
passed through Kefr Kenna, the "Cana of Galilee," where Jesus performed
his first miracle. (John 2:1-11.) The road to Tiberias is not all
smooth, but is better than might be supposed. With three horses and a
light load, we were able to move along in the cool of the morning at a
lively gait, passing a camel train, an occasional village, olive
orchard, or mulberry grove. After a while the light of the moon grew
pale, and about six o'clock the great round sun came above the horizon
in front of us, and it was not long until a beautiful sheet of water six
miles long--the Sea of Galilee--came suddenly into view. We rolled along
the winding curves of the carriage road, down the slope of the hill, and
through a gateway in the old wall, to Tiberias, on the west shore of
"Blue Galilee."

According to Josephus, Herod Antipas began to build a new capital city
about sixteen years before the birth of Jesus, and completed it in A.D.
22. He named this new city Tiberias, in honor of the emperor, but it
does not appear to have been a popular place with the Jews, and but
little is said of it in the New Testament (John 21:1), yet it was not an
insignificant place. The Sanhedrin was transferred from Sepphoris, the
old capital, to the new city, and here the school of the Talmud was
developed against the gospel system. The ancient traditional law, called
the "Mishna," is said to have been published here in A.D. 200, and the
Palestinian Gemara (the so-called Jerusalem Talmud) came into existence
at this place more than a century later. The Tiberian pointing of the
Hebrew Bible began here. The present population is largely composed of
Jews, about two-thirds of the inhabitants being descendants of Abraham.
They wear large black hats or fur caps, and leave a long lock of hair
hanging down in front of each ear. There is little in Tiberias to
interest the traveler who has seen the ruins of Rome, Athens and
Ephesus. The seashore bounds it on one side a