Located in northern Israel, the Sea of Galilee is actually a lake. It is pear-shaped and 13 miles (21 kilometers) from north to south, and 7 miles (11 kilometers) east to west. Situated 686 feet (209 meters) below the level of the Mediterranean Sea, its surface area contains 64 square miles (166 square kilometers). The maximum depth is 157 feet (48 meters). The Jordan River runs into the Sea of Galilee from Syria and continues south out of it. The lake would be an insignificant one except for two main reasons: 1) powerful historical and Biblical associations and 2) current economic value.

Over the centuries, the Sea of Galilee has been called by other names: Lake Kinneret, Lake of Gennesaret, and Sea of Tiberias. Christians around the world identify the lake with several events in the life of Jesus Christ. There were at least nine cities on its shores in ancient times. Capernaum (or Kefar Nahum) to the northwest has maintained one of the most beautiful Jewish synagogues in the area, dating back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries. In the 20th century this region was the site of the original Jewish kibbutz (a communal farm), Deganya, founded in 1909. The city of Tiberias, on the lake's western shore, is the primary surviving community from ancient times. Because of nearby thermal baths and the area's moderate climate, the city is one of Israel's chief winter resorts.

The area near the Sea of Galilee has been systematically developed over the years by irrigation and, more recently, through modern agricultural techniques. In the 1960s, the lake became the source of the National Water Carrier, a large canal that carries water to the coastal areas as well as to the Negev Desert in the south. Several hundred tons of fishes are caught by nets, each year, from the lake itself.

The name Galilee means, "circle." A freshwater lake nestled in the hills of northern Palestine. Although it's surface is nearly 700 feet below the level of the Mediterranean, some thirty miles to the west, the nearby hills of Galilee reach an altitude of 1,500 feet above sea level. To the east are the mountains of Gilead with heights of more than 3,300 feet. The snow-covered Lebanon mountains lie to the north. This sea is fed chiefly by the Jordan River, which originates in the foothills of the Lebanon Mountains, and is eight miles wide its greatest east-west distance. Due to its location, the Galilee is subject to unexpected and violent storms which are generally of short duration.

In the Old Testament this sea is called Chinnereth. It is named only rarely, however, and all occurences but one relate to the Hebrew conquest of Palestine under Joshua's command. In New Testament times it has been called the "Lake of Gennesaret." Luke referred to it by that name once (5:1 "So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word of God, that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret,"); the Jewish historian Josephus always called it by that name, and so did the author of First Maccabees. Once John penned it the "Sea of Tiberias" (6:1 "After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.").

During the first century, the sea of Galilee was of major commercial significance. Many Galilean roads passed by it, and much travel to and from the east crossed the Jordan rift there. Fish was a major food source in the area, and the fishing industry flourished because there was no other significant freshwater lake in the entire region. Capernaum, which played a sizeable role in the ministry of Jesus, was a center of that industry. The other lake towns of note were Bethsaida, which means "the fishing place", and Tiberias, a Gentile town constructed by Herod Antipas when Jesus was a young man.