With Josephus' glowing description the Rabbis are in fullest harmony. Rish Laqish says : ' If Paradise be in the land of Israel, Beth-Shan is its entrance' (nnn'5 [NB'n'n). Again we read : ' Seven seas,' spake the Lord God, ' have I created in the land of Israel, but only one have I chosen for myself, that is the sea of Gennesar ' (Midr. Teh. fol. 4). Siphre on Dt 332:' explains the fulness of the blessing of the Lord as the Plain of Gen- nesaret. On the hills around the Lake vi'ere ' vines and fruitful fields' (Meg. 6a). 'It is easier,' saith Rabbi Eliezer ben Simon, ' to nourish a legion of olives in Galilee than to bring up one child in the land of Israel ' (Ber. Rah. c. 20). Tlie oil of the Galilsean hills was more plentiful than any in Palestine {Men. 856), and the wheat of Chorazin is specially commended {ib. 86a). An illustration of the productiveness of the district, and a parallel to the hundredfold of the parable, may be seen in
the enumeration of the products of a single n'7mN HND 'half bushel of Arbela ' (Jerus. Peak, vii. 3). The Gentile world also lends its testimony. To the early Fathers the district was r« y.px.Tia-'Tx, Tvi; V<x.Xik(x.!a.; , 'the crown of Galilee,' while in the 3rd cent. C. Julius Solinus {Collectanea, xxxv. 13) says: 'Lacus Tiberiadis omnibus anteponitur ingenuo ajstu et ad sanitatem usu efficaci.'
But the district was not yet reduced to the calm beauty of a prosperous agricultural country. There
would still be stretches of woodland remaining, tenanted by birds of brilliant colours and various forms. There would be here and there beautiful oaks, either singly or in groups, that had grown up during the years when the population was small (Baba Batlira v. 1). There would be rocky stretches, especially to the north-east of the Lake, covered with brambles, wild mustard, and coarse grass, or dotted with prickly bushes {nuhk), where the wolf, the jackal, the fox, and the hya?na would make their homes, and where the brown serpent and the silvery - breasted poisonous snake would glide about.
The population would not be .so dense nor the land so fully cultivated as in the days when Josephus wrote, so that there would be a more equal mingling of the wild beauties of nature with the advancing and taming conquests of agriculture. The landscape, too, was becoming varied by the presence of many buildings. It has been .said that ' the shores of the Lake seem to have borne cities and towns instead of harvests' (Tristram, Land of Israel, 444) ; and this, understood in the light of what we have already said, is very true. These would for the most part be constructed of black stone, but varied at times by buildings of white marble, while even the jjolished granite of Syene helped to break the monotony ; and although, on the whole, tlie majority of the buildings would be dull and sombre, still, in the midst of waving fields of green and gold, tlie iiresence of the humble village, and the beach sparkling with the houses and the palaces, the synagogues and the temples of Jewish and Roman inhabitants, would present a scene of great beauty, so that we can well under- stand hoAV the wild desolations of the pre-Christian century, and the calm and peaceful years that fol- loNved the advent of the Messiah, combined to render the district more beautiful when Christ was a citizen of Capernaum than at any other time during its whole history.
iii. Climate. — The climate of the Jordan Valley is in many ways very peculiar. Its low level — the lowest depression in the world — gives it many characteristics which are all its own. The absence of all frost, and the general warmth throughout the whole year, explain to us fully the peculiar open-air life that we meet with in the Gospels. For the most part Christ speaks out of doors. So did the Rabbis of His time. Ben Azzai taught on the shores of Tiberias {Erubin, 29«), and Rabbi Jeliudah in the open air {Moed Kafon, 16«). In the Gospels the sick are freely carried about (Mt 4'-^, Mk 2^), are allowed to wait in the crowd (Lk 8^^'-)) and the people are indifferent if the night find them away from home (Mt 15^^, Mk 8'-- ^). The average temperatures of the air (night and day) in January are 37° and 74° respectively, while in June they are 68° and 108° ; but in July the ther- mometer frequently rises many degrees higher. The present writer has seen it at 106° at 6 a.m., and 139° has been recorded on the shore of the Lake at midday in August ; and even the soil, the rocks, and the pebbles around the Lake side be- come so inteni5ely heated that the bather must wait till long after sunset if he would enter the water without the risk of burning his feet. In such conditions, under the fiery glow of the sun and with months of drought, we can well under- stand that all the grass and herbage are burned up, and so in its present state of naked dreariness, visitors at such a season are naturally disap- pointed ; but in other circumstances, and in days of universal irrigation, the whole scene Avould be very different (cf. Roh\n?,orCH Researches under 19th June). Another noteworthy point is that the tern- perature of the body may rise much higher in cases of fever, and without serious results, than