Кинерет: Древний город у Галилейского моря и его история.

Bronze/Iron Age city by the Sea of Galilee

Kinneret is the name of an important Bronze and Iron Age city situated on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, mentioned in the 14th century BC Aqhat Epic of Ugarit, and in the Old Testament and New Testament. Older Bible translations spell the name alternatively Kinnereth or Chinnereth, and sometimes in the plural as Chinneroth. In time the name became Gennesaret and Ginosar The remains of Kinneret have been excavated at a site called Tell el 'Oreimeh (Tell el ‘Orēme) in Arabic and Tel Kinrot in Modern Hebrew.

According to the Jerusalem Talmud (Megillah 1:1), the name Kinneret is derived from the name of the kinnar trees which grow in its vicinity, explained by lexicographer M. Jastrow to mean the Christ's thorn jujube (Ziziphus spina christi), and by Moses Margolies to mean cane reeds. Another Talmud passage says that it is so called because its fruits are as sweet as those of the kinnara (Ziziphus spina christi).

Adrian Room sees the origin of 'Ginosar' in a combination of Hebrew words, ge ('valley') and either netser ('branch') or natsor ('to guard', 'to watch'). The late 19th century Easton's Bible Dictionary offers a very different etymology, by stating that the initial Hebrew name 'Kinneret', in the plural 'Kinnerot', was Grecized to Gennesaret, with Ginosar as yet another transformation of the Hebrew name.

Due to its prominence, the city gave its name to the lake (the "Sea of Galilee") for long periods of history, as the Sea of Kinneret, Kinnerot, Gennesaret, or Ginosar. or Lake Minya ("Bahr el Minya" in Arabic).

The name has also been used for the "Plain of Gennesaret", which stretches south of the ancient city. The plain's modern names are Plain of Ginosar in Hebrew and el Ghuweir in Arabic.

The Israeli kibbutz Ginosar derives its name from the ancient town, though it is not located on its precise site. The settlements of Moshavat Kinneret and Kvutzat Kinneret are even further south, on the southwestern shore of the lake.

Kinneret is mentioned as Kennartou in the 15th century BCE Annals of Thutmose III at Temple of Karnak.

Kinneret was a town allotted to the tribe of Naphtali The name appears in the singular form as "Kinneret" (, ) or in the plural as "Kinneroth" .

In the New Testament the name appears changed to Gennesaret
This city or area is also a place where Jesus visited and performed healing The Douay Rheims Bible uses the form "Genesar", see Gospel of Matthew
[34] And having passed the water, they came into the country of Genesar. (Matthew 14:34).

Flavius Josephus, as well as the Babylonian Talmud mention the lake by the name "Sea of Ginosar" after the small fertile plain of Ginosar that lies at the foot of Tell el 'Oreimeh, ancient Kinneret. Josephus refers to the area as having very rich soil.

The tell is being excavated as part of a large archaeological project which is ongoing since 2002.