Cinnereth

Cinnereth was an ancient fortified city of Naphtali on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, which itself took its early name — the Sea of Chinnereth — from this settlement (Joshua 11:2; Deuteronomy 3:17). The city appears in the territorial allotments of the tribe of Naphtali (Joshua 19:35) and was later seized by Ben-hadad of Syria at the instigation of Asa king of Judah (1 Kings 15:20). Its strategic position gave it commercial and military significance in the early Israelite period.

The sea bearing its name — subsequently called the Sea of Tiberias and, in the Gospels, the Sea of Galilee — became the principal setting for much of Jesus' Galilean ministry. The ancient city itself had declined by the New Testament era, but the lake's name preserved the memory of this early Israelite town. Excavations at Tel Kinrot on the northwestern shore have uncovered Bronze and Iron Age remains consistent with the biblical references to Cinnereth as a prominent regional center.