Mount Arbel (亞比勒山)

Mount Arbel (亞比勒山)

Date: April 6, 2013

Mount Arbel is situated on the northwest coast of Sea of Galilee,  just four kilometers north of Tiberias. The top of the mount is a plateau and along the north to the east of the mount are vertical cliffs created from geological faults. North of Mount Arbel is the Mount of Nitay with vertical cliffs on the south side.

Historian Josephus recorded that in 37 BCE, the Zealots in Galilee battled with Herod the Great and they barricaded at Arbel. Many of them defensed by hiding in caves along the cliffs. Herod won the battle by making suspension cages to hold soldiers and lowering them down the cliffs killing the defenders. In the Jewish War against the Romans, Josephus was the commander in Galilee and in 67 CE he fortified the cave-villiage in Arbel for the revolt. Such caves are found not only in the cliffs of Mount Arbel, but also at Mount Nitay. The caves are better seen at the foothill and experienced hikers may visit the steep fortress Our group only toured at the top of the hill and did not go down to foot of the cliff, not to mention going down to the steep cave fortress. 

The name "Arbel" has been mentioned in the Book of Hosea 10:14 that "all your [Ephraim] fortresses will be destroyed as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel [伯亞比勒] on the day of battle..." Beth-Arbel in Hebrew literally means "house of ambush of God."

Some people see that Mount Arbel is the location where Jesus gave the Great Commission (Matt 28:19-20); however, such view is purely conjecture.

The following five photos are taken form Sea of Galilee showing Mount Arbel.

Mt Arbel with plateau top at middle; the left side is the Town Tiberias.

Mt Arbel on left and Mt Nitay at middle.

Mount Arbel and Mount Nitay

Birds are flying back to their nests before dark.

The following photos were taken from the top of Mount Arbel. It was early morning with fog and thus the far view is not clear enough. 

Replica of wooden cage used by Herod the Great

Caves in the cliff of Mt Arbel
(Note the size of caves by comparing the size of people at top of  plateau.)

Similar setting where Jesus taught multiple of people.

Mount Nitay with caves at far view

Mount Nitay also has a plateau top with caves in the cliff.
(Note: There are cattle at the right side on top of Mt Nitay.)

Small Village Town

The plain west of the shore Sea of Galilee is Ginosar.
Thus Sea of Galilee is also called Lake of Gennesaret (Luke 5:1).

At the sharp bending of the road (center of photo) is the town Migdal.