by Barry Britnell
Synopsis: Barry explores "The Cove of the Sower," a site on the northern shores of Galilee from which Jesus may have addressed the large multitudes while sitting in a boat.
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: "A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear" (Matt. 13:1-9).
Just west of Capernaum, along the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, there is a small indentation in the shoreline. Around this indentation, the land slowly rises creating a small amphitheater type of environment. This place is called "The Cove of the Sower" and marks the traditional location of where the events of Matthew 13 occurred.
I have been fortunate enough to visit Israel several times and have viewed the Cove of the Sower several times from the water. However, I have never walked down to the actual cove itself. The land between the main road around the northern part of the lake and the cove is private property. Usually, the property has a grove of mango trees on it. Therefore, the only way to access it is to park at Capernaum and then hike to the west along the shore and over fairly large boulders until you get there. It takes about 45 minutes and is generally too difficult for a tour group.
However, last July, as part of the work that I was doing with Appian Media, we decided to make the hike and see this site for ourselves. The walk turned out to be even more difficult than we imagined, including cutting through some thick underbrush to get there. Nevertheless, we made it.
It was a wonderful experience to be there. It is easy to use your mind's eye and envision Jesus sitting out in a boat and speaking to the crowds. While we were there, Jeremy Dehut and I decided to try an experiment. We wanted to see how far you could stand from the edge of the water and still hear someone speaking. I left Jeremy at the shore and proceeded to walk up the hill and view Jeremy from about 100 yards away. Once I was in position, Jeremy began to read loudly the passage from Matthew 13.
I was amazed.
Jeremy's voice reflected off the water and just bounced up the hill in my direction. I could hear him as clearly as if he was standing right next to me. No doubt, Jesus could have been heard by hundreds of people (at least) as he spoke to them from a similar location.
What did we learn from this experiment? We learned that even the smallest details in the Bible should not be glossed over. It would have been easy for Matthew to simply record for us that Jesus taught by the Sea of Galilee. But, he makes the extra effort to tell us that the crowd was large. In fact, the crowd was so large that Jesus could not properly address them from the shoreline. He needed to get out into a boat and push a few feet from shore. All of these details are important. They provide a layer of reality to the story that he wanted us to know. By going to the Cove of the Sower and performing this experiment, we were able to physically see and hear this story come true before our eyes.
If we can have confidence that the smallest details are true, then we can be assured that the more significant and important details of the Bible are also accurate.
If you are interested, Jeremy and I had our experiment recorded by the video crew that was with us. If you would like to see it, go here.
Also, if you are interested in purchasing the "Following the Messiah" videos, you can do so online from the CEI Bookstore.
Author Bio: Barry Britnell is the founder of Exploring Bible Lands, LLC and leads Bible Study tours to the land of Israel. He also works with Appian Media to produce Biblically-sound videos used in teaching others about the Bible. Barry and his wife, Tabatha, have three children, and live in Athens, Alabama, and worships with the Capshaw church of Christ. He can be reached at barry.britnell@exploringbiblelands.com.
Image 1: The Cove of the Sower on the northern shores of Galilee
Image 2: The Cove of the Sower on the northern shores of Galilee