In the lectionary I use for daily prayer, this morning’s gospel reading is from John 6. The chapter begins, “After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee …”
In the gospel stories set in this location, Jesus is frequently crossing to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, whenever the whim strikes him! For that reason, I always thought the Sea was small.
In this case, I was quite surprised. It’s a large body of water. It’s large enough to have white caps when there’s a strong wind — as you can see in the pictures below. (We took a boat across the Sea ourselves, and, with the wind and the rough water, we got just a taste of the story in John 6:16-21.)

White caps on the Sea of Galilee

A model of a fishing boat that Jesus' disciples would have used in their profession.

The remains of a first century fishing boat, recently excavated and preserved.

