House of fish, or house of fishers.

Probably there are two places of this name mentioned in the N.T. The older city was on the northeast end of the sea of Galilee, near Capernaum, and was the home of Peter, Andrew, and Philip (John 1: 44; John 12: 21). For his capital, Philip the Tetrarch built a city that he called Bethsaida-Julias, after Julia, daughter of Caesar Augustus. The rebuilt portion was north of the older city and apparently nearer the place where Jesus fed the 5,000 (Mark 6: 45; Luke 9: 10) and healed a blind man (Mark 8: 22). When Jesus denounced Bethsaida for its unbelief (Matt. 11: 21; Luke 10: 13) he probably referred to the pagan city (Philip’s capital), not to the older city, composed largely of fishermen settled on the shore of the lake.