Bethsaida.— This place was only a village, till Philip the tetrarch of Iturea adorned it with new buildings, drew a wall round it, and called it Julias, in honour of Julia, the daughter of Augustus. This city, therefore, being under Philip's jurisdiction, must have stood somewhere to the east of Jordan. Josephus has marked its situation distinctly, by asserting that the river Jordan falls into the lake of Gennesaret, behind the city Julias. All the circumstances mentioned in the gospels, which have any relation to Bethsaida, quadrate exactly with this situation. Bethsaida is indeed called a town of Galilee, John 12:21 whereas the city which Philip rebuilt, was in Gaulonitis. But to this it may be answered, that Bethsaida being situated very near the Jordan, which divided Galilee from Gaulonitis, it might be called a town of either country, and belong sometimes to the one, and sometimes to the other. Farther, though when Josephus wrote, Galilee did not extend beyond Jordan, the boundary of Herod's dominions; yet the scripture gives the name of Galilee to the whole region lying north of the sea.
Related Commentaries of Luke 9:10
Luke 9:10
10 And the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done. And he took them, and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida.