GALILEE.
- I. The Israelitic Period.
- Names and Boundaries § 1).
- History (§ 2).
- Cities (§ 3).
- II. The Jewish Period
- Geographical Limits (§ 1).
- Earlier History (§ 2).
- Galilee the Home of Insurrection (§ 3).
- Cities (§ 4).
Galilee (Hebr. Galil; Aram. Gallila, Gelila; Gk.
H8 Galilaia) is the most northern district of Palestine. The form of the name indicates two distinct
periods in the history of the region, the. Israelitic
and the Jewish.
L The Inaelitic Period: The word Galfl or
Galilah
(II Kings xv. 29)
means a circle, region, district. It is used nearly in its primary sense in
Isa. ix. i (cf.
I Macc. v. 15),
and suggests in these passages a region not in the complete possession of
the Hebrews. The passage in Isaiah defines the
region closely enough,
mentioning on one aide
Zebulun and Naphtali, on the other "beyond
Jordan," and also " the way of the sea," which is
the caravan route from Damascus to Acre via
Bahrat al-Hulah, Wadi al-Hammam
r. Names and past Kam Hattin, and also the
and Bound- "district of the nations" (R. V. mar-
aries. gin). The region through which this
road passes beyond Kam Hattin is the
land of Zebulun; the Jordan region is the stretch on
the west side from Bahrat al-Hulah to Dan. The
" district of the nations "includes the mountain
region to the north of the plain of al Battof (cf.
Josh. xx. 7
and
II Kings xv. 29).
The last two
expressions in
Isa. ix. 1
correspond to the " land
of Naphtali " in the preceding context.
The earliest reports of this region come from
the inscriptions of Sethos I. and Rameses II.
(fourteenth and thirteenth centuries
B.C.)
in connection with the conquered territory between the
Kishon and Lebanon, in which Asher is mentioned.
By this is not necessarily meant the tribe of Asher,
since the incriptions clearly mean a country.
Gen. xxx. 9-13
makes Asher a son of Jacob and
Zilpah, the bondservant of Leah, that is, a stock of
mixed Hebrew and Canaanitic blood: or, in other
words, Hebrew settlers in the district of
2.
History. Asher had assumed the name of the
region, though they had in time become
its masters. A similar explanation applies to the
case of Naphtali as the son of Jacob and Bilhah, the
bondservant of Rachel
(Gen. xxx. 1-8).
The two
Canaanitic stocks out of which these peoples developed were the Amorites and the Hivites. The
Amorites came from Lebanon later than 1250
B.C.;
the Hivites dwelt at the foot of Hermon
(Josh. xi. 3)
or Lebanon
(Judges iii. 3).
In the Song of
Deborah, Naphtali and Zebulun receive praise,
while Asher is charged with indifference and lack
of effort, but in
Judges vi. 35, vii. 23,
Asher is
reckoned among the fighting tribes. The indications of history and of
Judges i. 31-33
are that the
district of Asher was less under Hebrew control than
that of Naphtali. But it is clear from the reading of
events that the population of the region had little
influence at least upon the religion of Israel.
Solomon ceded to Hiram of Tyre twenty cities in
Galilee which belonged to the region of Cabul
(I Kings ix. 10-14)
which Hiram gave to Solomon
(II Chron. viii. 2),
though the history in the
Books of Kings does not bear out the Chronicler.
Benhadad I. wasted "all the land of Naphtali"
(I Kings xv. 20);
after the victory of Ahab it was
again recovered by Hazael
(II Kings xii. 18, xiii. 22),
and Jeroboam was able to restore the control to
Israel, though only for a short time. In 734
B.C.
Tiglath-pileser III. assailed this entire region at the
request of Ahaz
(II Kings xvi. 7)
and carried the
inhabitants into exile
(II Kings xv. 29).
The harassed condition of the inhabitants is expressed in
Isa. iii. 21, ix. 4.
The Israelitic period ends with
the assimilation of the region to the Assyrian rule.
The Galilee of Israelitic times possessed no large
cities. It was not easily accessible, since there
were no good roads, and the caravan route passed
through its southeastern corner only.. One road
passed eastward from Tyre to Abel-beth-maacah,
and crossed several leading north and south; there
was a path from Tyre to the Sea of Galilee, and one
from Acre, more traveled, which branched on the
hills northward and southward.
Judges xviii. 7-10
probably represents the condition of
3. Cities. all the places called cities in Galilee.
Josh. xi. 10
names Hazor as the capital, one of Solomon's border fortresses
(I Kings ix. 15),
while
I Macc. xi. 63-73
locates it south of Kedesh. Kedesh was one of the oldest possessions of
Israel; its modern name is Kades, located north of
Bahrat al-Hulah. Its name indicates that it was
an old sanctuary, and
Josh. xx. 7, xxi. 32
make it a
city of refuge and a Levitical city. North of Kedesh, on the border of the hill country above the
Jordan valley, lay Abel-Beth-maacah, the modern
Abil al-Kamh, the refuge of Sheba
(II Sam. xx. 14).
Still farther north lay Ijon, not definitely located,
though there is a Marj Ajun between the Litany and
the Hasbany. Dan was situated eastward from Abil
al-Kamh, on the west source of the Jordan (Judges
xviii.,
Josh. xix. 47).
Its earlier name was Lais or
Leshem. Jeroboam made it one of the royal sanctuaries, and it stood for the extreme northern
boundary of Israel. Achahaph
(Josh. xi. 1)
is
possibly the modern Khirbat Iksaf, southwest of the
bend in the Litany. The village Jarun west of
Bahrat al-Hulah perhaps marks the Iron of
Josh. xix. 38,
Kana, south of this, may be the Kanah of
Josh. xix. 28,
and Ramiya, still farther south, the
Ramah of
Josh. xix. 29.
II. The Jewish Period: The boundaries of the
Jewish Galilee differed from those under Israel.
Josephus makes it begin on the north of Scythopolis and the Plain of Jezreel, and divides it into
Upper and Lower Galilee, with the division at the
plain of al-Ramah, with Beersheba on the line.
While the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan were normally the eastern boundary, places farther east
were reckoned to it (see
Gaulanitis).
The
northern and western boundaries are
z. Geo- hard to define, though Josephus makes
graphical Kedesh a Tyrian fortress on the bound-
Limits. ary. The Jewish Galilee included the
territory of Zebulun, which was not in
the earlier district. Dr. Hirsch Hildesheimer (Bei
trdge zur Geographic Paldstinas,
Berlin, 1886) from
indications in the Talmud would place the northern line by Tibnin, Marj Ajun and Cæsarea Philippi
in the time of Alexander Jannaeus. But it is
hardly likely that Kedesh had changed its relations
between his time and that of Josephus.
Despite the exemplary punishment meted out to
the district by Tiglath-pileser III., the Israelitic
inhabitants continued for the most part to hold
their position, and it did not suffer the same admixture of foreign population as did Samaria.
The narrative in
II Chron. xxx. 10-I1
supports
the supposition that there were those in the country
about 300 B.C. who were allied in religion with the
Jews; and that Jews lived in that country is shown
by
I Macc. v. 14-23,
in that Simon the
2.
Earlier Maccabee brought numbers of Jews
History. thence to live in Judea. Under John
Hyroanus I. Samaria was subjected and
the boundaries thrust farther north to Galilee.
Aristobulus I. seems to have conquered and Judaized
4 Galilee (Josephus, Ant'. XIII., xi. 3), and Hyrcanus
II. was confirmed by Pompey as ethnarch of the region. The later destiny of Galilee was bound up with
that of Judea. The proconsul Gabinius divided the
whole Jewish country into five districts, each with its
own synedrium, that for Galilee sitting in Sepporis.
But this arrangement did not prove satisfactory.
The risings of the years 55 and 53
B.c. were suppressed by the Romans, but Herod first secured
peace in the land 45 B.c. After the rule of Antigonus, 40-37, Galilee was united with Herod's
kingdom (37-4 s.c. ), and Augustus gave Herod also
the tetrarchy of Zenodorus. After the death of Herod,
hatred of the Romans and hopes of the Messiah
kindled the fires of insurrection. Judas of Gamala,
son of an Ezechias executed by Herod, rebelled and
was subdued by Varus (see
Judas of Galilee).
Meanwhile Augustus had confirmed Herod's will
and Galilee and Perma fell to Antipas, who made
his capital first in Sepporis and then in Tiberias on
the Sea of Galilee. While the census of Quirinius
(7 A.D.) did not affect Galilee, it set loose forces of
insurrection. The Zealots arose under
3. Galilee Judas of Gamala and the Pharisee
the Home Zaddok. Judas was killed (Acts v.
of Insurrec- 37), but he had sown seed which pro-
tion. duced fruit. Both John the Baptist
and Jesus found Zealots among their
disciples
(
John i. 35-42;
Mark iii. 18).
These continued movements caused Antipas great anxiety
(
Luke xiii. 31, 32).
An event of the year 40 showed how great was the feeling against the Romans.
Caligula had ordered Petronius, the governor of
Syria, to place the emperor's statue in the Temple
at Jerusalem, and thousands of Jews assembled
in Ptolemais and Tiberias, in the latter place con
tinuously for forty days, beseeching him not to
profane the Temple, and Petronius gave up the
design. From the year 44 the Zealots continued to
gain ground among the people, though treated by
the Romans as common brigands. By a gift of
Nero, part of Galilee came under Agrippa II., viz.,
Tiberias and Tarichma. At the beginning of the
war in 67, Sepporis yielded to the Romans and the
other cities, Tarichaea, Tiberias, Gamala, and the
fortress on Tabor and at Gischala were subdued.
After 70, Vespasian took the entire district, so
rife with sedition, under his private control, and
Judea was administered by governors probably of
pretorian rank. Agrippa's realm after his death
in 100 was joined to the province of Syria.
A review shows that the population of Galilee was
heterogeneous. Besides the Jews, themselves not
of pure strain, there were Arameans, Itureans
(perhaps Arabs), to say nothing of Phenicians and
Greeks. On this account the contempt of the
Jews for Galileans is explicable
(John i. 46, vii. 52),
and the dialect was distinguishable from that used
in the south
(Matt. xxvi. 73;
Mark xiv. 70).
Nevertheless in the second century Galilee became the
home of Jewish scholarship, the place where the
Masoretic work was done upon the text of the
Old Testament and where the beginning was made
of the collection which became the Jerusalem or
Palestinian Talmud.
The best-known cities belonged to Lower Galilee.
Near the southwestern boundary and south of the
Wadi al-Malak lay Simomas, the Shimron of
Josh. xi. 1,
the modern Semuniyah. South of Tabor the
modern Nein locates the Nain of
Luke vii. 11.
On the plateau between Tabor and the Sea of Galilee the
modern village of Sarona locates the Saronas of
Eusebius (OnomaSticon, 296). In the time of
Christ the region immediately west of the Sea of
Galilee was densely populated. In the south, not
far from the outlet into the Jordan, lay the Talmudic
fortress Bethirah, to be identified with the Tarichaea of Josephus, the modern Khirbet al-Karak.
Four miles north was the celebrated spring of
Tiberias, with Tiberias itself half an
4. Cities. hour farther north, according to the
Talmud the site of the Rakkath of
Josh. xix. 35.
After Herod Antipas had built it,
he found it difficult to get Jews to settle there,
since they regarded it as unclean on account of the
many graves in the vicinity or on the site. An hour
still to the north is located the village al-Majdal,
identified with the home of Mary Magdalene.
From there to Khan Minyah stretches the plain,
the Gennesaret of
Mark vi. 53.
On the location of Capernaum see
Capernaum.
The best road from the shore of the Sea of Galilee westward is through
the Wadi al-Hammam, where Herod's famous
battle with the supporters of the Hasmoneans was
fought (Josephus, War, I., xvi. 2, 4). The basalt
hill of Kam Hattin is identified by the Roman
Catholics as the Mount of Transfiguration, but
without good reason. To the southwest is situated Kafr Kanna, often identified with the
Cana of John ii.; others locate Cana at Khirbet
Kana, and a third identification is with Hanat
al-Jalil, at the north of the plain of al-Battof. But
half an hour north of Nazareth (q.v.) is a spring
still known as Ain Kana, surrounded by masonry,
and near it a basin of masonry. This site better
fulfils the conditions required for the site of Cana.
One and a half hours north of Nazareth is Safuriyah, which marks the site of Sepporis, a town by
nature a fortress, and for that reason influentil·1 in
history. Before Tiberias was built, it was the chief
city of the district. In the north of the plain of
al-Battof (plain of Asochis, Ant. XIII., xii. 4), at
the modern Tell Jafat was the fortress of Jotapata
(Josephus, War, III., vii.-viii.). In Upper Galilee,
near the north shore of the Sea of Galilee and near
Capernaum, the present Khirbet Karazah is the
site of Chorazin
(Matt. xi. 21).
Upon a high spur, giving a wide view southward, was Zafed, a city
reckoned with Jerusalem, Hebron, and Tiberias as
one of the holy places. Westward lies Meron,
often mentioned in the Talmud and still a place of
pilgrimage for Jews who honor the doctors of the
law buried there. Gischala lay to the north, the
modern ruins bearing the name al-Jish.
(H. Guthe.)
Bibliography:
G. A. Smith, Historical Geography of the
Holy Land, London, 1897; Sehther, Geschichte, i.-ii., Eng.
transl., I., i., II., i.; A. Neubauer, La Geopraphie du Talmud, Paris, 1868; V. Gudrin, Description de la. Palestine,
III., Galil6e, i. ii., ib. 1880; C. R. Conder and H. H.
Kitchener, Survey of Western Palestine, Memoirs, vol, i.,
London, 1881; S. Merrill, Galilee in the Time of Christ,
Boston, 1881; W. M. Thomson, Land and Book, Central
Palestine, London, 1883; B. Stade,
Geschichte des Volkes
Israel, vol. i., Berlin, 1887; H. Graets,
tiewhiehte der Ju
dea, vol. iii., Index, " GalilAa," " · Galil$er," "Zeloten,"
ib. 1888; W. M. Moller, Asian
and Europa, Leipsic, 1893;
J. Wellhausen,
Israelit%sdke and iiidssehe Geschichts, Ber
lin, 1894; F. Buhl,
tiaographie des alten Palastina, Frei
burg,
1898; W. Sanday,
Sacred Sites of the Gospels, pp. 20
48, London, 1903; Robinson,
Researches, Vol. ii.;
DB, ii.
98-104;
EB, ii. 1628-36;
JE, v. 553-554.
