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4131 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Galilee

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 (Onoma8ticon, 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.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. A. Smith, Historical Geography o/ the Holy Land, London, 1897; Sehther, Geschichte, i.-ii., Eng. trawl., 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 o/ Christ, Boston, 1881; W. M. Thomson, Land and Book, Central