GALILEE 641.1 and ri5,SD; Sept. and N. T.
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PaXaaia). In the O. T. this name is given to a small circuit ' among the mountains of Naphtali ; and in the N. T. to a large province embracing the whole of Northern Palestine. It is first mentioned by Joshua, who describes Kedesh as in Galilee in Mount Naphtali ' (xx. 7). Its limited extent is indi cated in 2 Kings xv. 29, where the historian detail ing the conquests of Tiglath-pileser states that he took Ijon, and Abel-Beth-Maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and IIazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali2 Galilee, therefore, did not extend beyond the bounds of Naphtali ; and a comparison with other passages shews that it em braced only the northern section of that tribe, or at least that the name was at first confined to that district (Josh. xx. 7 ; xxi. 32 ; Joseph. Antiq. v. 1. IS). The region thus lay on the summit of a broad mountain ridge. Here were situated the towns which Solomon offered to Hiram as payment for his services in procuring timber and stones for the temple. Hiram, however, whose mreat want was grain for his island city, and who doubtless expected a portion of some of the rich plains of central Pa lestine, could not conceal his disappointment when lie saw the mountain towns and their rugged en virons, and declined them as useless (CAntm; comp.
Kinas ix. II, and 2 Chron viii. 2). At this perioeGalilee, thoug,h within the allotted territory of Naphtali, does not appear to have been occu pied by the Israelites. It was only after Hiram had declined the towns that Solomon rebuilt and colonized them (2 Chron. c.) Hazor, the great stronghold and capital of the northern Canaanites, lay within or near Galilee ; and, though Joshua had captured and burned it (Josh. xi.), yet during the rule of the Judges it was possessed by a king Jaban, whose general, Sisera, dwelt in the neighbouring Ha rosheth of the Gentiles (Judg. iv.) The presence of these powerful and warlike tribes, and the natural strength of the country, sufficiently account for the continued occupation of the old Gentile inhabitants. David subdued, but did not expel them. Solomon, as has been seen, took some of their towns ; but they remained among these rugged mountains in such numbers, that in the time of Isaiah the district was called Galilee of the Gentiles' (Is. ix.
The word signifies a 'circuit ' or 'ring,' and may at first have been given to one of the little cir cular plains among- the mountains of Naphtali. There is such an one just beside Kedesh. After wards, as was the case with other names, this was extended to a wider and wider region. There is some indication in Scripture that it was used in a more extended sense in the time of Tiglath-pileser than in that of Joshua. Dilay it not be that in the
days of Isaiah the name had come to be applied, perhaps somewhat vaguely, to the country extend ing south of Naphtali, and that the ancient te-ri tory was therefore distinguished by him as Galilee of the Gentile:2 In Macc--,b. v. 15 and 17, this dis tinction appears to be made. Galilee of the Gen tiles ' had then a large heathen population 0 Mac cab. v. 21-23 ; Strab,‘, xvi. p. 523). Josephus makes the same distinction though under a slightly different name. He divides Galilee into Upper and Lower, tivw 7) ((di-co reddXata ; and in one place he seems to consider the former as constituting the whole of Galilee proper (Reland, Pal. 1S2 and 3o6 ; Buseb. Ononzast., s. v. Galikea ; Lightfoot, opp. 4ss , seq.) In the beginning of our era Palestine was divided into three provinces , Judxa, Samaria, and Galilee. Josephus thus describes Galilee,—`There are two Galilees, the Upper and the Lower, which are en vironed by Plicenicia and Syria. They are bounded on the west by the territory of Ptolemais and Car mel, a mountain belonging formerly to the Galileans, but at present to the Syrians. On the south Samaria and Scythopolis, as far as the Jordan, form their limits. Towards the east Hippene and Godaris, Gaulanitis and the frontiers of Agrippa's kingdom ; while Tyre and its dependencies constitute their northern border. Lower Galilee extends in length from Tiberias to Zabulon, adjacent to which, on the sea-coast, is Ptolemais. In breadth it stretches from a village called Xaloth, lying in the Great Plain, to Bersabc ; commencing from which is measured, also, the breadth of Upper Galilee, as far as the village of Baca, which bounds the land of the Tyrians. In length it runs from a village in the vicinity of the Jordan to Meroth' "'aid, 3. t). A comparison of this with some other passages enables us to fix the boundaries still more accu rately. The ivestern border ran along the narrow strip of coast land belonging to Phcenicia. The southern border is marked by Carmel, the northern range of Samaria and the towns of Scythopolis , for, though he says Xaloth, which lies near the base of Tabar, is on the border, yet in another passage he states that Ginma (now yenin) lay between Sa maria and Galilee (.4ntiq. xx. 6. t). Galilee thus included the whole plain of Esdraelon. The Jordan was its eastern border, separating it from the pro vinces named. Its northern limits are uncertain. Perhaps a line drawn from Banias westward to the angle formed by the Litany, and then along the banks of that river to the Phcenician plain, would mark its boundary with a near approach to accu racy.