A region of northern Israel. The northernmost part of Palestine and the ancient kingdom of Israel, Galilee was the center of Jesus's ministry.
Galilee
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Gal·i·lee (găl'ə-lē')  |
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The northern part of Palestine, also called Galilee of the nations after the Assyrian conquest (Is 9:1), possibly because of the many nations which dwelt in that part of the country before the Israelite conquest. Galilee is bordered by the Jezreel Valley on the south, the Sea of Galilee on the east, Labanon on the north and the Plain of Acre on the west. It is the highest and coolest region in the country, well watered by the winter rains and with numerous and abundant springs. A deep valley divides the area into two, Upper Galilee rising to a height of more than 3,000 feet (915 m) above sea level.
The main road connecting the Mediterranean coast with the lands to the east of the Jordan ran through this declivity. Broad valleys, especially in Lower Galilee, provide very fertile soil for agriculture, which was the basis of the rich economy of this region.
When the Israelites first entered the territory, Galilee was densely settled with Canaanite city-states, and for a long time the tribes of Asher, Naphtali, Zebulun and Issachar dwelt among them. Kedesh, "in Galilee in the mountains of Naphtali", was one of the cities of refuge (Josh 20:7; 21:32). In the time of Solomon the area comprised four of the administrative divisions of his kingdom (I Kgs 4:12, 15-16). The land of Cabul in Asher (Josh 19:27) was ceded by Solomon to Hiram, king of Tyre, as part payment for his help in building the Temple (I Kgs 9:11-12).
In 732 Tiglath-Pileser III conquered the important cities of Galilee: Ijon, Abel-Beth-Maachah, Janoah, Kedesh and Hazor. The region then became an Assyrian satrapy, known in Assyrian documents as the satrapy of Megiddo, the seat of its governor. In the Persian period Galilee was outside the Jewish autonomous state. It seems that at that time Galilee and Samaria were a single district; at any event this was the case in the Seleucid period, when the district, called an eparchy, included also Judea. Under the Ptolemies Galilee formed a separate hyparchy. In this period the region was inhabited by many Greeks and Phoenicians, but there were also some Jewish settlements. In 104 -103 B.C. Galilee was conquered by Aristobulus and added to the Hasmonean kingdom, and when Palestine was conquered by Pompey in 64 B.C. it remained in Jewish territory. Later it formed part of Herod's kingdom. The capital of the district was Sepphoris, the other important towns being Magdala and Gush-Halav. After Herod's death Galilee became part of the territory of Herod Antipas, who founded the city of Tiberias, the new capital of Galilee. After his deposition in A.D. 39 Galilee was given to Agrippa I and after his death if formed part of the kingdom of Agrippa II.
Galilee was the scene of the early ministry of Jesus. He lived in Nazareth of Galilee (Matt 21:11; Mark 1:9) and performed his first miracle at Cana (John 2:1-11; 4:46).
For the earlier gospels of Mark and Matthew, Galilee, geographically a green and pleasant land, has a certain connotation of the happy days at the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, when the crowds heard him gladly (Mark 12:37), in contrast with stony Judea where he was put to death. It was there, Jesus told them at the Last Supper that, after he had been raised, he would go before them to meet them (Mark 14:28). The young man in the empty tomb told the women to inform the disciples that Jesus had preceded them in Galilee where they would see him as he had promised (Mark 16:7). Thus Galilee became a kind of promised land.
During the war against the Romans Galilee was fortified by Josephus, and the first battles against the Romans took place there. After the quelling of the revolt it formed part of the Roman province of Judea. Some of the larger cities, such as Tiberias and Sepphoris, were made autonomous and their territories enlarged. The area flourished after the period of the Second Jewish Revolt (A.D. 132-135). It was densely populated, with numerous towns and villages, some of which were the seats of the Jewish priestly orders.
The great prosperity of the region is evident from the numerous ruins of synagogues dating from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th centuries A.D., while the beautiful mosaic pavements of the churches attest its prosperity in the Byzantine period.
Concordance
Josh 20:7; 21:32. I Kgs 9:11. II Kgs 15:29. I Chr 6:76. Is 9:1. Matt 2:22; 3:13; 4:12, 15,23, 25; 17:22; 19:1; 21:11; 26:32, 69; 27:55; 28:7,10, 16. Mark 1:9, 14, 28.39; 3:7; 6:21; 9:30; 14:28; 15:41; 16:7. Luke 1:26; 2:4, 39; 3:1; 4:14, 31, 44; 5:17; 8:26; 17:11; 23:5-6,49, 55; 24:6. John 1:43; 2:1,11; 4:3, 43,45-47, 54; 7:1,9, 41, 52; 12:21; 21:2. Acts 1:11; 5:37; 9:31; 10:37; 13:31
| Architecture: galilee |
A narthex or chapel at the entrance of a church; often used for worship.
| Architecture and Landscaping: Galilee |
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Galilee |
Galilee (găl'ĭlē), region, N Israel, roughly the portion north of the plain of Esdraelon. Galilee was the chief scene of the ministry of Jesus. The Sea of Galilee (see Galilee, Sea of), the countryside, and the towns-Cana, Capernaum, Tiberias, Nazareth-are repeatedly referred to in the Gospels. Jesus himself was called the Galilean, and his disciples were chosen from the local fishermen. After the destruction of Jerusalem (A.D. 70), Galilee became the main center of Judaism in Palestine. Zionist colonization of the region began at the end of the 19th cent. The Beit Natufa Dam there is part of the National Water Carrier System, of which the main reservoir is the Sea of Galilee. Galilee is divided into Upper and Lower sections. The major towns in Upper Galilee are Zefat and Tiberias; Nazareth is the largest town in Lower Galilee. Jews, Arabs, and Druze compose the bulk of the population. Most of the towns of the region are industrialized, and the fertile agricultural areas produce an abundance of olives and grain.
| Mideast & N. Africa Encyclopedia: Galilee |
In Hebrew, ha-Galil, probably meaning "the circle"; in Arabic, al-Jalil; mountainous and comparatively fertile region of northern Israel.
The Galilee region is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea on the west, the river Jordan on the east, the Lebanese border in the north, and the Jezreel Valley to the south. A line running from Acre on the coast to the northwest shore of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee or Lake Tiberias) divides Lower Galilee, reaching an elevation of 1,500 feet (458 m) above sea level, from Upper Galilee, which attains altitudes of 4,000 feet (1,220 m).
Joshua and Deborah conquered the entirety of this area, which in biblical times was allotted to four Israelite tribes and later to the northern kingdom of Israel. Controlled by a series of empires, Galilee became a preeminent Judaic stronghold for some five centuries after the destruction of the Second Temple, and a center of Christianity especially after the sixth century C.E. The region became part of the province of al-Urdunn (Jordan) following the Arab conquest (c. 640), then formed a crusader principality, and was later ruled successively by Ayyubids, Mamluks, Ottomans, and intermittently by local potentates such as Zahir al-Umar, Ahmad al-Jazzar, and Muhammad Ali of Egypt. Zionist settlement activity, both before and after Britain's General Edmund Allenby's conquest of the area from the Ottoman Turks in September 1918, was slow in penetrating Galilee itself, whose overwhelming Arab majority caused it to be apportioned to the Arab state under partition. Conquered in its entirety by Israel in the 1948 Arab - Israel War, Galilee witnessed a smaller scale Arab displacement than other parts of the country, most of those leaving being Muslim. Since the 1960s the area has been the target of many government settlement and development projects.
Bibliography
Horsley, Richard A. Galilee: History, Politics, People. Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1995.
Meyers, Eric M., ed. Galilee through the Centuries: Confluence of Cultures. Duke Judaic Studies Series, vol. 1. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1999,
— ZEV MAGHEN
| Wikipedia: Galilee |
For other uses, see Galilee (disambiguation).
- "Galil" redirects here. For the weapon, see IMI Galil.
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2008) |
Galilee (Hebrew: הגליל ha-Galil, lit: the province, Latin: Galileia, Arabic: الجليل al-Jaleel), is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee (Hebrew: גליל עליון Galil Elyon), Lower Galilee (Hebrew: גליל תחתון Galil Takhton), and Western Galilee (Hebrew: גליל מערבי Galil Maaravi), extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the ridges of Mount Carmel and Mount Gilboa to the south, and from the Jordan Rift Valley to the east across the plains of the Jezreel Valley and Acre to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and the Coastal Plain in the west.
Most of Galilee consists of rocky terrain, at heights of between 500 and 700 meters. There are several high mountains including Mount Tabor and Mount Meron in the region, which have relatively low temperatures and high rainfall. As a result of this climate, flora and wildlife thrive in the region, while many birds annually migrate from colder climates to Africa and back through the Hulah-Jordan corridor. The streams and waterfalls, the latter mainly in Upper Galilee, along with vast fields of greenery and colorful wildflowers, as well as numerous towns of biblical importance, make the region a popular tourist destination.
Due to its high rainfall (900-1200 mm), mild temperatures and high mountains (Mount Meron's elevation is 1,000-1,208 meters), the upper Galilee region contains some unique flora and fauna : prickly juniper (Juniperus oxycedrus), Lebanese cedar (Cedrus libani), which grows in a small grove on Mount Meron, cyclamens, paeonias and Rhododendron ponticum which sometimes appears on Meron.
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History
According to the Bible, Solomon rewarded Hiram I for certain services by giving him the gift of an upland plain among the mountains of Naphtali. Hiram called it "the land of Cabul". In Isaiah (8:23/9:1),[1] the region is referred to as "the District of the Nations" (גְּלִיל - הַגּוׁיִם; lit:Glil HaGoyim), with much of this name being retained in its present name of Galil or HaGalil. According to one view, during the Hasmonean period, with the revolt of the Maccabees and the decline of the Seleucid Empire, Galilee was conquered by the newly independent state of Judaea, and the region was resettled by Jews. However, according to another view there were not particularly large-scale population movements during this period, Galilee became Jewish because its population decided to recognise the authority of the Jerusalem temple rather than the Samaritan temple.
In Roman times, the country was divided into Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, which comprised the whole northern section of the country, and was the largest of the three regions. Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, ruled Galilee as tetrarch.
The Galilee region was the home of Jesus during at least 30 years of his life. The first three Gospels of the New Testament are mainly an account of Jesus' public ministry in this province, particularly in the towns of Nazareth and Capernaum. Galilee is also cited as the place where Jesus cured a blind man.
After the Arab caliphate took control of the region in 638, it became part of Jund al-Urrdun (District of Jordan). Its major towns were Tiberias — which was capital of the district—Qadas, Baysan, Acre, Saffuriya and Kabul.[2] The Shia Fatimids conquered the region in the 900s; a breakaway sect, venerating the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim, formed the Druze religion, centered in and to north of, Galilee. Eastern Galilee, however, retained a Jewish majority for most of its history.[citation needed] During the Crusades, Galilee was organized into the Principality of Galilee, one of the most important Crusader seigneuries.
The Jewish population of Galilee increased significantly following their expulsion from Spain and welcome from the Ottoman Empire. The community for a time made Safed an international center of cloth weaving and manufacturing, as well as a key site for Jewish learning.[3] Today it remains one of Judaism's four holy cities and a center for kabbalah.
In the mid 18th century, Galilee was caught up in a struggle between the Bedouin leader Dhaher al-Omar and the Ottoman authorities who were centered in Damascus. Al-Omar ruled Galilee for 25 years until Ottoman loyalist Jezzar Pasha conquered the region in 1775.
In the early 20th century, Galilee was inhabited by Arab Christians, Arab Muslims, Druze and Jews, whilst the Ottomans also settled minorities from elsewhere in their empire including Circassians and Bosniaks. Two Circassian villages exist in the Galilee region today. The Jewish population was increased significantly by Zionist immigration.
After the 1948 Arab-Israeli war nearly the whole of Galilee came under Israel's control. A large portion of the population fled, leaving dozens of entire villages empty; however, a large Israeli Arab community remained based in and near the cities of Nazareth, Acre, Tamra, Sakhnin and Shefa-'Amr, due to some extent to a successful rapprochement with the Druze. The kibbutzim around the Sea of Galilee were sometimes shelled by the Syrian army's artillery until Israel seized the Golan Heights in the 1967 Six-Day War.
During the 1970s and the early 1980s, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) launched several attacks on towns of the Upper and Western Galilee from Lebanon. Israel initiated Operation Litani (1979) and Operation Peace For Galilee (1982) with the stated objectives of destroying the PLO infrastructure in Lebanon and protecting the citizens of the Galilee. Israel occupied much of Southern Lebanon until 1985 when it withdrew to a narrow security buffer zone.
Until the year 2000, Hezbollah, and earlier Amal, continued to fight the Israeli Defence Forces, sometimes shelling Upper Galilee communities with Katyusha rockets. In May 2000, Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak unilaterally withdrew IDF troops from southern Lebanon, maintaining a security force on the Israeli side of the international border recognized by the UN. However, clashes between Hezbollah and Israel continued along the border, and UN observers condemned both for their attacks.
The 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict was characterized by round-the-clock Katyusha rocket attacks (with a greatly extended range) by Hezbollah on the whole of Galilee, with long-range ground-launched missiles, hitting as far south as the Sharon plain, Jezreel Valley, and Jordan Valley below the Sea of Galilee.
Modern Galilee
Today Galilee is home to a large Arab population, with a particularly large Druze population. The central portion of the Galilee also known as the "Heart of the Galilee" stretching from the border with Lebanon to the northern edge of the Jezreel Valley including the cities of Nazareth, Sakhnin, Shaghur, Tamra and Kafr Kanna has an Arab population of 78%. The Jewish Agency has attempted to increase the Jewish population in this area,[4] but the non-Jewish population continues to grow. In 2006, out of the 1.2 million residents in the Galilee area some 53.1% were of various minorities, while only 46.9% were Jewish.[5]
The largest cities in the region are Acre, Nahariya, Nazareth, Safed, Karmiel, Shaghur, Afula, and Tiberias. The port city of Haifa serves as a commercial center for the whole region.
Because of its hilly terrain, most of the settlements in the Galilee are small villages connected by relatively few roads. A railroad runs south from Nahariya along the Mediterranean coast. The main sources of livelihood throughout the area are in the fields of agriculture and tourism. Industrial parks are being developed, bringing further employment opportunities to the local population which includes many recent immigrants. The Israeli government is contributing funding to the private initiative, The Galilee Finance Facility, organised by the Milken Institute and Koret Economic Development Fund.[6]
Galilee is a popular destination for vacationing Israelis from other parts of the country who enjoy its scenery, recreational, and gastronomic offerings. Many kibbutzim and moshav families operate Zimmers (German: "room", the local term for a B&B). Numerous festivals are held throughout the year, especially in the autumn and spring holiday seasons. These include the Acco Festival of Alternative Theater,[7] the olive harvest festival, and music festivals featuring Anglo-American folk, klezmer, Renaissance, and chamber music.
Regions
Galilee is often divided into the following sub-regions:
- Western Galilee, also known the "Northern Coastal Plain", stretches from north of Haifa up to Rosh HaNikra on the Israel-Lebanon border.
- Lower Galilee covers the area from Mount Carmel and Mount Gilboa in the south to the Beit HaKerem Valley in the north. Its eastern border is the Jordan River.
- Upper Galilee extends from the Beit HaKerem Valley northwards into southern Lebanon. Its eastern border is the Sea of Galilee and the mountains of the Golan Heights. The "Finger of Galilee" (Hebrew: אצבע הגליל, Etzba HaGalil) is a panhandle along the Hulah Valley; it contains the towns Metulla and Qiryat Shemona and the rivers of Dan and Banias; also the Arab village of Cana.
See also
References
- ^ This verse is Isaiah 8:23 in the Tanakh.
- ^ le Strange, Guy. (1890)) Palestine Under the Moslems pp.30-32.
- ^ Safed/Tsfat
- ^ "30 settlements planned for Negev and Galilee". 2003-08-08. http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/20778/edition_id/426/format/html/displaystory.html. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
- ^ Ofer Petersburg (December 12 2007). "Jewish population in Galilee declining". Ynet. http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3481768,00.html. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
- ^ Matthew Krieger (November 19, 2007). "Gov't expected to join financing of huge northern development project". The Jerusalem Post. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1195127516602&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull. Retrieved 2007-11-20.
- ^ Acco Festival
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Bible Guide. Illustrated Dictionary & Concordance of the Bible. Copyright © 1986 by G.G. The Jerusalem Publishing House, Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
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Mentioned in
- Gennesaret (lake, plain)
- galilee
- Tiberias, Lake
- galilee porch
- Jordan River (Geography)
- Susanna
- Rosh Pinna
- Galilean (native or inhabitant of Galilee)
- Chinnereth (ancient city – in the Old Testament)
- galleria
- Bashan (ancient region of Palestine)
- Sermon on the Mount
- Argob (ancient region – in the Old Testament)
- Chorazin (ancient city, place – in the Bible)
