GALILEE găl’ ə’ le גָּלִיל֒, H1664, גְּלִילָה, H1666, ή Γαλιλαία, literally the circuit or district; Galilee). The geographical area in Pal. bounded on the N by the Litani (Leontes) River, the W by the Mediterranean Sea to Mt. Carmel, the S by the northern edge of the Plain of Esdraelon (though at times the plain itself is included), and on the E by the Jordan valley and the Sea of Galilee.

I. Ancient boundaries. Little information is available to determine the boundaries of Galilee during OT times. The term is first employed during Israel’s conquest of Canaan. In the hill country of Naphtali the town of Kedesh is said to be in Galilee (Josh 20:7; 21:32; 1 Chron 6:76). During the kingdom period, Galilee appears to encompass the territory of Naphtali (2 Kings 15:29), the tribal area of Asher (provided Cabul is the same city in 1 Kings 9:11-13 and Josh 19:27), and possibly the tribal district of Zebulun (Isa 9:1). It may be concluded that the OT Galilee is substantially the same as the above definition.

In the intertestamental period, Maccabean lit. includes the Plain of Esdraelon in Galilee (cf. 1 Macc 5:35; 10:30; 12:47, 49). Josephus describes Galilee as being bordered by Phoenicia and Syria, bounded on the N and W by Tyrians, to which Mt. Carmel belonged, on the S by Samaria and Scythopolis as far as the Jordan River, and on the E by the Trans-Jordan (Jos. War III. iii. 1). The region of Galilee in the NT appears to encompass this same area (Matt 4:13-15, 25; 28:16; Mark 1:28; 3:37; Luke 8:26; 17:11).

II. General description. The region of Galilee is approximately sixty m. long from N to S and thirty m. wide from W to E. Of all the regions of Pal. Galilee contains the coolest, most picturesque and lush mountainous district. The terrain is diversified, containing volcanic and limestone hills with alluvial fertile plains. It has been compared with portions of the Carolina and Virginia piedmont. The entire region is watered by springs, heavy mountain dew, and an annual precipitation of about twenty-five inches.

A. Lower Galilee. Lower Galilee’s natural and historic boundaries include the fault of Esh-Shaghur (present Acre-Safed highway) to the N, the Mediterranean Sea from Acco to Mt. Carmel on the W, the Esdraelon valley or the Carmel and Gilboa ranges (depending upon the historical period) to the S, and the Sea of Galilee and Jordan valley to the E. The region is the most level of all the hill country of Pal. but is divided into sections by a series of four basins which bisect its low mountain ranges latitudinally E to W through cross folding and faulting. None of the names of these four valleys is known from the Bible. The basins begin just to the N of the Nazareth ridge with the Tur’an basin. To its N lies the steep slope of Jebel Tur’an (1,780 ft.). The larger basin of Sahl el-Battuf (Beth Netufa) constitutes the second basin, bordered on its N with hills to the height of 1,710 ft. North of these hills lies the Halazun (Sakhnin) basin with Jebel Kammana (1,950 ft.) rising to its N. The last valley is the long narrow Esh-Shaghur basin (Plain of er-Ramah or Beth Hakerem) which abuts the steep slope which rises almost vertically 1,500-2,000 ft. to the mountain plateau of Upper Galilee. The most distinct landmarks in lower Galilee are the Horns of Hattin, Mt. Tabor, and the Hill of Moreh.

The plain of Esdraelon, often considered the southern portion of Lower Galilee, is the largest valley bisecting the central mountain range of Pal. and the only one which joins the coastal plain with the Jordan valley. This valley is known as the valley of Armageddon (named after the site of Megiddo, Rev 16:16), where the great battle of the last times will be fought. Its length from Mt. Carmel to Beth-shan (Scythopolis) is about thirty m. and its greatest width about fifteen m. The fertility of this valley is compared with the delta areas of the Tigris-Euphrates, Nile, and Mississippi. This is due to the decomposition of volcanic deposits, basaltic subsoil, and the many springs. Two ancient valleys combined to make this larger one. The valley of Jezreel, named for the capital of the Omride dynasty, which set on a spur of Mt. Gilboa, formed approximately an equilateral triangle of twenty m. long sides, the vertices being Jokneam to the W, Tabor to the E, and Ibleam to the S. The eastern end of the Plain of Esdraelon was called the valley of Bethshan.

The plain of Acco (Acre; plain of Asher) on the Mediterranean coast from Carmel to the Ladder of Tyre crosses the western end of Lower and Upper Galilee. It was Asher’s allotment, but they never possessed it entirely. The ten m. wide section in Lower Galilee lay between Mt. Carmel and Acco (Acre), composed mostly of marshes and sand dunes. The stream Kishon flowed through it, coming from and connecting it to the Plain of Esdraelon.

B. Upper Galilee. Upper Galilee differs from Lower Galilee in many ways. While the mountain elevation of Lower Galilee remains below 2,000 ft. the highest peaks of Upper Galilee surpass 3,000 ft., Jebel Jermuk the highest at 3,900 ft. From these high mountains N of the Esh-Shaghur basin the mountain plateau of Upper Galilee slopes to about 1,500-1,800 ft. above sea level in the N before dropping into the gorge of the Litani (Leontes; Kassimiyah) River which separates Upper Galilee from the Lebanese mountains. This mountain plateau is not uniform as in Lower Galilee and is not divided by a series of valleys. It is composed of bare ridges of hard Cenomanian limestone and flat-topped mountains of softer Senonian chalk. Rugged contours, broken by many peaks, divide the area into natural pockets. Most people feel that this area was more wooded in the past than it is today. Rainfall is heavy and consistent, helping to create small rivers: major ones are the Ga’aton, Keziv, Amud, and Litani.

The upper Jordan valley forms the eastern sector of Upper Galilee. The valley begins at the Biblical site of Ijon (c. 1,800 ft. elevation), initially bounded on the W by the Litani River and on the E by Mt. Hermon (c. 9,100 ft. elevation). This valley, fertile and well-watered, is prob. the land or valley of Mizpah (Josh 11:3, 8) which formed the OT border between Israel, Phoenicia, and Aram. It extends approximately nine m. to the area of Abel-beth-maacah and Dan where it rapidly descends to about 300 ft. elevation. Here at Dan and Baniyas two of the spring sources of the Jordan River are located. All the sources of the Jordan join together about five m. S of Tell el-Kady. During Biblical times they flowed through a marshy valley about ten m. to a small Lake Huleh, blocked in by masses of basalt. Today this marsh and lake have been drained and form the fertile Huleh valley. Just S of this lake the river Jordan reaches sea level and continues to flow for another ten m. through a rocky basalt gorge (hills stand more than 1,200 ft. above the stream) to the Sea of Galilee situated about 685 ft. below sea level. This sea, approximately thirteen m. long and seven and one-half m. wide, is nestled between the hills of Lower Galilee on the W and the plains of Bashan on the E.

As in Lower Galilee, the plain of Acco forms the western region of Upper Galilee. It runs along the coast from Acre to the Ladder of Tyre (Rosh Haniqrah) for about twenty m., its average width being two m. The shore is rocky and without sand dunes, offering no natural harbors of any significance.

III. Ancient history. Though the records are scanty concerning the occupation of Galilee prior to Israel’s conquest of Canaan, there are traces of settlement and occupation as early as the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze ages (c. 4,000 to 2,000 b.c.) at such sites as Megiddo and Beth-shan. The Egypt. Execration texts of the 20th and 19th centuries b.c. curse certain towns in the Galilean area of Pal. (e.g. Acco, Achshaph, Beth-shan; possibly Kedesh and Bethshemesh). Later Egypt. control over this region is demonstrated by the campaign lists of Thutmose III, Rameses II, et al. Subsequent loss of control by Egypt and the confusion among the Palestinian city states is evidenced in the El-Amarna letters (c. 14th cent. b.c.) of Egypt.

A. Tribal divisions. Israel gained initial supremacy in Galilee through Joshua’s victory over the Canaanite league at the Waters of Merom (Josh 11:1-11). Jabin, the king of Hazor, was the leader of this alliance. Galilee was apportioned among four tribes (19:10-39): Asher received western Galilee with the coastal plain of Acco; Issachar settled in the eastern part of the Jezreel valley and the hills to its N; Zebulun inherited the central part of Galilee between the Plain of Esdraelon and the Sahl el-Battuf valley; Naphtali occupied a large area in eastern and central Galilee. Archeological surveys demonstrate that the Israelite settlement occurred in the largely unsettled interior regions of Lower and Upper Galilee, though Upper Galilee is not a region which enters much into Biblical history. None of these four tribes (except perhaps Issachar) succeeded in driving the Canaanites out of their district (Judg 1:30-33). During the apostate and anarchial period of the Judges, Deborah and Barak, with men from the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, defeated the Canaanite oppression by swooping down from Mt. Tabor and claiming victory at the river Kishon in the Plain of Esdraelon (Judg 4). Gideon removed the Midianites’ and Amalekites’ tyranny by his surprise attack against them near the Hill of Moreh (ch. 6). Neither victory was permanent.

B. Kingdom period. Saul, the first king of Israel, unified the tribes and thereby brought Galilee and the Via Maris (the major trade route) under his control. The balance of power soon shifted to the Philistines who proceeded to shut up the Israelites in the hill country. David freed Israel from the Philistine threat and made Israel the leading nation of the Near E. Galilee came under David’s control. In payment for helping to construct the Temple, Solomon offered Hiram of Tyre twenty cities in Galilee. When Hiram examined those towns, he was not pleased with them and appears to have returned them to Solomon (1 Kings 9:10-14; 2 Chron 8:1, 2).

Following the division of the nation into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, Asa, king of Judah, summoned Ben-hadad I, the Syrian, to aid him in his fight against Israel by invading Galilee. Ben-hadad promptly wasted the land of Naphtali and the whole circle of Kinneret (1 Kings 15:20). Galilee continued as an area of conflict between Israel and Aram (Syria). Omri and Ahab recovered the territory lost by Israel, but parts were lost again by Jehu to Hazael (2 Kings 10:32). Hazael continued his battles with Jehoahaz of Israel (13:22). Finally Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, delivered the region of Galilee for a short time (14:25ff.). With the invasion of the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III in 734 b.c., the chief cities of Galilee passed into his hands (15:29; 16:7). Though some Israelites still remained in Galilee after this attack (2 Chron 30:10f.), the Israelite period of dominion over Galilee ended quickly with Samaria’s fall to Assyria in 722 b.c. The kingdom of Israel, including the region of Galilee, was assimilated by Assyria. “Galilee of the nations” (Isa 9:1) prob. referred to the mixture of Jews and Gentiles then living in that area.

C. New Testament times. Following the Babylonian captivity, information about the history of Galilee is sparse, though the area was continually inhabited. It was ruled by Babylon, Persia, Greece, and the Seleucid empire until the Maccabees conquered parts of it and began the process of Jewish resettlement. Jews were already in Galilee in 165 b.c. when Simon the Maccabee brought numbers of them to live in Judea (1 Macc 5:14ff.). Josephus recounts Aristobulus I’s conquest of Ituraea (Jos. Antiq XIII. xi. 3), and most feel that Galilee was treated similarly to Ituraea in that both were Judaized.

Under Rome Herod the Great was made military commander of Galilee in 47 b.c. He subdued the various bands of thieves which plagued the country (Jos. Antiq. XIV, ix, 2). When Herod came to his throne in 37 b.c., a period of peace and prosperity came to Galilee which continued until the banishment of his son Antipas in a.d. 40. At Herod’s death in 4 b.c., Galilee fell to Antipas who made his capital at Tiberias on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, naming it after the emperor.

Herod Antipas reigned over Galilee throughout Jesus Christ’s entire life with the exception of his infancy. Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, was raised in Nazareth of Galilee and made Capernaum at the N end of the Sea of Galilee the headquarters of His ministry. There was a considerable Jewish population in Galilee at this time which would explain, in part, Christ’s following there. Most of His ministry was around the Sea of Galilee. The Sermon on the Mount, His Transfiguration (though no mountain has been identified with certainty for this event), nineteen of his thirty-two parables, and twenty-five of his thirty-three recorded miracles occurred in Galilee. The Messiah received His warmest welcome in Galilee, but the Jews from the S regarded the northern Jews with some contempt, feeling that nothing good could come out of Nazareth (John 1:46; 7:52) and that a claim of a Messiah from Nazareth could hardly be taken seriously (Matt 21:11). Late in Jesus’ Galilean ministry, when opposition had increased, He spent considerable time in Upper Galilee.

Galilee was added to the territory of Herod Agrippa I in a.d. 40. Zealots were arising in Galilee, some found among the disciples of both John the Baptist and Christ. In a.d. 40 Caligula ordered Petronius, the governor of Syria, to erect the emperor’s statue in the Temple at Jerusalem. Thousands of Jews gathered for forty days at Tiberias and Ptolemais in protest of this proposed sacrilege. Such reactionary pressure caused Petronius to give up the idea. Agrippa I died in a.d. 44 and parts of Galilee came under the dominion of Herod Agrippa II until a.d. 100. As Rome continued to administer the remainder of Galilee, the Galileans struggled for independence. With Vespasian’s invasion around a.d. 70, the whole area came under Rom. rule. After Herod Agrippa II’s death in a.d. 100, Galilee was joined to the Rom. province of Syria.

When Jerusalem fell in a.d. 70, Galilee became the seat of Jewish learning. The Mishnah was compiled and written in Tiberias followed later by the composition of the Talmud. Later Tiberias became the center of the Massoretes’ work of preserving the OT text. The Sanhedrin likewise moved to Sepphoris after a.d. 70 and then to Tiberias.

IV. Transportation. The major trade route from Damascus to Egypt is called the Via Maris (the Way of the Sea). From Egypt this route enters Galilee from the SW through the pass of the Wadi ’Ara at Megiddo (alternative passes were at Taanach and Jokneam). At Megiddo the road branches: one way runs NW to the plain of Acco along the Phoen. coast to Anatolia; the second artery moves E to Damascus between the Hill of Moreh and Mt. Tabor to Kinneret on the NW corner of the Sea of Galilee, then N to Hazor where one branch of it continues due N to Ijon and the other branch crosses the main ford of the Jordan River about two m. S of Hazor and continues to Damascus; the third route leaves Megiddo heading E to Beth-shan, past Ashtoreth, the capital of Bashan, and joins the King’s highway to Damascus. Canaanite fortresses guarded this route: Hazor in the N; Bethshan at the junction of the Esdraelon and Jordan valleys; Ibleam in the Esdraelon valley; and Megiddo, Taanach, and Jokneam at the passes leading S. Most minor routes throughout Galilee run E-W following the E-W basins crossing Lower Galilee. N-S traffic is most difficult due to the many ranges and faults which run in every direction in Upper Galilee. Roads in Galilee usually follow the spurs rather than the valleys when climbing on to the mountain plateau, because a wadi leaving a plateau usually becomes a steep valley, often impassable. The main road from Acco (Ptolemais) to Tiberias went just N of Sepphoris across Lower Galilee joining the Nazareth-Tiberias road. Another significant artery ran through Upper Galilee from Tyre to Abel-beth-maacah at the base of Mt. Hermon. This highway system put the region of Galilee in contact with the entire Near E.

V. Flora and fauna. The Galilean hills are considered to have been heavily forested in early times with an abundance of trees: olive, fig, oak, walnut, cedar, cypress, balsam, fir, pine, sycamore, bay, mulberry, and almond. The valleys were fertile and well-watered. Wheat was abundant in the upper Jordan valley; pomegranates thrived near Mt. Carmel; and the grapes of Naphtali were famous. Grains were plentiful.

The major fauna of Galilee is fish. At least twenty-two species have been classified from the streams and the Sea of Galilee.

VI. Settlement patterns. Galilee was open and easily accessible to the outsider. Yet Upper Galilee and portions of Lower Galilee with their rugged terrain made sections of the area easily fortified and naturally defensible. Almost any group could defend themselves. As a result many varied groups did survive. The population became heterogeneous with Jews, Aramaeans, Itureans, Greeks, and Phoenicians living together. Upper Galilee gave the northern portion of Pal. an area of escape during troubled times.

Josephus estimates at his day that the population of Galilee was about 3,000,000. Many villages had a population of at least 15,000, he says (Jos. War III. iii. 2). This could help explain the crowds that followed Jesus. In the valleys the villages often kept to the edges of the basin or up the slopes due to flooding in winter. In Lower Galilee two sub regions proved less attractive to habitation than any other: the SW area between the present Nazareth-Sheparam road and the Jezreel valley; the SE region from Tiberias to the N edge of the Beth-shan valley which includes four steep scarps. Neither area is easy to cultivate nor has ever been thickly populated. The more notable cities of Galilee have been Kedesh, Hazor, Korazim, Bethsaida, Capernaum, Bethshan (Scythopolis), Nazareth, Megiddo, Jokneam, Ibleam, Acco (Ptolemais), Sepphoris, Jotapata, Cana Nain, Achziv, and Tiberias. Sepphoris and Tiberias were Rom. administrative centers in Galilee, Sepphoris being located about four m. NW of Nazareth. The NT does not record Jesus’ presence in either of these two cities.

The men of Galilee were known to be courageous (Jos. War III. iii. 2). The OT notables were Barak, Gideon, Jonah, and Elijah. Eleven of Jesus’ twelve apostles were Galileans.

Bibliography G. A. Smith, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land (1896), 379-481; W. Ewing, “Galilee,” ISBE (1929), 1163-65; D. Baly, Geography of the Bible (1957), 184-192; S. Abramsky, Ancient Towns in Israel (1963), 174-250; D. Baly, Geographical Companion to the Bible (1963); Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible (1967), 19-33, 41-49, 121-353.