Galilee

Today, our journey through biblical locations brings us to the beautiful mountain region of the Galilee. The Galilee is not a specific place, but a whole region. The Galilee is a mountainous region in the north of Israel. The boundaries of the Galilee are the Jezreel Valley and Beit She’an Valley in the south, the Jordan Valley, the Sea of Galilee and the
Hula Valley in the East, the Mediterranean coast and Zevulun Valley in the West, and Lebanon in the north. During the Second Temple era, the Jewish settlements in the Galilee were flourishing. Josephus wrote that in the Galilee (in 67 AD) there were 204 cities and towns. After two uprisings against the Roman occupation ‒ the Great Revolt and the Bar Kokhba revolt ‒ the focus of Jewish life has moved from Judea to the Galilee. The passage of many Jews from Judea to Galilee has shifted the professional production of olive oil to this region, which continues to this very day.

The Galilee, as a less important region during the biblical era is mentioned only 4 times in the Old Testament, and during Jesus’ time, it is mentioned over 70 times in the New Testament. The Galilee in the Old Testament:

“And Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and cypress trees, and with gold, according to all his desire, that
then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee”

The Galilee in the Old Testament:

“It happened in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan”

In the U.S., there is the town of Galilee in Washington County in Rhode Island.