Subject: Re: Galilee of the Gentiles
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 00:25:20 +0000
To: "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>

>
>From  David James
>To:      heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
>Subject: Galilee of the Gentiles
>
>Why is Galilee called Galilee of the Gentiles?
>
>David James
>
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From:          Daniel Lancaster
To:            heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject:       Re: Galilee of the Gentiles

The tribes Naphtali, Isaachar, Zebulun and Asher lived in and around
the region that came to be called Galilee.  Because this territory was
home to several strong Canaanite centers as well as being tactical
targets for invading Empires like Aram, Egypt, Assyria and Babylon. 
The Jezreel Valley, a major crossroads of these empires and the sight
of Armegedon, is a central feature which has seen nation after nation
carry out uncounted military campaigns.  These reasons alone are
enough for Isaiah to call it "Galilee of the Gentiles."  But Isaiah is
speaking of a time when the Northern kingdom has fallen into the hands
of Assyria and is under gentile control.  A time will also come when
all the gentile armies of the world will assemble for one final blood
bath in Galilee, and that is the battle of Armageddon (Har Megiddo). 

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From:          Philip Nowland
To:            <heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
Subject:       Re: Galilee of the Gentiles

Shalom David

Galilee of the Gentiles

Galilee  is a common name used in the New Testament to describe the area of
land to the north of Samaria and south of Lebanon. It extends from the
Jordan River, eastwards almost to the Mediterranean Sea, and is one of the
most fruitful areas of land in the whole of Israel. It has always attracted
itself to the non-Jewish occupiers of Israel, since the Greeks invaded the
area under Alexander the Great.

Judea in the south has a buffer of generally unoccupied land between it and
the Gentile land of Egypt, thus it was rather easier for them to maintain a
separation from the non-Jews and thus the south land of Judea was not
commonly a residential area for Gentiles. This is unlike Galilee that was
bordered immediately to the north by Lebanon and Syria, and was heavily
influenced by people of Tyre and Sidon, who made up the major sea trading
nation of the region (the Pheonicians). Thus Galilee frequently ended up as
a place where non-Jews settled, and in the Old Testament its people were
heavily influenced by non-Jewish practices - many of which were condemned by
the Prophets.

The Romans (with Herod the Great's assistance) built a huge sea-port at
Caesarea, which is about half-way between Tel-Aviv and Haifa, that was
roughly due west of Galilee and thus it was logical for the Romans to expand
their residential use of land in Israel into the Galilee area. There were
quite a number of Roman cities in the Galilee region - Tiberius being the
most notable.

In the first century Galilee was considered to be a place of Gentile
influence, and thus the Jews of the south spoke detrimentally of the region
as - Galilee of the Gentiles. This is in spite of the facts as we now know
them today. Actually the Judaism of the Galilee region during the 1st
century was purer than that practised in the south - in Judea.

However, even though that forms part of the back-drop of our understanding
of southern (Judean) views of the northern region of Galilee, it may not
strictly be the real reason for why it was called Galilee of the Gentiles.

The reason for this, is that the phrase Galilee of the Gentiles - as used in
Matthew 4:15, actually goes back some 600 or 700 years earlier, for it
actually comes from a prophecy given by Isaiah:

Isaiah 9:1-2 - Nevertheless the gloom will not be upon her who is
distressed, as when at first He lightly esteemed the land of Zebulun and the
land of Naphtali, and afterward more heavily oppressed her, by the way of
the sea, beyond the Jordan, in Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who
walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of
the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. (NKJ)

This is a prophecy about the coming Messiah. We believe that it refers to
Yeshua (Jesus). Matthew definitely seemed to think so, hence his quotation
of it when describing the fact that Yeshua moved from Nazareth, which is
right to the west of the Galilee region, over the Capernaum, which is on the
northern western shore of the Lake Galilee.

So in Isaiah's time (700BCE?), Galilee was called Galilee of the Gentiles.
Why?

The name Galilee is found 6 times in the Old Testament Scriptures. Along
with the reference in Isaiah 9:1 (above), there are three references (Joshua
20:7; 21:32; 1 Chronicles 6:76) which are being used when referring to the
Kedesh, one of the Cities of Refuge, which is in Galilee.

The remaining two uses of the word Galilee give us a clue as to why the
region is called Galilee of the Gentiles in Isaiah 9:1 (and thus Matthew
4:15).

1 Kings 9:1-13 tells of the time when King Solomon had completed the
building of the Temple. Instrumental in assisting Solomon with material
supplies to contribute to the Temple construction was the Gentile King of
Tyre - Hiram, who has supplied massive amounts of manpower and materials.
These needed payment. Solomon (see v11) paid for them by giving Hiram, a
large area of Galilee which covered the land of twenty cities in the region.
You will see that they did not really interest Hiram, and he gave the region
a name - KABUL (v13), which means - sterile, and comes from a root word
which means - fettered.

Th root word for KABUL is used twice in the Scripture:

(a) Psalm 105:18 which talks about the Patriarch Joseph being bound in
fetters in an Egyptian (Gentile) dungeon.

(b) Psalm 149:8 which talks of the desire for deliverance from the
domination of the Gentile nations, and longs for a time when Gentile kings
would themselves be placed in such fetters as the people of Israel
(Galilee?) experience themselves.

According to the writer of the book of Kings, this description of the region
became quite a permanent one. Hence, in spite of the beauty and fruitfulness
of the region of Galilee, it began to be appreciated in a negative light.
Even the Gentiles, who now owned it did not think much of it. Thus Galilee
of the Gentiles was seen in a bad light. It symbolised the people of God
under the domination of the Gentiles.

Thus when Isaiah makes his prophetic statement about the people of Galilee
seeing a great light in the future - which was fulfilled in Yeshua, we can
appreciate how much light the people might have needed. Having been raised
up under such negative ideas, and for such a time under the dominating
influence of the Gentile nation of Tyre, which was full of such great
idolatry. Into such a background Yeshua stepped hundreds of years later and
brought the glorious light of the gospel first, to Jews who had been forced
to be under the influence of pagan Gentile domination for so many years.

Thus it was called Galilee of the Gentiles.

The final reference to Galilee (2 Kings 15:29) is to the time when the
Assyrian king Tiglath Pilesar captured some major areas of the region, among
them being Galilee. Thus the northern area of the Land of Israel under
Gentile invasion and further domination. From here onwards, it was the
Gentiles, firstly the Assyrians, then the Babylonians, then the Greeks, and
then the Romans who were to dominate the governmental function of the
region - hence Galilee of the Gentiles. Right up until 1948 Galilee has been
under some form of Gentile domination. That is from around 900BCE, when
Solomon gave the 20 cities to the King of Tyre, right up to 1948, when the
British pulled out the region was under Gentile rule - that is over 2800
years.

I trust that the above information helps.

Yours in Yeshua's name

Philip Nowland - Huntingdon, England

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