Table Of ContentGALILEE
FROM
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
TO
HADRIAN
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME
CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF
JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY
IN ANTIQUITY
Number 5
G A L I L EE
FROM
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
TO HADRIAN
323B.CE.tol350E.
A Study of Second Temple Judaism
By Sean Freyne
Copublished by
Michael GLaziercJnc.
and
University of Notre Dame Press
First published in 1980 by
Michael Glazier, Inc.,
1210 King Street,
Wilmington, Delaware 19801
and
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
Copyright © 1980 by Sean Freyne
Library of Congress: 79-57485
ISBN: 0-89453-099-2 (Michael Glazier, Inc.)
ISBN: 0-268-01002-1 (Notre Dame Press)
Printed in the United States of America
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ix
PART ONE:
GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL 1
CHAPTER ONE:
T HE GEOGRAPHY OF GALILEE
AND ITS HUMAN SETTLEMENT 3
I. The Location of Political Galilee in the Larger
Geographic Region 4
II. The Hill Country of Galilee 9
(i) Lower Galilee 10
(ii) Upper Galilee 12
(iii) The Valley 14
(iv) Some Tentative Conclusions 15
III. The Earliest Records of Human Habitation in Galilee 16
CHAPTER T W O:
GALILEE, T HE RISE OF HELLENISM
AND T HE JEWISH RESPONSE 22
I. The Situation on the Eve of Alexander's Conquest 23
II. Galilee under Ptolemies and Seleucids 27
III. Galilee and the Hellenistic Reform 35
IV. Galilee as Part of the Hasmonaean State 41
Conclusion 50
CHAPTER THREE:
GALILEE UNDER T HE ROMANS,
63 B.C.E. - 135 C.E. 57
I. From Pompey to Caesar, 64-44 B.C.E 57
II. Herod and Galilee, 47-4 B.C.E 63
III. Galilee under Antipas, 4 B.C.E. - 39 C.E 68
IV. From Antipas to the Great Revolt, 39 - 66 C.E 71
V. Galilee from 66-135 C.E 78
Conclusion * 91
v
vi
PART TWO:
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL 99
CHAPTER FOUR:
T HE CITIES AND T HE HELLENISTIC
ETHOS OF GALILEE 101
I. The First Phase in the Urbanization of Galilee 104
(i) Ptolemais/Accho 104
(ii) Scythopolis/Beth Shean 108
(iii) Philoteria, Antiochia and Seleucia 113
(iv) Tyre 114
II. The Second Phase of Urbanization: The Roman Period .. 121
(i) Sepphoris 122
(ii) Tiberias 129
(iii) The Dekapolis and Other Greco-Roman Towns 134
III. Galilee of the Gentiles - Fact or Fiction? 138
CHAPTER FIVE:
ECONOMIC REALITIES AND
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION 155
I. Land Ownership in Galilee / 156
II. Commerce and Distribution of Wealth 170
(i) The Rise of Agro-and Other Industries 170
(ii) The Distribution of Wealth .. 176
(iii) The Burden of Taxation 183
III. Social Stratification in Galilee 194
CHAPTER SIX:
H OW REVOLUTIONARY WAS GALILEE? 208
I. The Nature of Galilean Resistance to Herod the Great ... 211
II. Judas the Galilean and Jesus of Nazareth as Focal Points
for Galilean Revolutionary Ideology? 216
III. Galilean Revolutionary Aspirations and the Revolt
Against Rome 229
(i) Jesus of Tiberias 234
(ii) Justus of Tiberias 236
(iii) John of Gischala 238
(iv) Josephus 241
vii
PART THREE:
RELIGIOUS 257
CHAPTER SEVEN:
T HE GALILEANS AND T HE TEMPLE 259
I. Pagan Worship in Galilee - New Symbols for Old? 261
(i) The Reform Attempt in Jerusalem 262
(ii) The Impact of the Reform in Galilee 266
II. The Galileans and the Jerusalem Temple 275
(i) The Galileans and Temple Offerings 277
(ii) The Galileans and the Tithes 281
(iii) The Galileans and the Pilgrimage to Jerusalem 287
III. The Nature of Galilean Loyalty to the Temple 293
CHAPTER EIGHT:
GALILEE AND T HE HALAKHAH 305
I. Galilee and the Halakhah Prior to 70 C.E 309
II. Galilee's Response to the Reorganization of Jamnia 323
III. Possible Alternatives to Pharisaism in Galilee 329
CHAPTER NINE:
CHRISTIANITY IN GALILEE 344
I. Christianity in Galilee 344
(i) Acts and Galilean Christianity 344
(ii) Rabbinic Evidence 347
(iii) Later Christian Sources 348
II. The Topography of the Gospels and Galilean
Christianity 356
(i) The Gospel of Mark 357
(ii) The Gospel of Matthew 360
(iii) The Gospel of Luke 364
(iv) The Fourth Gospel 367
III. Christianity in Galilee: Some Reflections 372
RETROSPECT 392
ABBREVIATIONS 395
BIBLIOGRAPHY 398
INDICES: Sources
Modern Authors
Subjects
INTRODUCTION
s this study has been taking shape over the past several years
numerous colleagues in the fields of New Testament and
^ related areas have looked at me quizzically on hearing that I
was engaged in a study of Galilean Judaism. Yet I have repeatedly
found remarks of eminent scholars commenting on the absence of a
complete monograph on Galilean Judaism, implying that such
a study could shed important light on the origin and development
of primitive Christianity. Professor Martin Hengel, the director
of the Institutum Judaicum of the University of Tubingen, has
written: 'Eine Geschichte Galilaas zwischen Alexander und Bar
Kochba ware ein dringendes Erfordernis, nicht zuletz, um un-
begriindete Spekulationen iiber das friihe 'galilaische Christ
en turn/ zurechtzuriicken.' However, it was not Professor Hen-
gel's written words but his spoken suggestion that prompted me
to undertake the present study, while enjoying the luxury of a
Forschungsstipendium from the Alexander von Humboldt
Stiftung at Tubingen from 1972-4. Professor Hengel's encourage
ment and helpful criticism during that period and since have
for me been a genuine example of that community of learning
that is often spoken of but all too rarely experienced. His own
monumental studies, Die Zeloten (1960) and Judentum und
Hellenismus (1968) had laid the remote and more immediate
groundwork for such an undertaking and those who are familiar
with the latter work will readily recognize its influence on the
layout and approach of this present study.
A number of other scholars have already dealt with Galilean
life and times from one or other perspective. In particular the
series of essays by Albrecht Alt, entitled, 'Galilaische Problemen',
helped to direct my focus to historical geography as a solid
starting point on which to build any hypothesis about the social
and religious life of the area. Ernst Lohmeyer's Galilaa und
Jerusalem (1936) did not stand up to the critical analysis of
scholars, yet the question he posed concerning the possibility
of a pluralism, even rivalry, between early Christian communities
that were geographically distinct, is a very live one today, and
had to be addressed eventually in this study also. It seemed a
ix
X
better methodology, however, to first paint the larger picture
as sharply and accurately as possible, before later attempting
to sketch in the details of Christianity. Among earlier Jewish
scholars, the writings of A. Buchler and S. Klein have special
relevance for our topic even when today the use of literary and
historical criticism calls for a different evaluation of the material
they have collected. On the other hand Christian writing on
Galilee has often been influenced, either consciously or sub
consciously by the quest for the historical Jesus, and as a result
has for the most part adopted a too narrow approach.
Perhaps more significant than previous studies in shaping
my approach has been the repeated cataloguing of certain themes,
some of them having virtually attained the status of axioms,
in regard to Galilean life in all the secondary literature. 'Galilee
of the Gentiles', the hot-bed of a revolutionary ideology, hellen-
ization as a result of the cities, the Galileans' disregard for Torah -
these and other generalities were repeated so frequently that it
seemed to be a worthwhile project to test their accuracy and
probe their likelihood from several different perspectives.
The political, social and religious aspects of life are normally
so interwoven in any community that the isolation of any one
of them to the exclusion of the others can easily lead to distortion.
This observation may help to explain why our study has a three-
tiered structure, beginning with a brief recapitulation of the
main geographical features that were likely to shape the manner
and method of human settlement in the area (chapter 1). The
political situation of Galilee was and remained that of an out
lying region rather than an independent state, yet this circum
stance itself raises many questions. Why did Galilee not have
any independent political will of its own? Was the rise of the
Jewish state in Hasmonaean times welcomed there? What, if any,
were the residual loyalties from Israelite times, given the chequered
history of the north? (chapter 2). How did Galilee respond to
the intervention of Rome and the rise of the Herods? Did the
absence of Roman provincial rule - or should I say, misrule -
until a relatively late date in the first century bring about a dif
ferent political climate there to that of Judaea proper? What part
did Galilee play in the two revolts against Rome? (chapter 3).
These were some of the questions that emerged from a reading
of the general history of the times focused specifically on this
