Place · Land of Israel / Judea
Galilee
Ancient names: Galilaea
A region north of Judea, ruled by Herod Antipas. After the Bar Kochba Revolt, calmer and more prosperous than Judea, it became the center of Jewish life and rabbinic activity in Palestine. The point marks the region, not a site.
32.7500°N 35.2500°E · representative coordinate · approximate · Pleiades 678145 ↗
Statements linked to this place
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After Herod died, three sons shared out the kingdom. Archelaus received Judea, Samaria and Idumea and ruled from 4 BCE to 6 CE; Herod Antipas got Galilee and Perea, to the north, from 4 BCE to 39 CE; Herod Philip got the Golan, in the far north, from 4 BCE to 33 or 34 CE. Archelaus governed so badly that Augustus exiled him to Gaul; his brothers did better.
The relationship with Rome varied by region: Galileans seem to have accepted Roman rule somewhat more readily than the Jews of Judea. Even so, conflicts in Judea affected Jews across the empire.
Conflicts with Rome, from Pompey to Bar Kochba, transformed Jewish culture. With the Temple destroyed, sacrifice and priesthood had to be replaced; Rome's response to the Diaspora Revolt hastened the fall of great communities like Alexandria's; and after Bar Kochba, the de-Judaization of Jerusalem and Judea buried the dream of rebuilding the Temple and shifted Palestine's Jewish heartland into Galilee. The outcome was a culture very different from that of 100 BCE.
Rabbinic tradition takes Yohanan from Jerusalem to Yavneh. After Bar Kochba, the hub of rabbinic activity moved north: first to Usha, then to other places in Galilee, a quieter and richer region than a Judea devastated by war.
Community: Jews of Galilee
The relationship with Rome varied by region: Galileans seem to have accepted Roman rule somewhat more readily than the Jews of Judea. Even so, conflicts in Judea affected Jews across the empire.
Conflicts with Rome, from Pompey to Bar Kochba, transformed Jewish culture. With the Temple destroyed, sacrifice and priesthood had to be replaced; Rome's response to the Diaspora Revolt hastened the fall of great communities like Alexandria's; and after Bar Kochba, the de-Judaization of Jerusalem and Judea buried the dream of rebuilding the Temple and shifted Palestine's Jewish heartland into Galilee. The outcome was a culture very different from that of 100 BCE.
Persecution or not, Judea came out devastated and lost much of its Jewish population. Cassius Dio speaks of 985 villages destroyed, 580,000 killed and so many captives that slave prices plunged across the empire. Entering Jerusalem became a capital offense, except on the ninth of Av, when mourning the Temple was allowed. Jewish culture lived on in Galilee and in the diaspora, as in Babylonia and Rome, yet within Judea it was largely wiped out.