Bible Lexicons

Γαλιλαία, Γαλιλαίας, ἡ, Galilee, (from הַגָּלִילָה, 2 Kings 15:29; הַגָּלִיל, Joshua 20:7; Joshua 21:32; גָּלִיל אֶרֶץ, 1 Kings 9:11, i. e. the circle or circuit, by which name even before the exile a certain district of northern Palestine was designated; the Sept. Γαλιλαία); the name of a region of northern Palestine, bounded on the north by Syria, on the west by Sidon, Tyre, Ptolemais and their territories and the promontory of Carmel, on the south by Samaria and on the east by the Jordan. It was divided into Upper Galilee (extending from the borders of Tyre and Sidon to the sources of the Jordan), and Lower Galilee (which, lower and more level, embraced the lands of the tribes of Issachar and Zebulun and the part of Naphtali bordering on the Sea of Galilee): ἡ ἄνω καί ἡ κάτω Γαλιλαία (Josephus, b. j. 3, 3, 1, where its boundaries are given). It was a very fertile region, populous, having 204 towns and villages (Josephus, Vita45), and inasmuch as it had, especially in the upper part, many Gentiles among its inhabitants (Judges 1:30-33; Strabo 16, 34, p. 760), it was called, Matthew 4:15, Γαλιλαία τῶν ἐθνῶν (Isaiah 8:23 ()), and, 1 Macc. 5:15, Γαλιλαία ἀλλοφύλων. Often mentioned in the Gospels, and three times in the Acts, viz., Acts 9:31; Acts 10:37; Acts 13:31. (Cf. Merrill, Galilee in the Time of Christ, Boston 1881.)