Not Your Father's Galilee

[Doug Ward]

A few months ago in a completely different thread, I made the claim that relatively speaking, the Galilee of Jesus' time was peaceful, and somewhat prosperous. For anyone who is interested, the current Biblical Archaeological Review has a featured article on this very topic.

it seems Herod Antipas presided over a rural Galilee that was growing, and uniquely prosperous. He also seemed to respect the religious activities of his people, and maintained a peaceful reign. I thought I would at least mention this - it does impact how we read the NT.

[John Kennedy]

Thought you were going to reference the Congressmen and staffers who recently went skinny dipping there one night.

[Paul DeBaufer]

A few months ago in a completely different thread, I made the claim that relatively speaking, the Galilee of Jesus' time was peaceful, and somewhat prosperous. For anyone who is interested, the current Biblical Archaeological Review has a featured article on this very topic.

it seems Herod Antipas presided over a rural Galilee that was growing, and uniquely prosperous. He also seemed to respect the religious activities of his people, and maintained a peaceful reign. I thought I would at least mention this - it does impact how we read the NT.

I think I read somewhere that Galilee was well suited for agriculture and had a thriving economy. Also, I think I recall reading that Nazareth had had a thriving economy. I think I read these in Sketches of Jewish Social Life by Alfred Edersheim, but could be mistaken as to the source.