GALILEE. – Historical name by which is designated the portion of the Palestinian highland north of the Plain of Esdraelon. The name Gàtli (a circle), a district (a), originally reserved for the mountainous country of Nephtali, was gradually extended to the lands of Chabul (1 Kgs 9:12), the district of Zebulun, and all the territory near the Sea of Galilee (Isa 8:23). Inhabited mostly by pagans, it was called gôyim hag-gôyim, “Galilee of the Gentiles” (Isa 9:1; 1 Macc 5:14; Matt 4:16).
With the invasion of Tilgath-pileser III, it became an Assyrian province (2 Kgs 15:29). The few Jews who had settled in Galilee after the return from exile were transferred to Judea in 1350 by Simon Maccabeus (1 Macc 5:14–23). Aristobulus I (104–103 BC) forced its inhabitants to adopt Judaism (Flavius Josephus, *Antiquitates Judaicae*, XIII, 11, 3), and by the time of Queen Alexandra, Galilee was predominantly Jewish. Included in the kingdom of Herod, it passed at his death to the tetrarchy of Herod Antipas (v.). Politically divided into Upper and Lower Galilee by the line Tiberias–Ptolemais, it extended northward into the territory of Tyre, southward into Samaria, westward into Phoenicia, and eastward to the frontier of the kingdom of Agrippa (Flavius Josephus, *Bellum Judaicum*, III, 3, 1). It was so densely populated that, according to the figures—certainly exaggerated—of Flavius Josephus, each village counted more than 15,000 inhabitants (Vita, §32). The Galileans had a distinctive dialect or pronunciation (Mark 14:70; Luke 22:59), and on account of their liberal spirit were little esteemed by strict Jews (John 1:46; 7:52). Galilee owes all its history to the Gospel. Nazareth (v.) in Galilee Jesus lived; from Galilee he chose his Apostles. The center of his ministry was the synagogues, the hills, and especially the northern shore of the lake with Capernaum, Chorazin, and Bethsaida.
Little is known of the development of Christianity in Galilee (Acts 9:32). After the catastrophe of AD 70, it became a Jewish religious center, as shown by the numerous synagogues discovered in this century, with the celebrated rabbinic schools from which the Palestinian Talmud was formed.
GALILEE. – In medieval monasteries the term “Galilee” almost constantly denoted the vestibule that connected the church with the outer atrium, the cloister, and the cemetery.
It appears in a very simple form as a small rectangular hall in the monastery of St Scholastica at Subiaco; identical examples are found in the abbey of Farfa and Durham Cathedral. It expands in Cluniac monasteries, where in the mid-twelfth century it developed with a vaulted passage of three naves, almost a small church (Cluny, La Charité-sur-Loire, Vézelay). Its use is uncertain: it has been suggested that it served as a processional station or for penitents; more likely it was a place of burial for distinguished lay persons and at the same time a waiting area for the poor.