This paper discusses Galilee–Jerusalem relations in the context of the ‘geography of restoration’ as this is represented in various Jewish writings of the Second Temple period. The literary and archaeological records for the Jewish presence in Galilee in the Hasmonean and Herodian periods are examined against this ideology of a greater Israel. Finally, the alleged opposition in early Christianity between Galilee and Jerusalem is judged to be poorly grounded when various NT documents are read within this larger horizon of meaning.
‘With this limited area, and although surrounded by such powerful foreign nations, the two Galilees have always resisted any hostile invasion, for the inhabitants are from infancy inured to war, and have at all times been numerous; never did the men lack courage or the country men’ (War3:41 f.). It is surprising how this general characterization of the Galileans by Josephus has so often found its way into modern writings about Galilee without any detailed study of theVita, the one work of his where the Galileans occur more frequently than in all the others together.
Of the many possible historical and theological questions dealing with the Twelve I have chosen one which may serve as a sequel to Fr Harrington's paper on modem trends in Gospel studies.2 Following the outline of the 1964 Instruction he showed that in the final stage of Gospel formation the Evangelists have acted as genuine authors expressing their own theological viewpoints through the medium of the material at their disposal. It is the aim of this paper to show that a study of a theme as the Twelve can help in discovering what those individual viewpoints are, and in fact provides a useful approach to a study of the Gospels as a whole.
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