No single thread unites the frequent claims that numerous pagans lived in Galilee and that the region was rightly known as “Galilee of the Gentiles.” Eminent scholars simply present the description as accepted wisdom. Günther Bornkamm's widely read Jesus of Nazareth and Martin Dibelius's Jesus, for example, both casually refer to the “mixed race” of Galileans. One can identify recurring arguments, usually based on the purported changes produced by one event or another in Galilee's history, but one is hard-pressed to identify any clear lines of development for this view, at least in the scholarship pre-dating recent excavations.

What differentiates many of the more recent scholarly statements about Galilee is not detailed argumentation but the claim that recent archaeological discoveries irrefutably prove the population's diversity. Indeed, the extensive archaeological activity that began in the early 1970s and has continued to this day is the only true milestone in the scholarly discussion. One can trace archaeology's impact on the debate, from early calls for greater attention to the “Hellenistic” or “cosmopolitan” aspects of Lower Galilee to recent claims of paganism's representation in Galilee's material culture. A review of the spectrum of scholarly positions on Galilee's population will identify the key moments in the region's demographic development as well as the most significant issues raised by archaeological finds.

Before the digs

Galilee has often been depicted as rural, bucolic hinterland, characterized by natural beauty and simplicity of life. Of these portraits, the romanticism of Ernest Renan is unparalleled.