For much of antiquity, possession of Galilee shifted hands from power to power. It was conquered successively by the Israelites, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, Alexander the Great, the Ptolemies, the Seleucids, and the Hasmoneans. With the demise of the Hasmonean dynasty came the Herodians, and after them direct Roman rule. Some scholars have concluded that each of these waves of conquest left a dramatic imprint on the composition of Galilee's population, so that in the time of Jesus, elements of all of these external, non-indigenous groups dwelled closely together in the small region. Others have focused on key moments in Galilean history, especially the Assyrian conquest and the Hasmoneans' “Judaization” of the region. The question of the extent of the Roman presence in first-century Galilee has also loomed large in recent discussion.

In fact, the accuracy of the image of successive waves of immigrants into Galilee is doubtful. In this chapter, I will provide an overview of Galilee's history. Detailed treatments of Palestine's political history are readily available elsewhere, so I will focus specifically on the development of Galilee's population, starting with the Assyrian conquest and tracing events until the early second century. Because I am here concerned with Galilee's broader historical development, detailed discussions of individual communities will be reserved for chapter 3.

The Assyrian conquest of Galilee

Before the invasion

The nature of the earliest Israelite settlement in Galilee, as in the rest of Palestine, is unclear.