Galilean

Generically, a Galilean (gælᵻ'liːən; גלילי; Γαλιλαίων; Galilaeos) is a term that was used in classical sources to describe the inhabitants of Galilee, an area of northern Israel that extends from the northern coastal plain in the west to the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan Rift Valley to the east. Later the term was used to refer to the early Christians by Roman emperors Julian and Marcus Aurelius, among others. Galilee#History According to the Biblical history of the Twelve Tribes, the region of Galilee was allotted to the tribes of Naphtali and Dan, at points overlapping with the domain of the Tribe of Asher and neighboring the region of Issachar. In the First Book of Kings, the Phoenician ruler King Hiram I of Sidon was awarded twenty cities in the region of Galilee, given to him by Solomon, and the land was subsequently settled by foreigners during or after the time of Hiram. As part of the Northern Kingdom, Galilee and all the land of Naphtali were dispersed and resettled through the influx of foreigners due to the resettlement policy of the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the 8th century BC (). The Book of Isaiah refers to the region as (גְּלִיל הַגּוֹיִם), meaning 'Galilee of the Nations' or 'Galilee of the Gentiles' (). Though Biblical scholarship and historical criticism has doubted the historicity of the twelve tribes themselves since the 19th century, the Neo-Assyrian large-scale deportation and resettlement of their conquered lands was widespread during the late 8th century BCE and remained a policy for the following several centuries. After some early expeditions to Galilee to save the Jews there from attack, the Hasmonean rulers conquered Galilee and added it to their kingdom. Following the Hasmonean conquest, and again after the Roman conquest, an influx of Jews settled in the Galilee, thus doubling its population and changing it from a sparsely inhabited pagan territory to one that is primarily Jewish.