GALILEE (Γαλιλαία), the Greek form of the name given to one of the three principal divisions of Palestine, the other two being Judea and Samaria. This name of the region was very ancient. It occurs in the Hebrew forms of Galil and Galilah, Josh. xx. 7; 21. 3; 1 Kings ix. 11; 2 Kings xv. 29; and in Isa. viii. 23 we have גליל הנגרים "Galilee of the nations" (Γαλιλαία ἀλλοφύλων, 1 Macc. v. 15; Matt. iv. 15.)
Galilee was the most northern of the three divisions, and was divided into Upper and Lower. The former district had Mount Lebanon and the countries of Tyre and Sidon
on the north; the Mediterranean Sea on the west; Abilene, Iturea, and the country of Decapolis on the east; and Lower Galilee on the south. This was the portion of Galilee which was distinctively called "Galilee of the nations," or of the "Gentiles," from its having a more mixed population, i.e. less purely Jewish than the others. Cesarea Philippi was its principal city. Lower Galilee had Upper Galilee on the north, the Mediterranean on the west, the Sea of Galilee or Lake of Gennesareth on the east, and Samaria on the south. Its principal towns were Tiberias, Chorazin, Bethsaida, Nazareth, Cana, Capernaum, Nain, Casarea of Palestine, and Ptolemais. This is the district which was of all others the most honoured with the presence of our Saviour. Here he lived entirely until he was thirty years of age; and although after the commencement of his ministry he frequently visited the other provinces, it was here that he chiefly resided. Here also he made his first appearance to the apostles after his resurrection; for they were all natives of this region, and had returned hither after the sad events at Jerusalem (Matt. xxviii. 7).
Hence the disciples of Christ were called "Galileans." They were easily recognised as such; for the Galileans spoke a dialect of the vernacular Syriac different from that of Judæa, impure in comparison with that of the metropolis. The Galilean dialect (as we learn from Buxtorf, Lightfoot, and others) was of a broad and rustic tone, which affected the pronunciation not only of letters but of words. It partook much of the Samaritan and Syriac idiom; but, in the instance of Peter, it must have been the tone which bewrayed him, the words being seemingly too few for that effect.