Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 31:122 (Apr 1874)
Article: Galilee In The Time Of Christ
Author: Selah Merrill

BSac 31:122 (April 1874) p. 235

Galilee In The Time Of Christ

Rev. Selah Merrill

(Continued from p. 73.)

XIII. Religion, Education, And Morals Among The Galileans

We come now to speak of the religious character of the Galileans, with which may be associated the kindred topics of morals and education. On these points we would not presume to speak, except after the most careful study. It is a most difficult matter to separate the Galileans from the people of Judea, and say that they possessed this or that characteristic, in distinction from the latter. Still, there is evidence to enable us to do this to some extent; at least, it can be shown that the Galileans were equally interested with the Judeans in all matters pertaining to education and religion. Indeed, in some respects, the advantage in regard to religion and morals will be found to be on the side of the Galileans. The impression is often given that away from the Temple, in the far northern province, ignorance and irreligion prevailed. The statement is made that “they manifested less aversion to the religion and manners of the heathen than the people of the south, and less zeal for the religion of Moses.”1 Also, that “from their heathen neighbors the Galileans imbibed all sorts of superstitions. Nowhere else were there so many persons possessed and plagued with evil spirits as in Galilee; since the Galilean narrow-mindedness ascribed all forms of disease to the influence of demons.”2 Their religious character is further described as

BSac 31:122 (April 1874) p. 236

a singular mixture of faith and superstition.3 It is supposed that before the destruction of Jerusalem this province was especially poor in regard to means for disseminating knowledge (understand, knowledge of the law, the only thing which “knowledge “meant to the Jews), and on this account “the Galileans were stricter and more tenacious in regard to customs and morals” than the people of the south.4 And by still another we are informed that, on account of the picturesque scenery and delightful climate of Galilee, the mind, away from the influence of the religious formalism which existed in Jerusalem, would naturally devote itself more to parables and legends.5 We are not prepared to accept these statements, nor any one of them, as final in this matter. The first two, those of Graetz and Munk, are decidedly wrong. But since, among the Jews, “education “meant merely education in religion, the two naturally blend together in our...