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Map of Israel in the Time of Jesus
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Map of First
Century Israel
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Israel in Smith's Bible Dictionary
Israel
(the prince that prevails with God).
1. The name given, Ge 32:28 to Jacob after his wrestling
with the angel, Ho 12:4 at Peniel. Gesenius interprets Israel
"soldier of God."
2. It became the national name of the twelve tribes
collectively. They are so called in Ex 3:16 and afterward.
3. It is used in a narrower sense, excluding Judah, in 1Sa
11:8; 2Sa 20:1; 1Ki 12:16 Thenceforth it was assumed and accepted as
the name of the northern kingdom.
4. After the Babylonian captivity, the returned exiles
resumed the name Israel as the designation of their nation. The name
Israel is also used to denote lay-men, as distinguished from
priests, Levites and other ministers. Ezr 6:16; 9:1, 10:25; Ne 11:3
etc.
Full Article
Palestine in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE
Palestine, 3
(1) Galilean Scenery.
The greater part of the life of Jesus was spent at Nazareth in
Zebulun, and the ministry at Capernaum in Naphtali (compare Mt
4:13-15; Isa 9:1), with yearly visits to Jerusalem. The Gospel
narratives and the symbolism of the parables constantly recall the
characteristic features of Galilean scenery and nature, as they
remain unchanged today. The "city set on a hill" (Mt 5:14) may be
seen in any part of Palestine; the lilies of the field grow in all
its plains; the "foxes have holes" and the sparrows are still eaten;
the vineyard with its tower; the good plowland, amid stony and
thorny places, are all still found throughout the Holy Land. But the
deep lake surrounded by precipitous cliffs and subject to sudden
storms, with its shoals of fish and its naked fishers; the cast nets
and drag nets and small heavy boats of the Sea of Galilee, are more
distinctive of the Gospels, since the lake is but briefly noticed in
the Old Testament.
(2) Nazareth.
Nazareth was a little village in a hill plateau North of the plain
of Esdraelon, and l,000 ft. above it. The name (Hebrew natsarah) may
mean "verdant," and it had a fine spring, but it is connected (Mt
2:23) in the Gospels with the prophecy of the "branch" (netser, Isa
11:1) of the house of David. Its population was Hebrew, for it
possessed a synagogue (Lk 4:16). The "brow of the hill whereon their
city was built" (Lk 4:29) is traditionally the "hill of the leap"
(Jebel Qafsi), 2 miles to the South--a cliff overlooking the plain.
Nazareth was not on any great highway; and so obscure was this
village that it is unnoticed in the Old Testament, or by Josephus,
while even a Galilean (Jn 1:46) could hardly believe that a prophet
could come thence. Jerome (Onomasticon, under the word) calls it a
"village"; but today it is a town with 4,000 Christians and 2,000
Moslems, the former taking their Arabic name (Nacarah) from the home
of their Master.
(3) Capernaum.
Capernaum (Mt 4:13; 9:1) lay on the shore of the Sea of Galilee,
apparently (Mr 14:34; Jn 6:17) in the little plain of Gennesaret,
which stretches for 3 miles on the northwest side of the lake, and
which has a breadth of 2 miles. It may have stood on a low cliff
(though this is rendered doubtful by the Sinaiticus manuscript
rendering of Mt 11:23--"Shalt thou be exalted unto heaven?"), and it
was a military station where taxes were levied (Mt 9:9), and
possessed a synagogue (Mk 1:21; Lk 4:33; Jn 6:59). Christian
tradition, since the 4th century AD, has placed the site at Tell
Chum, where ruins of a synagogue (probably, however, not older than
the 2nd century AD) exist; but this site is not in the plain of
Gennesaret, and is more probably Kephar 'Achim (Babylonian Talmud,
Menachoth 85a). Jewish tradition (Midrash, Qoheleth, vii.20)
connects Capernaum with minim or "heretics"--that is to say
Christians--whose name may yet linger at `Ain Minyeh at the north
end of the plain of Gennesaret. Josephus states (BJ, III, x, 8) that
the spring of Capernaum watered this plain, and contained the
catfish (coracinus) which is still found in `Ain el Mudawwerah ("the
round spring"), which is the principal source of water in the
Gennesaret oasis.
Full Article
The Bible Mentions a lot Concerning "Judaea"
Luke 3:1 - Now in the
fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being
governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of
Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the
region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene,
Luke 2:4
- And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth,
into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called
Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)
2
Corinthians 1:16 - And to pass by you into Macedonia, and to
come again out of Macedonia unto you, and of you to be brought on my
way toward Judaea.
Acts 28:21
- And they said unto him, We neither received letters out of
Judaea concerning thee, neither any of the brethren that
came shewed or spake any harm of thee.
Matthew
2:22 - But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in
Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go
thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned
aside into the parts of Galilee:
Luke 6:17
- And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the
company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all
Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre
and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their
diseases;
Acts 8:1
- And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was
a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and
they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of
Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.
Luke 5:17
- And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that
there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were
come out of every town of Galilee, and Judaea, and
Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was [present] to heal them.
Acts 9:31
- Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and
Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of
the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.
Luke 1:5
- There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea,
a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his
wife [was] of the daughters of Aaron, and her name [was] Elisabeth.
Matthew 2:1
- Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in
the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the
east to Jerusalem,
Mark 10:1
- And he arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of
Judaea by the farther side of Jordan: and the people resort
unto him again; and, as he was wont, he taught them again.
Mark 13:14
- But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by
Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that
readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea
flee to the mountains:
Acts 1:8
- But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon
you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all
Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of
the earth.
Acts 26:20
- But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and
throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and [then] to the
Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet
for repentance.
Acts 2:14
- But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and
said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all [ye] that
dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:
Acts 12:19
- And when Herod had sought for him, and found him not, he examined
the keepers, and commanded that [they] should be put to death. And
he went down from Judaea to Caesarea, and [there]
abode.
1
Thessalonians 2:14 - For ye, brethren, became followers of
the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ
Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen,
even as they [have] of the Jews:
Matthew
19:1 - And it came to pass, [that] when Jesus had finished
these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of
Judaea beyond Jordan;
Luke 1:65
- And fear came on all that dwelt round about them: and all these
sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of
Judaea.
Acts 2:9
- Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in
Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus,
and Asia,
Matthew
4:25 - And there followed him great multitudes of people
from Galilee, and [from] Decapolis, and [from] Jerusalem, and [from]
Judaea, and [from] beyond Jordan.
Mark 1:5
- And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea,
and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of
Jordan, confessing their sins.
Luke 21:21
- Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the
mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and
let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.
John 4:47
- When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into
Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down,
and heal his son: for he was at the point of death.
Acts 10:37
- That word, [I say], ye know, which was published throughout all
Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which
John preached;
Acts 11:29
- Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined
to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea:
Mark 3:7
- But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea: and a
great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judaea,
John 3:22
- After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of
Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized.
John 7:3
- His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into
Judaea, that thy disciples also may see the works that
thou doest.