This volume presents the papers given at the Second International Conference on Galilee in Antiquity held at Duke University and the North Carolina Museum of Art in 1997. The goal of the conference was to examine the significance of Galilee and its rich and diverse culture through an extended period of time. Several of the papers have been revised since the conference and in light of continuing discussion. Furthermore, three new papers have been added to the collection, for a total of 25 contributions.

This dissertation argues against the widespread belief among current scholars that Galilee experienced extensive Hellenization, rapid urbanization, and a socio-economic crisis in the first-century C.E. as a result of major socio-economic changes initiated by Herod the Great and his successors. My research indicates that earlier studies allowed the textual evidence to have an undue influence on the way that scholars interpret the archaeological evidence, and vice-versa. Unlike previous studies on Early Roman Galilee, the dissertation begins by attempting to interpret each source for the region individually and without recourse to other sources. After establishing what each source says on its own about Galilee, the dissertation analyzes the data as a whole and offers a reconstruction of Galilean society in the first-century C.E. that better reflects the available evidence. The major findings are that the region was politically stable until the Great Revolt of 66 C.E., that the region was much less Hellenized than some prominent scholars claim, that the urbanization process initiated by Herod Antipas had less of a negative immediate impact on Galilean society than modern scholars usually assume, and that Galilee was not experiencing any unusual or severe socio-economic problems prior to the revolt.

Explores how Mary has been represented in theology, art, music, and literature throughout the ages

Who were the Galileans? What was their background? Were they descendants of ancient northern Israelites? When had they come under Jerusalem rule? What precipitated resistance movements in the area?

In eighteenth-century Palestine, on the shores of Galilee’s Lake Tiberias, visionary political and military leader Dahir al-Umar al-Zaydani undertakes a journey toward the greatest aim anyone could hope to achieve in his day: the establishment of an autonomous Arab state. To do so he must challenge the rule of the greatest power in the world at the time—the Ottoman Empire—while translating the ideals of human dignity, justice, and religious tolerance into concrete daily realities. In this compelling story of love and loss, victory and defeat, loyalty and betrayal, award-winning poet and novelist Ibrahim Nasrallah, author of the Arabic Booker shortlisted Time of White Horses, once again brings Palestinian history alive with a set of characters and events both real and imagined to capture the essence of a rich and dramatic epoch in the turbulent annals of a land that has been fought over for millennia.

Essential reading for anyone interested in the historical Jesus debate, this volume offers a comprehensive and balanced account of research into the person of Jesus.