Galilee
Galilee names 4 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Galilee the northernmost division of Palestine
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the northernmost division of Palestine. It lay on the east shore of the Lake of Gennesaret, or Sea of Galilee. It joined Samaria on the south. It now belongs to Turkey. The Sea of Galilee is about thirteen miles long and something less than seven miles in breadth. It is really a widening of the River Jordan on its way to the Dead Sea . Its surface is higher than that of the Dead Sea, but is still 680 feet below that of the Mediterranean. Its waters are wholesome and abound in fish. Its shores were thickly peopled in the time of Christ. Nine cities and towns, now in ruins, stood on its coast. Numerous large villages dotted the neighboring plains. "Like Jerusalem, the Sea of Gennesaret is enshrined in the heart from childhood. The home of Christ--'His own city'--Capernaum, lay on its shores; many of His miracles were performed around and upon it; He taught the multitudes that followed Him on the heights over it, along its pebbly beach, and from a boat on its surface; most of the apostles were fishermen, who here gained their daily bread; and one of Christ's last earthly interviews with them, after the crucifixion, was on that occasion when, driven probably by necessity, they had temporarily resumed their old occupation, and had toiled a long night without success." See Palestine ; Jordan ; Dead Sea
Galilee a Roman province
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a Roman province, compre- W. hending all the N. of Palestine of the Jordan. As the term Asia began with a small patch of territory in Asia Minor, but gradually had its meaning extook in all the Asiatic contended till it tinent, so the word Galilee was first ap- Naphplied to a fragment of the tribe of (Joshua tali, constituting its N. portion : 7; II Kings xv: 29). It was mostly xx inhabited by Gentiles (Isaiah ix: 1; I Testa- Maccab. v: 20-23). In the New more exment times the word had the learn from tended meaning, and we there were an Upper and Josephus that Lower Galilee. In architecture, a porch chapel at the entrance of a church. or In the galilee were formerly deposited corpses previous to interment, and reformed. The ligious processions were the expression in name is derived from the Bible, "Galilee of the Gentiles."
Galilee SEA OF, called also in the New Testament LAKE
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
SEA OF, called also in the New Testament LAKE OF GENNESARET old and SEA OF TIBERIAS, and in the Testament SEA OF CHINNERETH or CIN- NEROTH, a large lake in the N. half of Palestine. Lying 626 feet below sea-level, it is 13 miles long by 6 broad, and 680 of a feet deep. It occupies the bottom great basin, and is undoubtedly of volcanic origin. Its shores on the E. and N. sides are bare and rocky; on the W. sloping gradually, and luxuriantly covered with vegetation. The surrounding scenery is hardly beautiful, but its associations are the most sacred in the world.
Galilee SEA OF quired by Austria
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
SEA OF quired by Austria. Galicia was one of the Cis-Leithan provinces of the Austrian empire, and was represented in the Reichsrath by 63 deputies, while the affairs peculiar to itself were deliberated and determined on by its own Landtag or Diet. Polish is the language of official intercourse and of higher educational institutions. Galicia suffered severely in the World War, and was successively invaded by Russian and Austrian armies. It was awarded to Poland by the Treaty of Versailles. The capital is Lemberg. Pop. about 8,500,000. See POLAND.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Aiton's wrote in 1910 that Galilee "now belongs to Turkey," Ottoman rule had less than a decade left: British forces took the region in 1918, it became part of the British Mandate for Palestine, and since 1948 Galilee has formed the northern part of the State of Israel, with Nazareth, Tiberias and Safed among its towns. The lake the accounts call the Sea of Galilee is now also known as Lake Kinneret and serves as a national reservoir, tapped by Israel's National Water Carrier from 1964; its surface has fallen well below the 626 feet given by Collier's, dropping past 690 feet below sea level in drought years, and Israel now pumps desalinated water inland to relieve it. Collier's figure of "680 feet deep" was a slip: the lake is at most about 140 feet deep. Archaeology has filled in the shore Collier's dismissed as scenery: the ruins at Capernaum have been excavated in detail, and in 1986 a first-century fishing boat was found in the mud near Ginosar and is now displayed there.
Written for this edition, 2026.