Galilee and the Jewish Resistance Movement

This article investigates whether Galilee was a hotbed of political revolution during the time of Jesus. After first outlining archaeological evidence to identify the Galileans of this era, it continues to examine in detail the literary evidence used by some NT scholars such as Richard Horsley to suggest that Galilee was full of “social bandits” and political unrest at the time. This article counters this view and advocates replacing it with a more moderate view that Jesus and his sayings took place during a relatively peaceful Galilean period.