IV
THE PLATEAU OF GALILEE AND THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON
Physical and Political Significance of the Central Plateau. The backbone of Palestine is the great central plateau. It was in this important zone that the drama of Israel's history was chiefly enacted. Here was the true home of the Hebrews. By virtue of its position this central zone naturally commanded those to the east and west. For one brief period the Philistines from the western coast plain nearly succeeded in conquering and ruling all Palestine; but otherwise, until the world powers outside began to invade the land, the centre of power lay among the hills. This significant feature of Palestinian history is due to two facts: (1) that in war the great advantage lies with the people who hold the higher eminences and so can fight from above; and (2) that the rugged uplands usually produce more virile, energetic, liberty-loving people. At the same time it may be noted that, while the centre of power lay among the hills, the hill-dwellers never succeeded in conquering completely or in holding permanently the zones to the east and west. So firmly were the invisible bounds of each zone established that the dwellers in one were never able wholly to overleap these real though intangible lines and to weld together the diverse types of civilization that sprang up in these different regions, so near in point of distance, yet really so far removed from each* other.
Natural and Political Bounds. A part of the northern plateau bore even in early Hebrew days the name of Galilee, the Circle or the Region (I Kings, 9:11, II Kings, 15:29, Josh. 20:7). At first this region appears to have been confined to a small area about Kedesh, where the Hebrew and older Gentile population met and mingled. Gradually the name was extended, until in the Maccabean and Roman period Galilee included all of the central plateau north of the Plain of Esdraelon as far as the Litany itself. Its western boundary lay where the central plateau descends to the foot-hills and coast plains of Tyre and Acre, and its eastern was the abrupt cliffs of the Jordan valley. These were its natural boundaries; but Josephus, whose knowledge of Galilee was peculiarly personal, includes in it the towns about the Lake of Gennesaret (commonly designated in the New Testament as the Sea of Galilee), the Plain of Esdraelon and even Mount Carmel (cf. Jewish Wars, II, 3:4, 8:1, III, 3:1).
Its Extent and Natural Divisions. Defined by its narrower natural bounds, Galilee is about thirty miles wide from east to west, and nearly fifty miles long from north to south. It comprises an area, therefore, of a little less than fifteen hundred square miles. It falls into two clearly marked divisions: (1) Upper Galilee with its rolling elevated plateaus, bounded on the east and west by hills which rise rapidly to the height of between two thousand and four thousand feet; and (2) Lower Galilee, lying to the south of an irregular line drawn westward from the northern end of the Lake of Gennesaret to Acre on the shore of the Mediterranean. This division line is marked by the Wady Amud and the Wady et-Tuffah, which flow into the northwestern end of the Lake of Gennesaret, and the series of plains which cut from east to west through Galilee to a point opposite Acre. This second division includes the lower hills, which extend southward from the high plateaus of northern Galilee, making an irregular terrace, never over nineteen hundred feet high and gradually sloping to the Plain of Esdraelon, which sends out several low valleys to meet and intersect the descending hills. This clear-cut line of division was recognized both by Josephus and the Talmudic writers.
Physical Characteristics of Upper Galilee. The elevated hills of upper Galilee constitute, therefore, the first terrace that flanks the southern part of the Lebanons. The deep clefts between the higher Lebanons and Anti-Lebanons to the north here disappear. Even the Litany turns abruptly westward on the northern border of Galilee, leaving a broad mass of rounded limestone hills, greatly weathered by frost and rain. At a distance this mass looks like a mountain range, but it consists in reality of a high rolling plateau, cut by irregular valleys. This plateau of upper Galilee reaches its highest elevation in a line drawn northwest from Safed, which was probably "the city set on a hill" of the Gospel record.[(7)] The mountain on which Safed stands is two thousand seven hundred and fifty feet above the sea, while to the northwest Jebel Jermak, the highest mountain of Galilee, rises to the height of three thousand nine hundred and thirty-four feet. From this point many fertile upland valleys radiate to the northwest, the north, the northeast, and the east, but none to the south. Thus upper Galilee presents its boldest front to the south, towering high above lower Galilee and sloping to the north until it meets the mountains of the southern Lebanons. On the southeast it slopes gradually down to the Jordan and Lake Huleh, where two brooks come down from the plain of Hazor. Farther north the hills rise very abruptly from the Jordan and present a front unbroken by any important streams. At many points on this eastern slope lava streams have left their bold deposit of trap-rock. On the northwest the descent to the coast plains is very gradual and regular, but farther south the hills jut out abruptly to the sea. Upper Galilee is an open region with splendid vistas of the blue coastline of the Mediterranean on the west, of Carmel and the Samaria hills on the south, of the lofty almost unbroken line of the plateau of the Hauran and Gilead on the east; while the Lebanons tower on the north, and above them all rises the massive peak of Hermon, long into the springtime clad in cold, dazzling whiteness. Galilee, as a whole, was a land well fitted to breed enthusiasts and men of vision, intolerant alike of the inflexible rule of Rome and of the constricting priestcraft of Jerusalem. The Talmud states that the Galileans were ever more anxious for honor than for money.
Its Fertility. Upper Galilee was also a land of great fertility. The one limitation was the profusion of rocks strewn especially over the northern part. But if the Lebanons have poured their stones over northern Galilee, they have compensated with the wealth of waters which run through the valleys and break out in springs or else are scattered in dashing showers and deposited in heavy dews upon its rich soil. Where wars and conquest have not denuded the land, trees grow to the summits of the hills and grass and flowers flourish everywhere in greatest profusion. It is a land of plenty, sunshine, beauty, and contentment. Significant is the fact that it figures so little in Israel's troubled history, for happy is the land that has no history. Josephus's statement that in his day Galilee had a population of nearly three millions is undoubtedly an exaggeration. Even though, as in some parts of the land, to-day, the villages almost touched each other and no part of the land lay idle, Galilee could not have supported more than four or five hundred thousand inhabitants (cf. Masterman, Studies in Galilee, 131-134).
Characteristics of Lower Galilee. Lower Galilee possesses the fertility of upper Galilee in even greater measure. With a lower elevation and slightly warmer climate it bears a large variety of trees and fruits. Its valleys are also broader and lower and enriched with the soil washed down from the hills. The broad, low plain of Asochis (the present Sahel el-Buttauf) lies a little north of the heart of lower Galilee and from it valleys radiate to the northeast, southwest, and southeast. Another broad plain runs northeast from the Plain of Esdraelon to the neighborhood of Nazareth and Mount Tabor, and east of Tabor still another extends down to the Jordan River. The rounded top of Mount Tabor commands a marvellous view of lower Galilee. Across the fertile fields to the northeast lies the Sea of Galilee, shut in by its steep banks, and beyond it the mountain plateau of the Jaulan.[(8)] Across the valley to the south is the Hill of Moreh and the Samaritan hills beyond.[(9)] Two perennial brooks, the Wady Fejjas and the Wady el-Bireh, flow down through southeastern Galilee into the Jordan. The result is that lower Galilee is made up of a series of irregular hills (of which the Nazareth group, a little south of the centre, is the chief) separated by a network of broad, rich, intersecting plains. It combines the vistas and large horizons of the north with the fruitfulness of the plains. Here many different types of civilization meet and mingle. Instead of being remote and provincial, as is sometimes mistakenly supposed, lower Galilee is close to the heart of Palestine and open to all the varied influences which radiate from that little world. It is also intersected by a network of little wadys running in every direction from its open valleys and through its low-lying hills. Thus it was bound closely not only to the rest of Palestine, but also to the greater world that lay beyond.