Galilee, Samaria and Judea

The Gospels · c. 4 BC – AD 30

The three tints are the three rulers of Luke 3:1 as they stood about AD 30: Judea, Samaria and Idumea under the Roman prefect; Galilee and Perea under Herod Antipas, two territories that did not touch; and the north-east under Philip. Their borders are drawn where the district lists of Josephus put them and should be held loosely — Herod’s kingdom was divided at his death and again within a generation, and an ancient jurisdiction was rarely a line. The provinces inside each rule are named and not bounded, because between provinces under one ruler there was no border to draw. Uncolored ground is outside the three: the coast with its free cities (Ptolemais, Tyre, Sidon), Nabatea, and Syria beyond Damascus. The Decapolis was a league of ten cities and never a territory, so it carries no tint; Damascus and Canatha are named because both belonged to it, which is otherwise a name over empty country. The ringed towns are the seats of government under this settlement: Caesarea, where the prefect actually lived (Jerusalem saw him at the festivals); Jerusalem itself; Sebaste, Caesarea Philippi and Tiberias, cities the Herods founded or rebuilt and named for their patrons; Sepphoris, the capital of Galilee before Tiberias was built; and the palace-fortresses at Jericho and Machaerus. Two roads ran from Galilee to Jerusalem — the ridge through Samaria by Sychar, and the longer Jordan valley route by Scythopolis and Jericho that most Galilean pilgrims preferred. Neither is drawn, this being a map of the country rather than of a journey, but the choice between them is what John 4:4 turns on. Emmaus is placed at Amwas, the identification Eusebius records, which remains disputed. Bethabara is the Bethany beyond Jordan of John 1:28, named here by the variant to keep it apart from the Bethany by Jerusalem.

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