The Way of the Ancient Galilaeans

Capernaum being close to the fruitful valley of Gennesaret was a major hub of trade for those who lived near the Sea of Galilee 2000 years ago. At about 30 AD the population of Capernaum was about 1500 people. As a comparison for those who live near the Sea of Timpanogos (Utah Lake), the smallest city surrounding the sea is Goshen, population 1000. You might recognize the name "Goshen" as the land that Israel occupied in ancient Egypt. In this case it is a small city on the south part of the Sea of Timpanogos. Oddly enough it has a set located there for making biblical movies. It is where the movie "The Life of Jesus Christ" was made:

Interesting how small and seemingly insignificant places can have a huge effect on the world. In fact this little place called the Sea of Galilee has had an influence on all the Abrahamic religions of the world but none so much and Christianity.

For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth.

Zachariah 4:10

Nazareth

Jesus Christ grew up in Nazareth, a city that was about 16 miles from the Sea of Galilee. It was a unique place were the legendary Sampson was from. This is why Jesus is always depicted in art as having long hair. It was the tradition of a Nazarite to not cut their hair. 

Even though Nazareth was not on the Sea of Galilee it was considered to be a part of a territory called Galilee. 16 miles doesn't seem like much in our day but that could be a one to three day journey depending on what you were bringing with you. You can see in the famous Roman taxation story that Nazareth was a part of Galilee:

"And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth into Judaea, unto the city of david, wich is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)"

Luke 2:4

The Galilaeans must have been an amazing people. Not only Jesus Christ himself but many of the quorum of the 12 apostles, if not all of them, in Christ's mortal ministry, where Galilaeans. We don't know where all the apostles came from. Some we know and others we speculate. 

We know from John (the Baptist), a Galilaean that he had disciples who followed his teachings in preparation to introduce the Messiah. He introduces him to two of his deciples in John 1: 35-41. One of those disciples is Andrew who is the brother of Simon Peter. The two immediately recognize the Messiah and call him "Rabbi" (Master). Of this account two of these Galilaeans are the first two apostles called, Peter and Andrew. At the same time Peter and Andrew were called, James and John, who were also fisherman on the sea of Galilee were called as "fishers of men", special witnesses of Jesus Christ. We learn that Phillip also lived on the Sea of Galilee and was called the next day. We can speculate easily that Bartholomew was also a Galilaean and was introduced by Phillip. Airplanes and cellphones where just not a thing of those days. Your friends lived in close proximity. Bartholomew was also familiar with Nazareth. He was famed for saying, "can anything good come out of Nazareth?". Jesus recognized him as "an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile!" (John 1: 47). Thomas was also found fishing on the Sea of Galilee by the resurrected Christ. The other Simon we do not know where he was from. We only know that he was a Zealot, meaning in some way he was associated in the insurrection against the Romans. James and Matthew are also unknown. 

When you add on the other disciples that were Galilaeans you find an amazing group of people in a tiny little place in the world who recognized the Messiah.

The Sea of Galilee is now known as Lake Tiberius. People today have trouble calling it a sea. Culture changes and people want a sea to be a larger body of water. Except me of course. I want to change Utah Lake to "The Sea of Timpanogos". Utah Lake is twice the size of the Sea of Galilee. It empties into the Jordan River (both seas) and the Jordan river empties into and body of salty water. The Jordan of Israel into the Dead Sea and the Jordan of Utah into the Great Salt Lake. It is a striking similarity. Recently, there has been talks about dredging Utah Lake and building Islands in the middle. People wonder what they will find in this rejected endeavor. It would have been interesting. Here is something they found in the Sea of Galilee. Something from the days of these great Galilaeans:

Fish were a great part of the Galilaean life style. That is easy to imagine spending my childhood in California and watching fish after fish caught on the Huntington Beach pier. After all it is a big ocean. After spending much time on Utah Lake fishing and researching the populations surrounding the Sea of Galilee, I can completely see Galilee as a life sustaining vehicle for the cities adjacent to Galilee. Utah Lake has some big catfish in it and so does the Sea of Galilee.

The problem with that is that catfish do not have scales. That makes it not kosher. It is likely that early Galilaeans did not eat catfish. I imagine that it is a lot like the carp spawn on Utah Lake, where bow and arrow fisherman slay and beach all carp. They are laying around everywhere. More than likely if early Galilaeans caught a catfish they would just throw it up on the shore and leave it to die to protect other species. 

Carp have very large scales. There are lots of carp in Utah Lake and lots of carp in Galilee. It is a big fish and it is very meaty and also kosher. I am almost sure that Jesus ate carp. Don't get offended by that. All you people who say carp is terrible have never tried it. It is the unwritten taboo and un-kosher fish of Utah. Most of you out there in Utah believe carp are only good for bear bate, which by the way is un-kosher. I don't usually target carp but on occasion I have caught one or two. You will be happy to know that I have eaten them. The reputation is a lie and I feel a little more like Jesus, The greatest of all Galilaeans.

Look at the scales on that beast. Isn't he beautiful?

Although I believe carp where a part of the Galilaean diet, at the same time I don't believe it was the target fish of the early apostles. After much research I believe tilapia was the target fish of the day. It makes sense. They pretty much used nets all the time, except when they were fishing for coin. Tilapia are mainly herbivores. They eat a lot of duckweed. I have never fished for tilapia but I have heard that one of the best baits is corn. Nets makes sense! 

There are no tilapia in Utah Lake so in the spring when I do my apostles experience (stay tuned) I will be throw netting for carp. If I get 153 in my net I may need an army to pull that in. Maybe I will fish from the left side as a safety precaution, after all I will be in my kayak and it is likely that will take me down. Carp are not considered a sportfish in Utah so it is perfectly legal as long as you release any sportfish you catch. 

This is from "The Chosen". Keep in mind the movies take a lot of liberty. I just love the tilapia.

I used to think when Jesus walked on water and calm the sea that there was an endless body of water between them and the shore. If they were in the middle than it would only be about three and one half miles to the shore. My x-water polo days are kicking in and that doesn't sound all that scary. In the Navy I experience a few hurricanes with 20 to 30 foot swells. I have even seen those waves take a manmade boat down to Davey Jones locker (Hattian refugee rescued). That was intimidating. But Galilee is a lake that is 7 miles across. I know when the wind kicks up in Utah lake you can get some big swells. The right 20 mile an hour wind can kick up a four foot wave. Some places are only 4 feet deep or less. That is intimidating and people do drown in those waves getting sloshed around in the unforgiving mud.  The average depth of Utah Lake is 10 to 15 feet. The average depth of Galilee is 84 ft deep. Can Galilee produce a 4 foot wave?

I think so. I stay away from the rough seas of Utah Lake and sometimes when you are crossing a big lake the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. I have kayaked though the middle of Utah Lake:

I am pretty sure that ancient Galilaeans had many stories of people who had drown on the sea. They ate tilapia from the markets where the apostles traded. They walked when they traveled. They talked amongst friends. They recognized the Messiah. They were what we would consider small towners. They even ate carp and possibly through away catfish. They are the founders of Christendom. 

The Day of Pentacost

And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?

Acts 2: 3-7