Jesus' home region, a fertile, densely populated land of fishing villages and farms around the Sea of Galilee. Not the backwater people imagine, but a busy, trade-linked, somewhat mixed region under Herod's rule.
Northern Palestine
Northern Israel
Jesus grew up in Nazareth in Galilee, ministered around the Sea of Galilee, and called his fishermen disciples there. It was a region of hard-working villagers squeezed by taxes, where ordinary people heard Jesus' teaching about the kingdom of God with hope. 'Galilee of the nations' (Matt 4:15) hints at its mixed, borderland character.
The Sea of Galilee is about 700 feet below sea level in the Jordan Rift. Galilee is about 60 miles north of Jerusalem, a few days' walk.
The ordinary world of small towns and hard work can be the setting of the most extraordinary things. God starts where people actually live.