גליל הגוים' או 'גלילת פלשת' (מקבים א ה, 15)'

The phrase Γαλιλαία ἀλλοφύλων in 1 Macc 5:15, which tells of troubles the Judeans experienced with their neighbors, in a narrative context pertaining to the 160s BCE, is universally rendered as “Galilee of the Gentiles,” echoing Isaiah 9:1 (MT 8:23). This translation implies that, at that time, the Galilee was essentially Gentile; the only debate is whether that implication is historically true or, rather, the author was simply using a nice phrase borrowed from Isaiah, and we should not take it as an historical statement. However, in the Septuagint, including 1 Maccabees, ἀλλόφυλοι usually refers to “Philistines,” not “Gentiles” (who are usually termed ἔθνη); moreover, there are other reasons to think that the verse originally applied to Philistia, which is indeed attacked by Judas Maccabaeus at the end of the chapter, although no other explanation for that is provided. This article suggests that during or after the translation of the chapter into Greek, a pro-Simonide editor mistook the original reference to galil for a proper noun (“Galilee”) instead of a common noun (“district”) and, not realizing that ἀλλόφυλοι meant Philistines, produced a chapter that refers to Simon’s campaigning in the Galilee rather than the coast. That coast is defined by 1 Macc 5:15,
|echoing Joel 3:4 (MT 4:4), as running from Tyre and Sidon in the north down to “the district(s) of the Philistines” in the south. Τhe differences in
|meaning between the original Hebrew text and Γαλιλαία ἀλλοφύλων reflect the growing Judaization of the Galilee in the Hasmonean period and also the transformation of ἀλλόφυλος, in Jewish usage, from “Philistine” to “Gentile.”