Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Etymology of “Galilee”
 
A.  “Galilee” in Hebrew is gimel-lamed-yod-lamed.  There obviously are three 
key consonants in “Galilee”, which are gimel-lamed-lamed/G-L-L.  
 
B.  The accepted etymology of the word “Galilee” is that it means “district, 
circuit or region”.  Isaiah 9: 1 (alternatively referenced as Isaiah 8: 23) 
is cited in support of that proposition.
 
But let me propose here a more exciting historical etymology of the word “
Galilee”/G-L-L. 
 
C.  We start out in the mid-15th century BCE, before any Hebrews were in 
existence, but when most of the people of Canaan spoke west Semitic languages 
that 
were somewhat similar to later Hebrew.  Pharaoh Thutmosis III leaves us a 
wonderful list of all the cities he conquered in pre-Hebrew Canaan, which can 
be 
found in its entirety here:  
 
_http://www.archaeowiki.org/Topographical_List%2C_First_Campaign_of_Thutmose_I
II_ 
(http://www.archaeowiki.org/Topographical_List,_First_Campaign_of_Thutmose_III)
 
 
1.  Take a look at item #80 (near the end of the long list).  We see there “
Krr”.
 
KRR is likely an Egyptian rendering of a pre-Hebrew west Semitic word.  No 
one knows what KRR meant.  But in context, it may have been referring to a 
region northeast of the Sea of Galilee.
 
2.  We know from many other examples that (i) K in Egyptian comes into Hebrew 
as G, and (ii) R in Egyptian either stays as R in Hebrew, or comes into 
Hebrew as L.  So KRR in Egyptian would be expected to come into Hebrew as 
either 
GRR or GLL.
 
(Note that on that website, archaeologist and Egyptologist Paul James Cowie 
suggests “Galulu”, viewing the K as becoming G, and the R as becoming L.)
 
Dr. Cowie states “almost certainly not the Galilee”.  But his basis for 
saying that is not linguistics, but rather presumably is because KRR on this 
Thutmosis III list is referencing a region northeast of the Sea of Galilee, 
whereas 
700 years later, “Galilee” meant the land west of the Sea of Galilee, and 
did not include any land east of the Sea of Galilee.  So KRR is not 
referencing 
modern Galilee, west of the Sea of Galilee.  But may Dr. Cowie nevertheless 
be 
missing something very important here?
 
3.  KRR in Egyptian may have come into Hebrew first as GRR (gimel-resh-resh), 
and then centuries later became (or alternatively was) GLL 
(gimel-lamed-lamed).  That would seem to be a natural linguistic progression.
 
4.  At first, in the mid-14th century BCE, KRR has become GRR, which is “Gerar
” (with that exact spelling) at Genesis 20: 1, and is probably “Garu” 
(GR/Gar) at Amarna Letter EA 256: 23.  In the mid-14th century BCE, 
GRR/Gerar/Gar 
meant all the land in the general vicinity of the Sea of Galilee, both east 
and 
west of the Sea of Galilee.
 
5.  By the time we get to the 1st millennium BCE, centuries later, KRR has 
gone from originally being GRR to now being GLL.  GLL/“Galilee” no longer 
meant 
all the land on both sides of the Sea of Galilee, as GRR/“Gerar” had meant, 
but now GLL/“Galilee” referred exclusively to the land west of the Sea of 
Galilee.
 
6.  KRR and GRR and GLL do not have the same meanings.  But all of them mean, 
more or less, “northern Canaan, loosely defined”.  That is to say, their 
meanings are fairly closely related (though by no means the same).
 
7.  I see “Galilee”/GLL as deriving from GRR/Gerar, which in turn derived 
from KRR on the Thutmosis III list.  They all three originally meant 
“northern 
Canaan, loosely defined”.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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