NAPHTALI (Νεφθαλεἱ?μ)
1. Description.—With the Captivities all practical use of the tribal divisions came to an end, and, but for such a reference as that given in Matthew 4:15 to the OT prophecy of Isaiah 9:1, the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali could scarcely appear as geographical names in the NT. The boundaries of these divisions we can know at best only approximately. Many of the towns named in Joshua’s description of the tribal territories are unknown to us, and, besides, the tribes are not likely ever to have had the unbroken compactness the maps would lead us to believe. Villages among the mountains of Naphtali have to this day their arable lands near the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and similarly in Zebulun the inhabitants of Nazareth cultivate portions of the plain of Esdraelon. Thus the tribes might in many cases possess detached portions, and difficulties connected with their extent and boundaries may sometimes be explained from this fact. This uncertainty as regards the boundaries of these tribes is of no consequence to our present purpose, as the indefinite statement in Matthew 4:15 cannot be used in any argument regarding the site of Capernaum; nor can we fix the boundaries from any supposed relationship to that city, as Reland has sought to do (Pal. [Note: Palestine, Palestinian.] p. 161). The lands of Naphtali then, generally speaking, occupied the N.E. portion of Galilee, together with the west and south of the Lake. Josephus (Ant. v. i. 22) defines its northern boundary as Mount Lebanon and the Fountains of Jordan. The Rabbis tell us that ‘Naphtali rejoiced in his portion, having seas and fish.’ They assign the Sea of Galilee to the portion of Naphtali, and give him also ‘a full measure’ to the south of the Lake (Bab. [Note: Babylonian.] Baba Kama, 81 b; Sifri on Deuteronomy 33:23). In Naphtali were represented the three divisions of Galilee—of varying elevation (Mishn. Shebiith ix. 2); (1) Upper Galilee, from Kefr Hananyah (Kefr Anân) northwards, which is described as the portion ‘where the sycamores do not grow’; (2) Lower Galilee, extending downwa rds till we reach (3) the third division, which is designated חהום טבדיה or העמק—‘the depression of Tiberias’ or ‘the valley.’ for description of the last of these districts, see artt. Sea of Galilee, and Gennesaret (Land of).
From the north end of the Plain of Gennesaret and the Sea of Galilee (–682.5 ft.) the land rises through a series of steep ascents and small plateaux to Safed (+2750 ft.) and Jebel Jermuk (4000 ft.), the highest peak in Western Palestine. To the north of these points, and until the valley of the Litani is reached, we have an undulating tableland, with vast stretches that are arable and everywhere tilled, with swelling hills in view all round, covered with prickly shrubs and trees and forests of small oak. This district is broken into by two deep valleys, somewhat like but narrower than Wady H amam. From the N.W. of the Plain of Gennesaret the Wady Leimon, otherwise called Wady Amûd, and in ancient times מעלת מרון, the ‘ascent of Meiron,’ extends to the neighbourhood of the village of that name. It is a narrow gorge, for the most part enclosed by steep rocky walls and natural pillars. It is now impassable, but in ancient times it was accessible to passengers in single file (Erubhin, 22 b; Rosh-hash., 16 a). About half-way up this ravine a smaller wady branches off eastward, to beyond the great rock of Akbara—a cliff as grand and impressive as anything met with in Wady Hamam. In later days there grew up under its shadow a famous Rabbinical school, and the district was renowned for its coverts of pheasants. Farther north, Upper Galilec is divided by another valley (Wady Fara), almost equally deep, but less rocky. It extands eastward from the neighbourhood of el-Jish, and opens out into the plain beside Lake Huleh and the Jordan.
In the neighbourhood of el-Jish and Taitabeh (said to be the Tishbe of 1 Kings 17:1) we meet with three extinct craters and quantities of black volcanic rock, and by it the slopes to the Huleh valley and the Jordan as far as the Sea of Galilee are also fringed. Between Kerazeh and Tell Hum great quantities of basaltic boulders cumber the ground, and the stones of Tiberias again are black. Volcanic forces have been active in the past. They have created for us these wild gorges and gigantic cliffs, and their continued existence is proved by the hot springs, as also by the frequent earthquakes in ancient (Ant. xv. v. 2; Joma v. 2; Sota viii. 7) and in modern times. Of these latter the most terrible known is that which occurred on 1st Jan. 1837. Elsewhere the rocks of Naphtali are generally a species of limestone, known in Palestine by the name of nâri. On the hills above the Lake there are great stretches of these white rocks, hard as flint, bare, desolate, and painful to the eye, especially under the summer sun. but though the surface is hard and glossy, we have only to get below it to find that the rock is really soft. It may be cut with a saw with even greater facility than wood. All sorts of trees—olives, figs, and vines—can send their roots through it and draw nourishment thence, while the hard exposed surface is there to conserve the moisture below. With little trouble these rocky desolations may be turned into vineyards, olive groves, and orchards, and we have every reason to believe that they were such in the early Christian centuries (Bab. [Note: Babylonian.] Megilla, 6 a).
Naphtali will thus be seen to have, in virtue of its lands of varying altitude and deep depression, a greater variety of climate, scenery, and possible variety of production than any other tribe of Israel. To it more than to any other could be applied the words of promise uttered ere the Land was yet entered—‘a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates, a land of oil olives and honey’ (Deuteronomy 8:7-8). Apart from the barren stretches mentioned, these words describe most naturally the state of Naphtali to-day. Different parts are renowned for their varied products—Rameh for the excellence of its olives and its oranges, el-Jish for its vineyards, the north and the Huleh valley for their fine crops of wheat and barley. Elsewhere we meet with the lemon, fig, mulberry, apricot, and even tobacco and tomatoes, in great abundance. As the Targum (on Genesis 49:21) has it, ‘Naphtali’s lot was cast in a pleasant land.’ From shortly after the commencement of the rainy season it is brilliant with flowers—anemones of many varied tints, cyclamens, and lilies, while all its water-courses may be traced by the red bloom of the oleander. The hills are greener than those of any other tribe, and the grass and the spring flowers continue among its uplands long after the rest of Palestine is burned black and bare. This arises from the fact that Naphtali enjoys first and most of all the much praised ‘dews of Hermon that descend upon the mountains of Zion’ (Psalms 133:3). When the N.E. wind has come gently blowing over the great mountain, we have seen the dew-clouds rolling down in great volumes over its fields, supplying all nature with fresh vigour and sensations of pleasantness. Modern products, such as oranges, tobacco, and tomatoes, were absent in our Lord’s time, as was also another feature that attracts the eye in these days, viz., the great hedges of prickly pear or cactus, by which many of the villages are practically fortified. This plant is of modern importation, though, unfortunately, it has often found its way into pictures of Bible scenes. Compared with the present day, the hills of Naphtali were much more wooded in NT times. Just after such another period of unrest and unsettlement as Galilee had passed through before the Advent, Arculphus, a pilgrim (a.d. 670), found that the hills in his time were wooded down to the shores of the Lake. The woods of Naphtali are mentioned in the Palestinian Talmud (Baba Bathra v. 1).
Of the productiveness of the soil there is ample testimony. We are told that Gush Halab (Gischala; el-Jish) was famous for the quantity of its oil (Erakhin ix. 6; Menakhoth, 85 b), and as this was considered to be a border town adjoining the tribe of Asher, the Rabbis saw here a fulfilment of Genesis 49:20, Deuteronomy 33:24. Josephus, speaking of the same place, tells us that its people were generally husbandmen, and applied themselves to the cultivation of the fruits of the earth (BJ iv ii. 1). The quality of the wheat of Chorazin and Capernaum is well spoken of (Men. 85 a). It is elsewhere stated that Naphtali possessed vines and fruitful fields (Bab. [Note: Babylonian.] Meg. 6 a), and we meet with incidental reference to the honey of Safed, the indigo of Magdala, and the raw silk of Gush Halab. And, in so far as productiveness is concerned, it must be remembered that whatever may be said of the hills of Naphtali applies with tenfold more force to the Plain of Gennesaret and the southern shore of the Lake (Josephus BJ iii. x. 8). If the evidence of Josephus and the Talmuds does not all refer to the time of our Lord’s ministry, at least it shows us clearly what the district was becoming during that period.
2. The people.—Zebulun and Naphtali were in the year b.c. 135 practically Gentile (1Ma_5:23), but from that time onward they became gradually reoccupied by a population of Jewish blood, and from the time of this resettlement its people were pre-eminently patriotic (Ant. xiv. ix. 2, xv. 10). It was a district of great memories and inspiring scenes, and the new settlers acted up to them. The kind of immigrants—those who sought a freedom unknown at the court of Herod—would guarantee their quality, and, besides, there is something in the free air of the mountains—especially mountains that have a past heroic history—that goes a long way to make heroes and warriors. In b.c. 4, Judas the son of Hezekiah had made an unsuccessful attempt to revolt, and again in a.d. 6, Judas of Galilee and his Zealots (cf. Luke 6:15), declaring ‘There is no king but God’ (Ant. xviii. i. 6). [With this saying we may compare that in the Jewish Morning Prayer, אֵ?ייֽ? לָ?נוּ? מֶ?לָ?ךְ? אָ?לּ?ָ?א אָ?תּ?ָ?ה and its repudiation in the cry of the Jews to Pilate (John 19:15), as well as the Galilӕ?an Arabic proverb met with in el-Jish to-day, ‘ Mâ fish sul tân ghçr alla,’ ‘There is no king but God’]. The milder government of Antipas, and his presence, as a ‘half-Jew,’ between them and their conquerors, kept the Zealots at peace during a long period in the 1st cent. [a.d. 6–a.d. 66), and allowed the population to grow, so that probably all the villages of to-day represent cities of that time (BJ iii. iii. 2). The population did not in peaceful days sink into sloth and indulgence. They were essentially sturdy sons of hardy toil; and where commerce, agriculture, and fishing did not afford employment, they engaged in trades, as in dyeing at Magdala, weaving at Arbela, and pottery manufacture at Kefr Hananyah. Though despised by the people of Jerusalem, Naphtali was itself becoming a centre of learning, and, even before the Christian era, had given birth to one in the direct line of succession as transmitters of the oral law or traditions of the elders (Matthew 15:2)—Nitai or Mattai of Arbela—who has left us this saying, which is almost characteristic of the people: Remove from a bad neighbour, have no partnership in evil, and despair not of reward’ (Pirkç Aboth i. 7).
3. Christ’s sojourn.—Our Lord’s settlement in the lands of Naphtali began probably about January of the year a.d. 27 (Matthew 4:13), a short visit of ‘not many days’ having been made before the previous Passover (John 2:12). The time of sojourn would then extend till Sept. [Note: Septuagint.] a.d. 28—a period of about 20 months; but this was broken in upon by circuits in Galilee (Mark 1:34, Luke 8:1-3, Matthew 9:35, Mark 6:6), to Tyre and Sidon (Matthew 15:21), to Decapolis (Mark 7:31), to Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:13), and a visit to Jerusalem to the Passover (John 5:1). In virtue of Christ’s being asked for and paying tribute in Capernaum (Matthew 17:24), we may conclude that He was recognized as a citizen there; and the light thrown on this transaction by the Talmud enables us to infer that He had been domiciled in Naphtali one year before the 15th Adar preceding the request for payment (cf. M. Shekalim i. 3; Baba Bathra i. 6; Sanhedrin 112 a). As the circuits through Galilee took place for the most part during the hot season, when the inhabitants are in the mountains, we can see, when we consider the smaller Galilee of those days, that the greater part of one year at least would be spent among the people of Naphtali. It was from among them that the Lord chose most of Iris friends and disciples. It was in Naphtali, too, that He made the selection. It was there that He did most of His mighty works (Matthew 11:20). Its towns were the best known in Gospel history—Capernaum, Bethsaida, Chorazin, Magdala, and Tiberias—and it was over three of these that He uttered the sentence of woe because they believed not (Matthew 11:21-24). It was in Naphtali that most of His teaching, as recorded in the Synoptics, was given. Its flowers, its fruits, its crops, its birds and beasts, its mountain torrents, its manners and customs, were all used to illumine the Gospel message, and to bring light first to its people, and then, through them, along the world’s highways to all that sit in darkness. In this, Matthew (Matthew 4:15), and with him the whole Christian world, sees the fulfilment of Isaiah’s old prophecy, and, apart from individual opinions that it might be understood of the glory to which Rabbinism attained here in the 2nd and 3rd cents., the older Synagogue teaching is so far at one with them that all the midrâshîm declare that the Messiah ben Joseph should appear in Galilee. So also writes Sa’adiah ha-Gaon in his work on Faith and Knowledge, § v.; while the Book of Zohar on Exodus 1:8 clearly states that the ‘Messiah shall arise and be revealed in the land of Galilee.’
Literature.—See the authorities cited under artt. Palestine, Galilee, Capernaum, etc. For homil. use, C. H. Waller, The Names on the Gates of Pearl 3 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] (1903), p. 129.
W. M. Christie.