Where Do All These People
Live?
Palestine in the Time of Jesus
Most of the people in the Bible
stories lived in or around a land that was called Palestine in Jesus' day,
and which is now part of the modern state of Israel. Rome was a city-state
then (Rome is now the capital of Italy), and ruled large tracts of land
around the Mediterranean Sea, including Palestine. The Herod family that
ruled Palestine during Jesus' lifetime was from Idumea, a southern province
in Palestine.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, fled to Egypt with
his parents when he was a baby, grew up in Joseph's hometown of Nazareth
in northern Palestine, and worshiped at the Temple in Jerusalem. He did
a great deal of his preaching and teaching in the north, around the Sea
of Galilee, but he also had friends he visited frequently in Bethany, just
outside of Jerusalem. Many of his disciples
came from the small towns around the Sea of Galilee.
The distance from Nazareth to Jerusalem is about sixty-five miles. Most
of the traveling of Jesus, his family, and his disciples was done on foot.