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This question talks about how in John 7:52, the Pharisees claimed that "no prophet comes out of Galilee." The accepted answer discusses how commentators often point out the Pharisees' mistake, and N.T. Wright points out that "both the prophets Jonah and Hosea came from Galilee." In addition, I found this link, which says that 5 prophets came from Galilee: Jonah, Nahum, Hosea, Elijah, and Elisha. BibleStudyTools.org has an article with a discussion about how Micah, Elijah, and Jonah being from Galilee, and how Nahum and Hosea could possibly have come from Galilee.

Which prophets are from Galilee, and how do we know? An associated question, what is the source of the uncertainty surrounding this question? Perhaps I could word the question, what is the (Biblical and archeological) basis for saying that these 5 prophets are from Galilee?

  1. Jonah from Gath-hepher

    2 Kings 14:25 "He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Dead Sea, in accordance with the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher."

Wikipedia on Gath-hepher says it is in modern-day Galilee (maybe that's what it is saying?). Joshua 29:13 describes more where this place is.

  1. Micah from Moresheth

    Micah 1:1 The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah—the vision he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

BibleAtlas.org doesn't mention Galilee at all in the article on Moresheth, nor does Wikipedia in their article on Moresheth-Gath. Wikipedia says Moresheth = Moresheth-Gath.

  1. Elijah from Gilead

    1 Kings 17:1 "Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, 'As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.'"

2 Kings 15:29 actually seems to differentiate between Gilead and Galilee, which suggests that Gilead is not contained within Galilee.

Wikipedia on Gilead makes no mention of Galilee, and the Bible Atlas also seems to differentiate Gilead from Galilee by saying that in Gilead there is "the white chalk of the desert plateau, the same as that found in Samaria and Lower Galilee."

  1. Elisha

(I don't know the basis).

  1. Hosea

(I don't know the basis).

I would like to see the basis for 4 and 5 (Elisha and Hosea) being from Galilee, and I would like to see how we can know 1-3 are actually from Galilee. I would also be interested if there are any other claims that additional prophets are from Galilee. My questions stems from the fact that none the verses say explicitly from Galilee, and I have seen almost nothing supporting the connection between the city mentioned and Galilee. Pardon my lack of knowledge in biblical geography. Perhaps it is obvious that these cities are contained in the region that is Galilee. There may also be a notable difference between the geographical boundaries in Galilee between the Old and New Testament timeframes or even within the Old Testament timeframe, which contains several thousand years of history on its own.

I don't see how any denominational restriction will affect the answers, so I don't propose any.

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  • John 7:52 says "No prophet COMES out of Galilee". Note, he didn't say "came out of Galilee". There is a big difference here. The people in John's time where waiting for the Messiah, who was the Prophet that Moses mentioned in Deu 18:18 (NIV): "I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him". Thus, they were waiting for one particular prophet, the Messiah, who the Bible said should come out of Bethlehem, in Judah; not Galilee. – Constantthin Jan 13 at 11:04
  • Micah 5:2 (NIV) “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” – Constantthin Jan 13 at 11:05
  • Thanks for the correction. I had trusted the referred question's quotation without checking. Though they were waiting for the Messiah, and John 7:40-41 describes a discussion that the Messiah will not come out of Galilee, it was clear and specific in John 7:40-41 that they were referring to the Messiah. John 7:52, however, does not seem to restrict "no prophet" to just "the Prophet." This restriction to just the Messiah seems artificial. Would you disagree? As the Messiah will come out of Galilee per Matthew 2:23 ("he will be called a Nazarene", a city in Galilee). – Alex Strasser Jan 13 at 20:30
  • You are right about Mat 2:23. Had forgotten about it. Do you know if there is an original Old Testament prophecy backing it up? – Constantthin Jan 14 at 9:30
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    @Constantthin There is not a specific prophecy, but probably is referring to a general theme from multiple Old Testament prophets. Namely, that the Messiah would be despised (Psalm 22:6, Isaiah 49:7, 53:3) similar to how Nazareth was despised at the time of Jesus (John 1:46, 7:41, 52). So they looked down on him bc of his origins (like Nathaniel did) and thus 'would be called a Nazarene' in a general pejorative sense. Or something like that. – Alex Strasser Jan 15 at 4:41

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