God So Loved the World: Week 1

Humility & the Galilean region

Red cloth cover of my hardback of God So Loved the World by Elizabeth Goudge

“This is the story of that almost unbelievable humbling, the life that God lived when he came down from heaven and lived upon earth as a man… The fact of this humility is so glorious that it is beyond human understanding...”

Elizabeth Goudge, God So Loved the World, ch 1

We will take a look at the theme of humility that Elizabeth Goudge used to weave together this narrative of Jesus and of the many people around him. I will also include some view of the Galilean region to help us develop our imagination in the setting.

Sea of Galilee- panorama of the southern end, February 5th, 2014 on Wikipedia by Kinnereth

“The name Galilee has a country sound about it but in reality the district about the large inland lake was a busy place, humming with activity and alive with the comings and goings of the men of many nations. Our Lord had not come into the world to lead the life of a hermit; he had come to save the souls of men, and wherever sinning, sorrowing, suffering men and women were to be found there was Our Lord in the midst of them. The western shore of the lake was ringed round with towns and villages, the biggest of them being Tiberias, Magdala, and Capernaum. On the hills behind Tiberias Herod Antipas had built his beautiful summer palace, and from the harbor of Tiberias his barges set out for pleasure trips upon the lake.

Among the mountains on the eastern shore were Greek cities. The old caravan roads from Tyre and Sidon, and the Roman highways leading from Antioch to Jerusalem, and from Damascus to the Egyptian frontier-all met at the Sea of Galilee. When Our Lord walked along the roads of Galilee he would have met Roman legions on the march, Phoenician merchants, jugglers, and gladiators going to the amphitheater at Tiberias or to the Greek cities among the eastern mountains. It was a busy industrial district, with die works, pottery works, and ship-building yards. There was a flourishing fishing industry and the fish caught in the lake were pickled and sent to Jerusalem.”

Elizabeth Goudge, God So Loved the World, ch 3

The Galilee