After some early expeditions to Galilee to save the Jews there from attack, the Hasmonean rulers conquered Galilee and added it to their kingdom. The Galilean Jews were conscious of a mutual descent, religion and ethnicity that they shared with the Judeans. However, there were numerous cultural differences. The Pharisaic scholars of Judaism, centered in Jerusalem and Judea, found the Galileans to be insufficiently concerned about the details of Jewish observance – for example, the rules of Sabbath rest. The Talmud says that Yohanan ben Zakkai, a great Pharisee of the first century, was assigned to a post in Galilee during his training. In eighteen years he was asked only two questions of Jewish law, causing him to lament "O Galilee, O Galilee, in the end you shall be filled with wrongdoers!" The Pharisaic criticism of Galileans is mirrored in the New Testament, in which Galilean religious passion is compared favorably against the minute concerns of Judean legal scholars, see for example Woes of the Pharisees. This was the heart of a "crosstown" rivalry existing between Galileans and Jewish Pharisees. The material culture of the 1st century Galilee indicates adherence to the Jewish ritual purity concerns. Stone vessels are ubiquitous and mikvehs have been uncovered in most Galilean sites, particularly around synagogues and private houses. During the Great Rebellion the Galileans and Idumeans were the most adamant fighters against Rome; they fought the Romans to the death when many Judeans were ready to accept peace terms. Unlike the Judeans and the Idumeans, the Galileans survived until the 1930s in the village of Peki'in, after which the Jews were expelled to Hadera by the Arab riots. Until 500 years ago, Peki'in had a Jewish majority and in Medieval times, Galilean Jews had presence in many villages such as Kafr Yassif, Biriyya, Alma, and more.
Other meanings
Galileans were also the members of a fanatical sect, followers of Judas of Galilee, who fiercely resented the taxation of the Romans, and whose violence contributed to induce the Romans to vow the extermination of the whole Galilean race. Galileans was also term used by some in the Roman Empire to name the followers of Christianity, called in this context as the Galilaean faith. Galilean, as an adjective, describes some aspects of mathematics or astronomy associated with Galileo: see for example Galilean moons and Galilean transformation. Galileans are also a fictional race of living planets in the Ben 10 universe that possess the ability to manipulate gravity. The most notable member of this species is Gravattack.
