First:
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 11.3: 3 Οἵα ἐστὶν ἡ ψυχὴ ἡ ἕτοιμος, ἐὰν ἤδη ἀπολυθῆναι δέῃ τοῦ σώματος καὶ ἤτοι σβεσθῆναι ἢ σκεδασθῆναι ἢ συμμεῖναι. τὸ δὲ ἕτοιμον τοῦτο ἵνα ἀπὸ ἰδικῆς κρίσεως ἔρχηται, μὴ κατὰ ψιλὴν παράταξιν ὡς οἱ Χριστιανοί, ἀλλὰ λελογισμένως καὶ σεμνῶς καὶ ὥστε καὶ ἄλλον πεῖσαι, ἀτραγῴδως. / 3 What a soul that is which is ready, if at any moment it must be separated from the body, and ready either to be extinguished or dispersed or continue to exist; but so that this readiness comes from a man's own judgement, not from mere obstinacy, as with the Christians, but considerately and with dignity and in a way to persuade another, without tragic show.
Epictetus refers to the habitual and foolish fearlessness displayed by Galileans, Aurelius to the obstinacy of Christians faced with death. The two groups sound similar in this regard; are they the same? Were Christians already being called Galileans in century II?
Second:
John Malalas, Chronicle 11.5: 5 While the emperor Trajan was spending time in Antioch in Syria making plans in connection with the war, Tiberianus, the governor of the people of First Palestine sent him the following message, "To the victorious Imperator, Caesar, the most sacred Trajan. I have grown weary punishing and killing the Galileans who belong to the belief of those known as Christians, in accordance with your decrees [ἀπέκαμον τιμωρούμενος καὶ φονεύων τοὺς Γαλιλαίους τοὺς τοῦ δόγματος τῶν λεγομένων Χριστιανῶν κατὰ τὰ ὑμέτερα θεσπίσματα]. And they will not stop incriminating themselves in order to be put to death. So have worked very hard, advising them and threatening them not to be so bold in betraying themselves to me as adherents of the belief mentioned above. But they will not give up being persecuted. Be pleased therefore to issue as a decree to me whatever solution presents itself to Your Triumphant Majesty". Trajan ordered him to stop killing the Christians. Likewise he gave this order to governors everywhere, not in the future to kill those known as Christians. And there came about a small respite for the Christians.
John Malalas, Chronicle 12.35: 35 After the reign of Carus, Numerian Augustus reigned for two years. He was tall, slender, with straight hair, a long face, delicate features, a good beard, greying hair, a good nose, good eyes and dark skin. During his reign there was a great persecution of Christians. Among them St George the Cappadocian and St Babylas were martyred; the latter was the bishop of Antioch the Great. The emperor Numerian arrived there as he was setting out to fight the Persians. Wishing to observe the sacred mysteries of the Christians, he resolved to go into the holy church where the Christians used to gather to see what the mysteries were which they were performing, because he had heard that the Galileans performed their liturgies in secret [ἀκούσας ὅτι κρυπτόμενοι τελοῦσι τὰς λειτουργίας αὐτῶν οἱ αὐτοὶ Γαλιλαῖοι]. When he drew near he was suddenly met by Saint Babylas, who stopped him, saying to him, "You are still contaminated by the sacrifices you have made to idols and I will not allow you to see the mysteries of the living God". The emperor Numerian was angry with him and put him to death immediately. Then he left Antioch and began a campaign against the Persians. When he joined battle, the Persians attacked him and destroyed the larger part of his force, and he fled to the city of Carrhae. The Persians besieged him, took him prisoner and killed him immediately. Then they flayed his skin and made it into a bag, which they pickled with myrrh and kept for their own glory; the remainder of his troops they butchered. The emperor Numerian died at the age of 36.
John Malalas, Chronicle 13.2: 2 In the time of his reign a great war broke out in the West. The most, sacred Constantine went out against the barbarians, but was defeated and encircled by them. In his distress, when he was on the point of sleep, he prayed that he might be rescued from them. Overcome by sleep he saw in a dream a cross in the sky on which was inscribed, "In this, conquer". After reading the inscription on the cross, he awoke. He got up and made a standard showing the cross, just as he had seen it in the sky, and had it carried before him. After urging on his army, saying, "Victory is ours", he set out and joined battle with the barbarians. He won the battle so completely that none of the barbarians survived but all perished. He returned to Rome victorious amidst great joy, with the standard of the cross carried before him. He explained to everyone the meaning of the vision and of the standard of the cross, saying, "This is the sign of the God of the Galileans who are known as Christians" [τοῦτο τὸ σημεῖόν ἐστι τοῦ θεοῦ τῶν Γαλιλαίων τῶν λεγομένων Χριστιανῶν]. Immediately he destroyed the temples and all the shrines of the Hellenes and opened up the Christian churches, sending imperial edicts everywhere that the churches of the Christians should be opened. After fasting and having taken instruction, he was baptised by Silvester, bishop of Rome - he himself and his mother Helena and all his relatives and his friends and a whole host of other Romans. And so the emperor Constantine became a Christian.
Malalas is late, late, late. Surely there can be nothing to any of this, can there?
Also in century II, the Montanists were being called Phrygians and Pepuzians, based on their purported place of origin, so calling a sect by a geographical name at this time is not so odd if there is indeed a connection between Christianity and Galilee, which surely there must be, at least on some level:
Mark 16.7: 7 "But go, tell His disciples and Peter, 'He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He said to you.'"
Mercenaries and rebels who joined southern causes from Galilee were often identified by their place of origin. David A. Fiensy and James Riley Strange mention "one of bar Kokhba's letters" on page 96 of Galilee in the Late Second Temple and Mishnaic Periods, a letter "written in Greek to one of his commanders, Yeshua ben Galgoula: 'I call the heavens over me as witness: Should harm co[me] to any one of the Galileans who are with you, I will put fetters to your feet as I di[d] to ben Aflul.'" So were deviant religious figures:
And one of the gospels has this:
What if a group of Christian cultists from Galilee were identified in other places, especially in Judea, as (potentially troublemaking) Galileans very early on, and this is why the gospels take care to explain that Christianity originated in Galilee geographically? The alternative was that people would think that Christians were Galileans because they were stubborn or deviant in some way.
Matthew 26.69 says that Peter was betrayed at the fire by his accent, but the parallel in Mark lacks the bit about the accent:
Maybe the identification grew in steps: at first the sect was, as a whole, identified with Galilee, and was not cast in a positive light thereby. The tendency thereafter was to specify that individual early Christians, including Peter, most of the disciples, and of course Jesus himself, hailed from Galilee, simply as a matter of geographical accident. This would be intended to explain the name "Galilean" while avoiding some of the pejorative connotations of that tag.
But of course none of this is viable if Christians were not called Galileans very early on.
What do you think?
Ben.