On the "Sea of Galilee" (and the evolution of a Toponym)

In earlier posts I have mentioned the fact that the Society of Biblical Literature has an ICI books initiative that allows people from less economically affluent countries to access many academic books (and the Journal of Biblical Literature archive) for free: 

The site will automatically recognize if you are connecting from a qualifying country, and will give you access to this material if you are. The Journal of Biblical Literature archive up to 2011 is included in those free resources.

R. Steven Notley's article, "The Sea of Galilee: Development of an Early Christian Toponym" the Journal of Biblical Literature in 2009 (JBL 128, no. 1 [2009]: 183–188) is one of those free articles that deals with a topic that is often of interest to Bible translators: Why is the same body of water sometimes referred to as the "Sea of Galilee" and sometimes as the "Lake of Gennesaret" (or by some other name)?

The article addresses philological, historical, and intertextual issues, seeking to show how historical, cultural and theological factors contributed to the early Christian development of the term "Sea of Galilee" based on the interpretation of Isaiah 8:23, among other factors. 

Translation is never simply a matter of historical study and/or linguistic "transfer" and so this article should certainly not be taken as an argument regarding how these expressions must be translated into any particular language. But it is an interesting piece of scholarship on an expression that has challenged translators and should be of interest to anyone interested in the development and evolution of names/words and their possible relationship to particular interpretations of biblical texts.

If you live in one of those qualifying countries you should be able to find the article here:

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