Judea
For the Roman Empire province, see Iudaea Province.Judea or
Judaea (י"ו"" "Praise",
Standard Hebrew ,
Tiberian Hebrew ) (
Greek:
Ιουδαία), (
Latin:
Iudaea) is a term used for the mountainous southern part of the historic
Land of Israel (
Hebrew: ארץ ישראל
Eretz Yisrael), an area now divided between
Israel and the
West Bank, and, in a few geographical definitions of Judea,
Jordan.
In modern times, the name "Yehudah" may be used by Hebrew speakers to refer to a large southern section of Israel and the West Bank, or in the combined term
Judea and Samaria to refer specifically to the
West Bank.
The area was the site of the ancient
Kingdom of Judah and the later
Kingdom of Judea, a client-kingdom of the
Roman Empire. The name
Judea is a Greek and Roman adaptation of the name
Judah and was originally applied to the whole of historic Palestine, but by the time of the
New Testament it had been limited in scope to the south of the region.
The original boundaries were "Bethsûr" (near
Hebron), on the south; Bethoron (today Beit Ur al Fawka in the West Bank), on the north; Emaüs, on the west (a few miles west of
Jerusalem); the
Jordan River on the east.
The historian
Josephus used a more expanded definition, encompassing the lower half of what is now the
West Bank in the north down to
Beer Sheba in the south, and bordered on the east and west by the Mediterranean and the Jordan river.
Judea is a mountainous and arid region, much of which is considered to be a
desert. It varies greatly in height, rising to an altitude of 1,020 m (3,346 ft) in the south at
Mount Hebron, 19 miles (30 km) southwest of
Jerusalem, and descending to as much as 400 m (1,312ft)
below sea level in the east of the region. Major cities in the region include Jerusalem,
Beitar Illit,
Bethlehem,
Efrata,
Gush Etzion,
Jericho and
Hebron.
Geographers divide Judea into several distinct regions: the Hebron hills, the Jerusalem saddle, the Bethel hills and the Judean desert east of Jerusalem, which descends in a series of steps to the
Dead Sea. In ancient times the hills were forested and the
Bible records agriculture and sheep farming being practiced in the area. Animals are still grazed today, with shepherds moving them between the low ground to the hilltops (which have more rainfall) as summer approaches. The region dried out over the centuries and much of the ancient tree cover has since disappeared.
Human settlement in Judea stretches back to the
Stone Age and the region is believed by
paleoanthropologists to have been one of the routes through which
homo sapiens travelled
out of Africa to
colonise the rest of the world around 100,000 years ago. Archaeological evidence of human settlement dates back 11,000 years in the case of the city of
Jericho, believed to be the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the world. In historic times, the region was inhabited by a number of peoples, most famously the
Israelites. Judea is central to much of the narrative of the
Torah, with the
Patriarchs Abraham,
Isaac and
Jacob said to have been buried at
Hebron in the
Tomb of the Patriarchs.
In historic times, Judea was ruled by the
Kingdom of Judah and later by the Kingdom of Judea, a client-kingdom of the
Seleucid dynasty of
Persia. During the
1st century BCE, the Romans crushed the independent kingdom of Judea.
After the failed rebellion of
Bar Kokhba in the Second Century CE, the Roman Emperor Hadrian determined to wipe out the identity of Israel-Judah-Judea. Why? Because their belief in only one G-d was not parallel with their religion. Thus, he made sure that it will be forgotten from the face of history that the Jews ever existed and began using the name Palastina on all the land of Israel. At the same time, he changed the name of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina. The Romans killed many Jews and sold many more in slavery. Some of those who survived still alive and free left the devastated country, but there was never a complete abandonment of the Land. There was never a time when there were not Jews and Jewish communities, though the size and conditions of those communities fluctuated greatly.
It later became part of the
British Mandate of Palestine, with the territory of Judea split between British-ruled Palestine and the autonomous Emirate of
Transjordan (a territorial unit within the Mandate, later to become the independent Kingdom of
Jordan). Jordan became independent in
1946, and the
United Nations formed a plan to partition the remaining British mandate of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states in
1947. Jordan captured most of the Arab Palestinian partition following the
1948 Arab-Israeli War, leaving only the Jewish partition under British mandate. It was annexed by Jordan in
1950 (though this annexation was recognized only by the
United Kingdom and
Pakistan) and remained part of Jordan until the
1967 Six-Day War, when it was taken by Israeli forces. This part of Judea is now generally known outside Israel as the West Bank - a name given to it by Jordan after 1948 which denotes that Judea and Samaria are located to the west of the Jordan river, as opposed to most of the territory of Jordan.
Chronology
*until
63 BCE - independent Jewish state
*
63 BCE-
6 CE -
client kingdom of Rome
*
6-
41 -
Roman province*
26-
36 -
procurator Pontius Pilatus*
41-
44 - ruling of
Herod Agrippa (client king)
*
44-
48 -
Roman province Iudaea*
48-
100 - ruling of
Herod Agrippa II (client king)
*
66-
73 -
First Jewish-Roman War*
70 - Destruction of the Second Temple and fall of Jerusalem
*
73 - Fall of Masada
*
100 onwards - Roman province Iudea
*
115-
117 -
Kitos War*
132-
135 -
Bar Kokhba's revolt*
135 - Judea renamed
Syria Palaestina by emperor
Hadrian*
400-
638 - Byzantian Christian province
*
1099 - The
Crusaders conquer the region
*
1291 - Defeat of the Crusaders and reassertion of Muslim rule
*
1516 - Beginning of
Ottoman rule
*
1917 - Defeat of the Ottomans; beginning of British rule
*
1919 - Incorporation into the
British Mandate of Palestine*
1946 - Separation and independence of Trans-Jordan from the Mandate
*
1947 -
United Nations partition plan for the remaining territory of Palestine
*
1948 - Historic Judea is captured by Trans-Jordan, the entire country is renamed into Jordan
*
1967 - Historic Judea is captured by Israel
*
The Jewish History Resource Center Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
*
Judea and civil war*
The subjugation of Judea*
Judaea 6-66 CE
