Judea
Coordinates: 31°41′56″N 35°18′23″E / 31.69889°N 35.30639°E
Judea or Judæa (from the Hebrew: יהודה, Standard Yəhuda Tiberian Yəhûḏāh "Tribe of Judah", Greek: Ιουδαία, Ioudaía; Latin: Iudaea) was the name of the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel (Hebrew: ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael) from the 8th century BCE (Assyrian rule) to the 2nd century CE, when Roman Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina following the Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt.
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[edit] Etymology
The name Judea is a Greek and Roman adaptation of the name "Judah", which originally encompassed the territory of the Israelite tribe of that name and later of the ancient Kingdom of Judah. It was the name in use in English throughout history until the Jordanian occupation of the area.[1] Judea was sometimes used as the name for the entire region, including parts beyond Jordan.[2]
Jordan renamed Judea and Samaria ad-difa’a al-gharbiya (translated into English as the "West Bank") after its conquest and occupation of the area in 1948.[1] "Yehuda" is the Hebrew term for this district in modern Israel.[3]
[edit] Historical boundaries
The classical Roman-Jewish historian Josephus wrote: "In the limits of Samaria and Judea lies the village Anuath, which is also named Borceos. This is the northern boundary of Judea. The southern parts of Judea, if they be measured lengthways, are bounded by a village adjoining to the confines of Arabia; the Jews that dwell there call it Jordan. However, its breadth is extended from the river Jordan to Joppa. The city Jerusalem is situated in the very middle; on which account some have, with sagacity enough, called that city the Navel of the country. Nor indeed is Judea destitute of such delights as come from the sea, since its maritime places extend as far as Ptolemais: it was parted into eleven portions, of which the royal city Jerusalem was the supreme, and presided over all the neighboring country, as the head does over the body. As to the other cities that were inferior to it, they presided over their several toparchies; Gophna was the second of those cities, and next to that Acrabatta, after them Thamna, and Lydda, and Emmaus, and Pella, and Idumea, and Engaddi, and Herodium, and Jericho; and after them came Jamnia and Joppa, as presiding over the neighboring people; and besides these there was the region of Gamala, and Gaulonitis, and Batanea, and Trachonitis, which are also parts of the kingdom of Agrippa. This [last] country begins at Mount Libanus, and the fountains of Jordan, and reaches breadthways to the lake of Tiberias; and in length is extended from a village called Arpha, as far as Julias. Its inhabitants are a mixture of Jews and Syrians. And thus have I, with all possible brevity, described the country of Judea, and those that lie round about it."[4]
[edit] Geography
Judea is a mountainous region, part 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, 30 km (19 miles) southwest of Jerusalem, and descending to as much as 400 m (1,312 ft) below sea level in the east of the region. It also varies in rainfall, starting with about 400–500 millimetres (16–20 in) in the western hills, rising to 600 millimetres (24 in) around western Jerusalem (in central Judea), falling back to 400 millimetres (16 in) in eastern Jerusalem and dropping to around 100mm in the eastern parts, due to a rainshadow effect (this is the Judean desert). The climate, accordingly, moves between Mediterranean in the west and desert climate in the east, with a strip of steppe climate in the middle. Major urban areas in the region include Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Gush Etzion, Jericho and Hebron.[5]
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. The hills are distinct for their anticline structure. 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, while the slopes are still layered with centuries-old stone terracing. The Jewish Revolt against the Romans ended in the devastation of vast areas of the Judaean countryside.[6]
[edit] History
[edit] Early Iron Age
By the Early Iron Age, around 1020 BCE, the Southern Levant came to be ruled by the Kingdom of Israel, and its successors, the Northern Kingdom and the Kingdom of Judah. The Northern Kingdom was conquered into the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 720 BCE. The Kingdom of Judah remained nominally independent, but paid tribute to the Assyrian Empire from 715 and throughout the first half of the 7th century, regaining its independence as the Assyrian Empire declined after 640, but after 609 again fell under the sway of imperial rule, this time paying tribute at first to the Egyptians and after 601 BCE to the Neo-Babylonian Empire, until 586 BCE, when it was finally conquered by Babylonia.
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.
[edit] Persian and Hellenistic periods
The Babylonian Empire fell to the conquests of Cyrus the Great in 539 BCE.[7] Judea remained under Persian rule until the conquest of Alexander the Great in 332 BCE, eventually falling under the rule of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire until the revolt of Judas Maccabeus resulted in the Hasmonean dynasty of Kings who ruled in Judea for over a century.[8]
[edit] Roman conquest
Judea lost its independence to the Romans in the 1st century BCE, by becoming first a tributary kingdom, then a province, of the Roman Empire. The Romans had allied themselves to the Maccabees and interfered again in 63 BCE, following the end of the Third Mithridatic War, when general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus stayed behind to make the area secure for Rome. Queen Alexandra Salome had recently died, and a civil war broke out between her sons, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II. Pompeius restored Hyrcanus but political rule passed to the Herodian family, first as procurators and later as client kings. In 6 CE, Judea came under direct Roman rule as the province of Iudaea. Eventually, the Jews rose against Roman rule in 66 CE in a revolt that was unsuccessful. Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 CE and much of the population was killed or enslaved.[9]
[edit] Bar Kokhba revolt
The Jews rebelled again 70 years later under the leadership of Simon bar Kokhba and established the last Kingdom of Israel, which lasted three years, before the Romans managed to conquer the province for good, at a high cost in terms of manpower and expense.
After the defeat of Bar Kokhba (132-135 CE) the Roman Emperor Hadrian was determined to wipe out the identity of Israel-Judah-Judea, and renamed it Philistina (Syria Palaestina, after the ancient enemy of the Israelites; the Philistines). Until that time the area had been called "province of Judea" (Roman Judea) by the Romans.[10] At the same time, he changed the name of the city of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina. The Romans killed many Jews and sold many more into slavery; many Jews departed into the Jewish diaspora, but there was never a complete Jewish abandonment of the area, and Jews have been an important (and sometimes persecuted) minority in Judea since that time.[11]
[edit] Jewish resettlement
The failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt and the subsequent Roman conquest greatly diminished Jewish presence in Judea. Since then, the Jewish population of Judea has fluctuated greatly, with other Jews joining and leaving the ancient local population over time.
Beginning in the late 19th century, Jewish settlement increased within the territory of what is now Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, with Judea (or the territory of the West Bank south of Jerusalem) attracting a growing number of settlements and resulting in growing conflict between Muslim and Jewish residents of the region. Today, much of Judea falls under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, and the presence of Jews in now-Palestinian cities such as Hebron and in other Jewish settlements (under Israeli jurisdiction) is considered controversial.
[edit] See also
[edit] Timeline
- 11th century BCE - 930 BCE — part of the Kingdom of Israel
- 930 BCE–586 BCE — Kingdom of Judah
- 586 BCE -539 BCE — Babylonian Empire
- 539 BCE -332 BCE — Persian Empire
- 332 BCE - 305 BCE — Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great
- 305 BCE - 198 BCE — Ptolemaics
- 198 BCE - 141 BCE — Seleucids
- 141 BCE - 37 BCE — The Hasmonean state in Israel established by the Maccabees, after 63 BCE under Roman supremacy
- 37 BCE - 70 CE — Herodian Dynasty ruling Judea under Roman supremacy (37 BCE-6 CE, 41-44 CE), interchanging with direct Roman rule (6-41, 44-66). This ended in the first Jewish Revolt of 66 - 73, which saw the Temple destroyed in 70.
- 73 — Fall of Masada
- 115–117 — Kitos War
- 132–135 — Bar Kokhba's revolt
- 135 — Emperor Hadrian reverts to the name Syria Palaestina first used by Herodotus.
[edit] References
- ^ a b "This Side of the River Jordan; On Language," Philologos, September 22, 2010, Forward.
- ^ Studies in Palestinian Geography, Prof. S.J. Riggs, Auburn Theological Seminary, 1894, JSTOR The Biblical World
- ^ http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/307117/Judaea Britannica: Judaea]
- ^ Ancient History Sourcebook: Josephus (37- after 93 CE): Galilee, Samaria, and Judea in the First Century CE
- ^ Picturesque Palestine I: Jerusalem, Judah, Ephraim
- ^ Unlikely A Tale of Two Conquests: The Unlikely Numismatic Association Between the Fall of New France (AD 1760) and the Fall of Judaea (AD 70)
- ^ "The Persians". Jewish Virtual Library. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Persians.html. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
- ^ "The Hasmonean Dynasty". Jewish Virtual Library. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Hasmonean.html. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
- ^ "Roman Rule". Jewish Virtual Library. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Romans.html. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
- ^ "The Name "Palestine"". Jewish Virtual Library. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/palname.html. Retrieved 2010-08-16.
- ^ "Shimon Bar-Kokhba". Jewish Virtual Library. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Kokhba.html. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Judean Desert |
- The Jewish History Resource Center Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Judea and civil war
- The subjugation of Judea
- Judaea 6-66 CE
- Judea photos
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