region

Judea

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History

Judea is the Greek and Latin form of Judah, the name of the southern kingdom and then of the province around Jerusalem. Its core is the hill country from Bethel south to Hebron and Beersheba, about 1,000 m high at Hebron, with the wilderness of Judea falling east to the Dead Sea and the Shephelah sloping west to the Philistine plain; Luke speaks of the hill country of Judea. Under the Persians it was the small province of Yehud, "the province of Judea" of Ezra, with its own governors and coins; after the Maccabees it grew into the Hasmonean kingdom, and the Romans used the name both for the Jewish heartland and for the whole land they governed from Caesarea.

Pompey took Jerusalem in 63 BC. Herod the Great, in whose days Jesus was born "in Bethlehem of Judaea", ruled from 37 to 4 BC; his son Archelaus "did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod", so Joseph turned aside into Galilee. In AD 6 Augustus deposed Archelaus and made Judea a Roman province under prefects, among them Pontius Pilate (26–36), whose name was found on a stone at Caesarea in 1961. Agrippa I was king from 41 to 44; after him procurators ruled until the revolt of 66, which ended with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 and the fall of Masada.

John the Baptist preached "in the wilderness of Judaea", and all the land of Judea went out to him. Jesus taught in Judea as in Galilee, though for a time "he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him", and his disciples feared his return there. He was crucified under Pilate, and his last command sent witnesses to Jerusalem, to all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth. After Stephen's death the believers were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria; Paul was unknown by face to the churches of Judea, and Antioch sent them relief in a famine.

After the revolt of Bar Kokhba (132–135) Hadrian renamed the province Syria Palaestina and rebuilt Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina. The Judean desert kept the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were hidden, found from 1947. Today the Judean hills are mostly in the West Bank, with Bethlehem and most of Hebron under Palestinian administration and Israeli military control, while the western slopes and the Judean lowland lie in Israel; Israel calls the area Judea and Samaria.

Scripture: Ezra 5:8; Neh 11:3; Matt 2:1; Matt 2:5–6; Matt 2:22; Matt 3:1; Matt 24:16; Mark 1:5; Luke 1:5; Luke 1:65; Luke 3:1; Luke 23:5; John 3:22; John 7:1; John 11:7–8; Acts 1:8; Acts 8:1; Acts 9:31; Acts 11:29; Acts 12:19; Gal 1:22; 1 Thess 2:14

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (52)

Matt 2:1

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,

Matt 2:5

And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet,

Matt 2:22

But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee:

Matt 3:1

In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,

Matt 3:5

Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,

Matt 4:12

Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;

Matt 4:25

And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.

Matt 19:1

And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan;

Matt 24:16

Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

Mark 1:5

And there went out unto him all the land of Judæa, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.

Mark 3:7

But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea: and a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judæa,

Mark 10:1

And he arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Judæa by the farther side of Jordan: and the people resort unto him again; and, as he was wont, he taught them again.

Mark 13:14

But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judæa flee to the mountains:

Luke 1:5

There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judæa, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.

Luke 1:39

And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda;

Luke 1:65

And fear came on all that dwelt round about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judæa.

Luke 2:4

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judæa, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

Luke 3:1

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judæa, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene,

Luke 4:44

And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.

Luke 5:17

And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judæa, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.

Luke 6:17

And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judæa and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases;

Luke 7:17

And this rumour of him went forth throughout all Judæa, and throughout all the region round about.

Luke 21:21

Then let them which are in Judæa flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.

Luke 23:5

And they were the more fierce, saying, He stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place.

Luke 23:51

(The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathæa, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God.

John 3:22

After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judæa; and there he tarried with them, and baptized.

John 4:3

He left Judæa, and departed again into Galilee.

John 4:47

When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judæa into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death.

John 4:54

This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judæa into Galilee.

John 7:1

After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him.

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King James Version