Judea
Judea or Judaea (/dʒuːˈdiːə, dʒuːˈdeɪə/;[1] Hebrew: יהודה, Modern: Yəhūda, Tiberian: Yehūḏā; Greek: Ἰουδαία, Ioudaía; Latin: Iudaea) is a mountainous region of the Levant. Traditionally dominated by the city of Jerusalem, it is now part of Palestine and Israel. The name's usage is historic, having been used in antiquity and still into the present day; it originates from Yehudah, a Hebrew name. Yehudah was a son of Jacob, who was later given the name "Israel" and whose sons collectively headed the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Yehudah's progeny among the Israelites formed the Tribe of Judah, with whom the Kingdom of Judah is associated. Related nomenclature continued to be used under the rule of the Babylonians (the Yehud province), the Persians (the Yehud province), the Greeks (the Hasmonean Kingdom), and the Romans (the Herodian Kingdom and the Judaea province).[2] Under the Hasmoneans, the Herodians, and the Romans, the term was applied to an area larger than the historical region of Judea. In 132 CE, the Roman province of Judaea was merged with Galilee to form the enlarged province of Syria Palaestina.[3][4][5]
"Judaea" redirects here. For the Roman province, see Judaea (Roman province).
Judea
יְהוּדָה
The term Judea was revived by the Israeli government in the 20th century, as part of the Israeli administrative district name "Judea and Samaria Area" for the territory that is generally referred to as the West Bank.[6]
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. Nimrud Tablet K.3751, dated c. 733 BCE, is the earliest known record of the name Judah (written in Assyrian cuneiform as Yaudaya or KUR.ia-ú-da-a-a).
Judea was sometimes used as the name for the entire region, including parts beyond the river Jordan.[7] In 200 CE Sextus Julius Africanus, cited by Eusebius (Church History 1.7.14), described "Nazara" (Nazareth) as a village in Judea.[8] The King James Version of the Bible refers to the region as "Jewry".[9]
"Judea" was a name used by English speakers for the hilly internal part of Mandatory Palestine until the Jordanian rule of the area in 1948. For example, the borders of the two states to be established according to the UN's 1947 partition scheme[10] were officially described using the terms "Judea" and "Samaria" and in its reports to the League of Nations Mandatory Committee, as in 1937, the geographical terms employed were "Samaria and Judea".[11] Jordan called the area ad-difa'a al-gharbiya (translated into English as the "West Bank").[12] "Yehuda" is the Hebrew term used for the area in modern Israel since the region was captured and occupied by Israel in 1967.[13]
Narrative of the biblical patriarchs
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.