Judea

Judea in Smiths Bible Dictionary (from Judah), a territorial division which succeeded to the overthrow of the ancient landmarks of the tribes of Israel and Judah in their respective captivities. The word first occurs Da 5:13 Authorized Version "Jewry," and the first mention of the "province of Judea" is in the book of Ezra, Ezr 5:8 It is alluded to in Ne 11:3 (Authorized Version "Judah"). In the apocryphal books the word "province" is dropped, and throughout them and the New Testament the expressions are "the land of Judea," "Judea." In a wide and more improper sense, the term Judea was sometimes extended to the whole country of the Canaanites, its ancient inhabitants; and even in the Gospels we read of the coasts of Judea "beyond Jordan." Mt 19:1; Mr 10:1 Judea was, in strict language, the name of the third district, West of the Jordan and south of Samaria. It was made a portion of the Roman province of Syria upon the deposition of Archelaus, the ethnarch of Judea, in A.D. 6, and was governed by a procurator, who was subject to the governor of Syria.
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Judea
Region. Judea was the Greek and Latin form of 'Judah', 1 Macc. 6:12; 1 Macc. 10:38; thus we have the Hasmonean kingdom of which Judah was the nucleus, and the kingdom of Herod the Great, Luke 1:5; but also, geographically, the land of Judah (southern Israel), Matt. 2:1. Upon the death of Herod, Judea (with Samaria) became kingdom of Archelaus, 4 BC-AD 6 Matt. 2:22, after which it was placed under Roman administration through procurators (Luke 3:1).

Judea was the name of the southernmost Roman division of Palestine. Judea is very small, apart from the Shephelah and the plain, Judea was 55 miles long, from Bethlehem to Beersheba, and from 25 to 30 miles wide, about 1,350 square miles, and nearly one-half was desert. On the E was the Jordan and its valley, and on the W, the desert, then the "hill country," then the Shephelah (or low hills), and, finally, the maritime plain. On the N Judea was bounded by Samaria and on the S by the desert.

Authorities say that the three features of Judea's geography that are most significant in her history are "her pastoral character, her neighborhood to the desert, her singular unsuitableness for the growth of a great city" (Smith).

Although physically the most barren and awkward, Judea was morally the most famous and powerful of the provinces of Syria. Her character and history are thus summed up: "At all times in which the powers of spiritual initiative or expansion were needed, she was lacking, and so in the end came her shame. But when the times required concentration, indifference to the world, loyalty to the past, and passionate patriotism, then Judea took the lead, or stood alone in Israel, and these virtues even rendered brilliant the hopeless, insane struggles of her end. Judea was the seat of the one enduring dynasty of Israel, the site of their temple, the platform of their chief prophets. After their great exile they rallied round her capital, and centuries later they expended upon her fortresses the last efforts of their freedom. It is, therefore, not wonderful that they should have won from it the name which is now more frequent than either their ancestral designation of Hebrews or their sacred title of Israel" (Smith, Hist. Geog., pp. 259-60).

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Judea in Bible Cities
More about Ancient Judea

Israel in the First Century

More About Ancient Judea

Judea Scriptures

Ezra 5:8 - Be it known unto the king, that we went into the province of Judea, to the house of the great God, which is builded with great stones, and timber is laid in the walls, and this work goeth fast on, and prospereth in their hands.    

Luke 3:1 - Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, 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 2:4 - And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) 

2 Corinthians 1:16 - And to pass by you into Macedonia, and to come again out of Macedonia unto you, and of you to be brought on my way towardJudaea. 

Acts 28:21 - And they said unto him, We neither received letters out of Judaea concerning thee, neither any of the brethren that came shewed or spake any harm of thee. 

Matthew 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: 

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 Judaeaand Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases; 

Acts 8:1 - And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. 

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 Judaea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was [present] to heal them. 

Acts 9:31 - Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied. 

Luke 1:5 - There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife [was] of the daughters of Aaron, and her name [was] Elisabeth. 

Matthew 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, 

Mark 10:1 - And he arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Judaea 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 Judaea flee to the mountains: 

Acts 1:8 - But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in allJudaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. 

Acts 26:20 - But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and [then] to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance. 

Acts 2:14 - But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all [ye] that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: 

Acts 12:19 - And when Herod had sought for him, and found him not, he examined the keepers, and commanded that [they] should be put to death. And he went down from Judaea to Caesarea, and [there] abode. 

1 Thessalonians 2:14 - For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they [have] of the Jews: 

Matthew 19:1 - And it came to pass, [that] when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaeabeyond Jordan; 

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 Judaea. 

Acts 2:9 - Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, 

Matthew 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. 

Mark 1:5 - And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. 

Luke 21:21 - Then let them which are in Judaea 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. 

John 4:47 - When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea 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. 

Acts 10:37 - That word, [I say], ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; 

Acts 11:29 - Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea: 

Mark 3:7 - But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea: and a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judaea, 

John 3:22 - After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized. 

John 7:3 - His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest.