Judea
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223414717
2008-07-03T23:45:54Z
The Man in Question
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{{for|the Roman Empire province|Iudaea Province}}
{{Disputed|date=April 2008}}
[[Image:Judea 2 by David Shankbone.jpg|thumb|Hills in the Judean desert.]]
'''Judea''' or '''Judæa''' ([[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]: יהודה, <small>[[Hebrew language#Modern Hebrew|Standard]]</small> ''Yəhuda'' <small>[[Tiberian vocalization|Tiberian]]</small> ''{{Unicode|Yəhûḏāh}}'', "praised, celebrated"; [[Greek language|Greek]]: Ιουδαία, ''Ioudaía''; [[Latin language|Latin]]: ''Iudaea'') is mountainous southern part of the historic [[Land of Israel]] ([[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]: '''ארץ ישראל''' ''[[Eretz Yisrael]]''), an area now divided between [[Israel]] and the [[Palestinian National Authority|Palestinian Authority]], and, in a few geographical definitions of Judea, [[Jordan]].
The name ''Judea'' is a [[Greek (language)|Greek]] and [[Latin (language)|Roman]] adaptation of the name "[[Judah]]", which originally encompassed the territory of tribe of that name and later that ancient [[Kingdom of Judah]]. The area was the site of the [[Hasmonean Kingdom]] and the later [[Kingdom of Judea]], a [[client kingdom]] of the [[Roman Empire]]. 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]] area south of [[Jerusalem]].
==Location and historical boundaries==
[[Image:Judea 1 by David Shankbone.jpg|thumb|left|250px|The Judean hills.]]
The original boundaries were "[[Beth-zur|Bethsûr]]" (near [[Hebron]]), on the south; [[Beth-horon]] (today Beit 'Ur al Fawka on the [[West Bank]]), on the north; [[Latrun]] or Emaüs, on the west (a few miles west of [[Jerusalem]]); the [[Jordan River]] on the east. The classical 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.
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===Geography===
[[Image:Ploughing in Judea.jpg|thumb|275px|A farmer ploughs his fields in Judea, 1913.]]
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 urban areas in the region include Jerusalem, [[Bethlehem]], [[Gush Etzion]] (including [[Beitar Illit]] and [[Efrat]]), [[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]]. 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 [[Terrace (agriculture)|terracing]]. The region dried out over the centuries and much of the ancient tree cover has since disappeared.
==History==
Human settlement in Judea stretches back to the [[Stone Age]] and the region is believed by [[paleoanthropology|paleoanthropologists]] to have been one of the routes through which ''[[Homo sapiens]]'' travelled [[Single-origin hypothesis|out of Africa]] to [[Human migration|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]].
Judea was ruled by the [[Kingdom of Judah]], a [[client kingdom]] of Persia, and later the [[Seleucid]] dynasty of [[Hellenistic Greece|Greece]] who were eventually expelled from the region by [[Judas Maccabeus]]. The Maccabean family established the [[Hasmonean]] dynasty of Kings who ruled in Judea for over a century.
===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 procuratores and later as [[Iudaea Province#The client kingdom of Judea|client kings]]. 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.
===Bar Kochba revolt===
The Jews rebelled again 70 years later under the leadership of [[Bar Kokhba's revolt|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 began using the name "Palastina" to describe all the land of Israel. Until that time the area had been called "province of Judea" by the Romans. 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.
===20th century===
[[Image:Judean Bedouins by David Shankbone.jpg|thumb|right|[[Bedouins]] live in the desert around Judea.]]
Judea later became part of the [[Palestine (mandate)|Mandate for Palestine]], when the territory was split between British-ruled Palestine and the autonomous Emirate of [[Transjordan|Transjordan Palestine]] (a territorial unit within the Mandate, later to become Transjordan, then 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]]. It was annexed by Jordan in [[1950]] (though this annexation was recognized only by the [[United Kingdom]] with the exception of East Jerusalem) 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 denoting that Judea and Samaria are located to the west of the Jordan river, as opposed to most of the territory of Jordan.
==Chronology==
[[Image:Levant 830.svg|thumb|272px|Map of the southern [[Levant]], c.[[830s BCE]].
{{legend|#00ff00|Kingdom of Judah}}
{{legend|#008000|Kingdom of Israel}}
{{legend|#777777|Philistine city-states}}
{{legend|#3000ee|Phoenician states}}
{{legend|#7777ff|Kingdom of Ammon}}
{{legend|#ffff00|Kingdom of Edom}}
{{legend|#007777|Kingdom of Aram-Damascus}}
{{legend|#ffffff|Aramean tribes}}
{{legend|#800080|Arubu tribes}}
{{legend|#804020|Nabatu tribes}}
{{legend|#005fff|Assyrian Empire}}
{{legend|#808040|Kingdom of Moab}}
]]
*[[18th century BCE]]? - [[11th century BCE]] — province in [[Canaan]]
*[[1004 BCE]]? — Jewish conquest
*[[11th century BCE]] - [[930 BCE]] — part of the [[United Monarchy]]
*[[930 BCE]]–[[586 BCE]] — [[Kingdom of Judah]]
*[[586 BCE]] -[[539 BCE]] — [[Babylonian Empire]]
*[[539 BCE]] -[[332 BCE]] — [[Persian Empire]]
*[[332 BCE]] - [[305 BCE]] — [[Alexander the Great|Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great]]
*[[305 BCE]] - [[198 BCE]] — [[Ptolemaic dynasty|Ptolemaics]]
*[[198 BCE]] - [[141 BCE]] — [[Seleucid Empire|Seleucids]]
*[[141 BCE]] - [[37 BCE]] — The [[Hasmoneans|Hasmonean state]] in [[Israel (region)|Israel]] established by the [[Maccabees]], after [[63 BCE]] under [[Roman Empire|Roman supremacy]]
*[[37 BCE]] - [[70]] CE — [[Herodian Dynasty]] ruling Judea under [[Roman Empire|Roman supremacy]] (37 BCE-6 CE, 41-44 CE), interchanging with [[Iudaea province|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]] — Judea renamed [[Syria Palaestina]] by emperor [[Hadrian]]
*[[400]]–[[638]] — Byzantine Christian province
*[[638]] — Muslim rule established
*[[1099]] — The [[First Crusade|Crusaders]] conquer the region
*[[1187]] — Expulsion of the Crusaders from Judea and reassertion of Muslim rule
*[[1516]] — Beginning of [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] rule
*[[1917]] — Defeat of the Ottomans; beginning of British rule
*[[1919]] — Incorporation into the [[Palestine (mandate)|Mandate for Palestine]]
*[[1947]] — [[United Nations]] [[1947 UN Partition Plan|partition plan]] assigns most of Judea to an Arab state or [[corpus separatum]]
*[[1948]] — [[1948 Arab-Israeli War]] leaves much of the area under the [[Occupation of the West Bank by Jordan|control of Jordan]], though Israel controls the [[Shephelah]] and part of the Judean Desert near [[Ein Gedi]]
*[[1967]] — Israel captures Judea in the [[Six-Day War]] and annexes parts of it. The annexation is not recognized by any country.
*[[1995]] — As part of the [[Oslo Accords]], the [[Palestinian Authority]] receives autonomy over much of the Arab population
==External links==
{{Commonscat|Judean Desert}}
* [http://www.dinur.org/1.html?rsID=219 The Jewish History Resource Center] Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
* [http://www.Fsmitha.com/h1/ch17.htm Judea and civil war]
* [http://www.livius.org/ja-jn/jewish_wars/jwar01.htm The subjugation of Judea]
* [http://www.livius.org/jo-jz/judaea/judaea.htm Judaea 6-66 CE]
* [http://www.biblelandpictures.com/gallery/gallery.asp?categoryid=107 Judea photos]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Israel]]
[[Category:Ancient Israel and Judah]]
[[Category:Ancient Jewish Greek history]]
[[Category:Ancient Jewish Roman history]]
[[Category:Regions in Israel]]
[[Category:New Testament places]]
[[Category:Hebrew Bible places]]
[[Category:Geography of Palestine]]
[[Category:Geography of the West Bank]]
[[Category:Historic Jewish communities]]
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