Judea or Judæa (Greek Greek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical ancient Greek literature and the New Testament of: Ιουδαία, Ioudaía; Latin Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. With the Roman conquest, Latin was spread to countries around the Mediterranean, including a large part of Europe. Romance languages such as Aragonese, Corsican, Catalan, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Sardinian, Spanish and others, are descended from Latin, while: Iudaea, from the Hebrew Extinct as a regularly spoken language by the 4th century CE, but survived as a liturgical and literary language; revived in the 1880s: יהודה, Standard Extinct as a regularly spoken language by the 4th century CE, but survived as a liturgical and literary language; revived in the 1880s Yəhuda Tiberian Tiberian Hebrew designates the extinct canonical pronunciation of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh and related documents. This traditional medieval pronunciation was committed to writing by Masoretic scholars based in the Jewish community of Tiberias in the period ca. 750-950 CE. This written form employed diacritics added to the Hebrew letters: vowel Yəhûḏāh "Tribe of Judah According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Judah was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel") is the name given to the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel The Land of Israel is, according to the Hebrew Bible, the region which was promised by God to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abraham's grandson. This land forms part of the Abrahamic, Jacob and Israel covenants. Mainstream Jewish tradition regards the promise as applying to all Jews (Hebrew Extinct as a regularly spoken language by the 4th century CE, but survived as a liturgical and literary language; revived in the 1880s: ארץ ישראל‎ Eretz Yisrael The Land of Israel is, according to the Hebrew Bible, the region which was promised by their God to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abraham's grandson. This land, also called the Land of Canaan, constitutes the Promised Land and forms part of the Abrahamic, Jacob and Israel covenants) during the period of Classical Antiquity Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world. It is the period in which Greek and Roman literature (such as Aeschylus, Ovid, Homer and others) flourished, from roughly the 8th century BCE (Assyrian The Neo-Assyrian Empire was a period of Mesopotamian history which began in 934 BC and ended in 608 BC. During this period, Assyria assumed a position as possibly the most powerful nation on earth, and vying with Babylonia and other lesser powers for dominance of the region, though not until the reforms of Tiglath-Pileser III in the 8th century BC, rule) to the 2nd century CE, when Roman Judea was renamed to Syria Palaestina The Levant is defined as the geographical region bordering the Mediterranean, roughly between Egypt and Anatolia . The southern Levant is therefore roughly the same area as that occupied by the modern states of Israel (including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) and Jordan. These terms are used by archaeologists, to avoid taking a modern geo- following Bar Kokhba's revolt The Bar Kokhba revolt (Hebrew: מרד בר כוכבא‎ or mered bar kokhba) against the Roman Empire was the third major rebellion by the Jews of Iudaea Province (also spelled Judaea) and the last of the Jewish-Roman Wars. Simon bar Kokhba, the commander of the revolt, was acclaimed as a Messiah, a heroic figure who could restore Israel. The.

For the period of the 2nd century to 1948, the region was known as Palestine Palestine (Greek: Παλαιστίνη, Palaistinē; Latin: Palaestina; the Hebrew name Peleshet ; also פלשׂתינה, Palestina; Arabic: فلسطين‎Filasṭīn, Falasṭīn, Filisṭīn) is a conventional name used, among others, to describe a geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands, and was ruled by various colonial powers. For four centuries prior to 1917, the area was contained in the large Ottoman The Ottoman Empire was a regime that lasted from 1299 to 1923 province of Syria. After the end of the British Mandate for Palestine in 1948, the area was divided according to the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine or United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 Future Government of Palestine was a resolution adopted by the General Assembly. It was approved by a vote of 33 to 13, with 10 abstentions on November 29, 1947. The resolution recommended the division of the British Mandate of Palestine into two, between Israel Israel , officially the State of Israel (Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל (help·info), Medīnat Yisrā'el; Arabic: دَوْلَةُ إِسْرَائِيلَ‎, Dawlat Isrā'īl), is a country in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the and the West Bank The West Bank is a landlocked territory and is the eastern part of the Palestinian territories; on the west bank of the Jordan River in the Middle East. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the country of Jordan. The West Bank also contains a significant (itself today partly under Palestinian Authority The Palestinian National Authority is the administrative organization established to govern parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip administration and Israeli military rule) which remains the object of the Arab–Israeli conflict to the present day.

Etymology

The name Judea is a Greek Greek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical ancient Greek literature and the New Testament of and Roman Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. With the Roman conquest, Latin was spread to countries around the Mediterranean, including a large part of Europe. Romance languages such as Aragonese, Corsican, Catalan, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Sardinian, Spanish and others, are descended from Latin, while adaptation of the name "Judah According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Judah was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel", which originally encompassed the territory of the Israelite The term "Israelites" means both a people, the descendants of the patriarch Jacob/Israel, and those who worship the god of the people Israel, regardless of ethnic origin. In the biblical history an Israelite can be: (a) a descendant of the patriarch Jacob; (b) a member of the holy and inclusive community of those who follow the God of tribe of that name and later of the ancient Kingdom of Judah The Kingdom of Judah existed at two periods in Jewish history. According to the Hebrew Bible, a kingdom emerged in Judah after the death of Saul, when the tribe of Judah elevated David, who came from the Tribe of Judah, to rule over it. After seven years David became king of a reunited Kingdom of Israel, and David moved the capital from Hebron to.

In modern times, Jordan Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in Western Asia. It borders Saudi Arabia to the southeast, Iraq to the east, Syria to the north, Palestine and Israel to the west, sharing control of the Dead Sea. Jordan's only port is at its southern tip, at the Red Sea's Gulf of Aqaba, which it shares with Israel, Egypt, and renamed Judea and Samaria Judea and Samaria Area is the official Israeli term roughly corresponding to the territory usually known outside Israel as the West Bank. Jordan occupied the territory and annexed it in 1950. The area was captured from Jordan by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, and was considered an occupied territory in an advisory opinion by the International the West Bank. The name "Yehudah" may be used by Hebrew speakers to refer to a large southern section of Israel and the occupied territories^[1] (disputed by Israel). The combined term Judea and Samaria Judea and Samaria Area is the official Israeli term roughly corresponding to the territory usually known outside Israel as the West Bank. Jordan occupied the territory and annexed it in 1950. The area was captured from Jordan by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, and was considered an occupied territory in an advisory opinion by the International, refers to land alternatively called the West Bank The West Bank is a landlocked territory and is the eastern part of the Palestinian territories; on the west bank of the Jordan River in the Middle East. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the country of Jordan. The West Bank also contains a significant.

Location and historical boundaries

The original boundaries were "Bethsûr" (near Hebron Hebron (Arabic: الخليل al-Ḫalīl or al Khalīl; Hebrew: חֶבְרוֹן (help·info), Standard Hebrew: Ḥevron, Tiberian Hebrew: Ḥeḇrôn), is the largest city in the West Bank, apart from East Jerusalem. It is located in the southern West Bank, 30 kilometers south of Jerusalem. It is home to some 163,146 Palestinians, and more than 50), on the south; Beth-horon (today Beit 'Ur al Fawka on the West Bank The West Bank is a landlocked territory and is the eastern part of the Palestinian territories; on the west bank of the Jordan River in the Middle East. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the country of Jordan. The West Bank also contains a significant), on the north; Latrun or Emaüs, on the west (22 kilometres west of Jerusalem Jerusalem (Hebrew: יְרוּשָׁלַיִם‎ (help·info), Yerushaláyim (for the meaning, see below); Arabic: القُدس (audio) (help·info), al-Quds Sharif, lit. "The Holy Sanctuary"; Yiddish: ירושלים Yərusholáyəm)[ii] is the capital[iii] of Israel and, if including the area and population of East Jerusalem, its); the Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan (British English) (Hebrew: נהר הירדן nehar hayarden, Arabic: نهر الأردن‎ nahr al-urdun) is a river in Southwest Asia flowing to the Dead Sea. In Judaism, the river serves as the eastern border of the "Eretz Yisra'el", the Land of Israel. In Christian tradition, Jesus was baptized here on the east. The classical historian Josephus Josephus , also Yosef Ben Matityahu (Joseph son of Matthias) and Titus Flavius Josephus was a first-century Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded first century Jewish history, such as the First Jewish–Roman War which resulted in the Destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD used a more expanded definition, encompassing the lower half of what is now the West Bank The West Bank is a landlocked territory and is the eastern part of the Palestinian territories; on the west bank of the Jordan River in the Middle East. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the country of Jordan. The West Bank also contains a significant in the north down to Beer Sheba in the south, and bordered on the east and west by the Mediterranean and the Jordan river.^{[citation needed]}

Judea is a mountainous region, part of which is considered to be a desert A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Deserts are defined as areas with an average annual precipitation of less than 250 millimetres per year, or as areas where more water is lost by evapotranspiration than falls as precipitation. In the Köppen. 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 Jerusalem (Hebrew: יְרוּשָׁלַיִם‎ (help·info), Yerushaláyim (for the meaning, see below); Arabic: القُدس (audio) (help·info), al-Quds Sharif, lit. "The Holy Sanctuary"; Yiddish: ירושלים Yərusholáyəm)[ii] is the capital[iii] of Israel and, if including the area and population of East Jerusalem, its, 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 (tnis is the Judean desert). The climate, accordingly, moves between Mediterranean A Mediterranean climate is the climate typical of most of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin. Worldwide, this is where the largest area of this climate type is found. Beyond the Mediterranean area, this climatic type prevails in much of California, in parts of Western and South Australia, in southwestern South Africa and in parts of central in the west and desert climate Under the Koppen climate classification, a Desert climate , also known as an arid climate, is a climate where temperatures are moderate and rainfall is too low to sustain any vegetation at all, or at best a very scanty scrub. Areas featuring this climate are usually deserts. An area that features this climate usually (but not always) experiences in the east, with a strip of steppe climate in the middle. Major urban areas in the region include Jerusalem, Bethlehem Bethlehem (Arabic: بَيْتِ لَحْمٍ‎, Bayt Laḥm , lit "House of Meat"; Hebrew: בֵּית לֶחֶם‎, Beit Lehem, lit "House of Bread;" Greek: Βηθλεέμ Bethleém) is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank, approximately 10 kilometers (6 mi) south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people, Gush Etzion Gush Etzion refers to a group of Jewish villages established from the 1920s south of Jerusalem on the northern part of Mount Hebron in the southern West Bank, and destroyed during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War: Kfar Etzion, Massu'ot, Ein Tzurim and Revadim. The first three were aligned with the religious orthodox, and Revadim was aligned with (including Beitar Illit and Efrat Efrat , or officially Efrata (Hebrew: אֶפְרָתָה‎), is an Israeli settlement and a local council in the Judean Mountains of the West Bank, located south of Jerusalem, between Bethlehem and Hebron. Efrat was established in 1980. It had 8,000 residents at the end of 2007 according to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Although it is), Jericho Jericho (Arabic: أريحا‎ Ārīḥā [ʔæˈriːħɑː] ); Hebrew: יְרִיחוֹ‎ Yəriḥo [jeʁiˈħo] ( listen) is a city located near the Jordan River in the West Bank of the Palestinian Territories. It is the capital of the Jericho Governorate, and has a population of over 20,000 Palestinians. Situated well below sea level on an and Hebron Hebron (Arabic: الخليل al-Ḫalīl or al Khalīl; Hebrew: חֶבְרוֹן (help·info), Standard Hebrew: Ḥevron, Tiberian Hebrew: Ḥeḇrôn), is the largest city in the West Bank, apart from East Jerusalem. It is located in the southern West Bank, 30 kilometers south of Jerusalem. It is home to some 163,146 Palestinians, and more than 50.^{[citation needed]}

Geographers divide Judea into several distinct regions: the Hebron hills, the Jerusalem saddle, the Bethel Bethel was a border city described in the Hebrew Bible as being located between Benjamin and Ephraim. Eusebius of Caesarea and Jerome describe it in their time as a small village that lay 12 Roman miles north of Jerusalem, to the right or east of the road leading to Neapolis hills and the Judean desert east of Jerusalem, which descends in a series of steps to the Dead Sea The Dead Sea , also called the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east, and Israel and the West Bank to the west. Its surface and shores are 422 metres (1,385 ft) below sea level, the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface on dry land. The Dead Sea is 378 m (1,240 ft) deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world. It is also one. The hills are distinct for their anticline In structural geology, an anticline is a fold that is convex up and has its oldest beds at its core. The term is not to be confused with antiform, which is a purely descriptive term for any fold that is convex up. Therefore if age relationships between various strata are unknown, the term antiform must be used structure. In ancient times the hills were forested, and the Bible The Bible refers to collections of sacred scripture of Judaism and Christianity. There is no single version: both the individual books and their order vary. The Hebrew Bible contains 39 books, while Christian Bibles range from the 66 books of the Protestant canon to 81 books in the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible. The oldest surviving Christian Bibles 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 In agriculture, a terrace is a leveled section of a hill cultivated area, designed as a method of soil conservation to slow or prevent the rapid surface runoff of irrigation water. Often such land is formed into multiple terraces, giving a stepped appearance. The human landscapes of rice cultivation in terraces that follow the natural contours of. The region dried out over the centuries and much of the ancient tree cover has since disappeared.^{[citation needed]}

History

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.

Persian and Hellenistic periods

The Babylonian Empire fell to the conquests of Cyrus the Great in 539 BCE.^[2] 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. ^[3]

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. ^[4]

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 (after the ancient enemy of the Israelites; the Philistines). 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, and Jews have been an important (and sometimes persecuted) minority in Judea since that time. ^[5]

Jewish resettlement and religious conflict

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 provocative.

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.

References

1. ^ "Illegal Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory". International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). 13 November 1997. http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/iwpList74/EEF46E1646C74F3DC1256B66005AEB38. Retrieved 2010-01-11.
2. ^ "The Persians". Jewish Virtual Library. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Persians.html. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
3. ^ "The Hasmonean Dynasty". Jewish Virtual Library. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Hasmonean.html. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
4. ^ "Roman Rule". Jewish Virtual Library. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Romans.html. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
5. ^ "Shimon Bar-Kokhba". Jewish Virtual Library. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Kokhba.html. Retrieved 2009-06-09.

External links

• 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

Categories: West Bank | Judea and Samaria | Archaeological sites in Israel | Ancient Israel and Judah | Ancient Jewish Greek history | Ancient Jewish Roman history | Regions of Israel | New Testament places | Hebrew Bible places | Geography of Palestine | Geography of the West Bank | Historic Jewish communities | Deserts of Israel

See Also:

• Judea: Encyclopedia
• Tetrarchy (Judea): Encyclopedia

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