JUDYEA AND JUDEA. Ezra employs the Chaldee word Yehz2d, (= Heb. ri-nri+), to denote the whole country in which the Jews settled after the return from captivity (Ezra v. ; Sept. 'Iotlaa, Yudav); and he calls it the pro vince of Judea' (K.Firlp ; 77p, 'Iovacticu, x6 pav ; yvarreanz Proviziciam). baniel uses the word in the same sense, to denote the land of the Jews generally (ch. 25 ; and v. 13, where it is ren dered in our A. V. both Yzielah and 2ozory). In Arabic the word Yehtid, 0.:_1„, is applied excld.
sively to the Jews as a people.
In the time of Daniel and Ezra this word had no definite and well understood geographical signi fication. It was the name given by foreigners to the country which was considered the home of the Jews. Its cnigin is easily traced. When the people were divided under Rehoboam, ten tribes chose Jeroboam for their king, and called his kingdom Israel ;l the two tribes who held by Rehoboam called their kingdom yudah,' because it was mainly made up of the people and possessions of that powerful tribe (r Kings xii. 2o, 23, 27). This kingdom, being so closely connected with the tribe, will be treated of in the Art. JUDAH. The kingdom of Israel was overthrown by the Assyrians in B.C. 721 ; Judah survived it 133 years. During this period the name Judah' became identified with the Jewish nation, and, atnong foreigners, with the whole country in which thcy dwelt, that is, with all Palestine. By the Jews themselves, a distinction was made between Judah and Samaria, but among strangers it was over looked. Hence, during the captivity the name Yehad (11M), or Judea,' as it is in the English version, was applied in Babylon to the whole of Palestine. And after the captivity, though a con siderable portion of the Ten Tribes' returned with the others, and though many of them settled in their ancient country (Ezra i.5 ; x. 5 ; r Chron. ix. 3 ; Neh. vii. 73 ; see Prideaux, Connection, i. 128), yet thc name Judah, or Judea, continued to be applied to all Palestine, and more especially that section west of the Jordan (Joseph. Antiq. xi. 5. 7). The whole province over which the Persian. satrap ruled was called Judah' (r111M ; Hag. i. 1, 14 ; ii. 2 ; cf. Esther viii. 9 ; Herodot. 91).
These facts will account for the somewhat vague manner in which the Greek word 'IotiSata, yzeda'a, is used by Josephus, by classic authors, and even in a few places by the writers of the N. T. Thus Josephus says, Canaan inhabited the country now called Yudeea, and called it from his own name Canaan ' (Antiq. i. 6. 2). In another place he speaks of Judzea beyond Jordan ' (ri)s 'Iouoatar. vr-gpco, 'Iop5civov ; Antiq. xii. 4. ; Reland, Pal., p. 32), which is identical with that expression in Matthew about which thcre has been so much controversy—cJesus departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of yudeta beyond yordan' (re, lipta rijr 'IouSatas repay TOO qopocivov, Matt. xix. 1). Ptolemy begins one of his chapters, Syrian Palestine, which is also called yudaa res nal 'Iov Sala KaXitrat, v. 16); and Luke, in Acts xxviii. 21, evidently puts Juthea' for Palestine (see Reland, PP. 35, 47, etc., where other examples are cited).
Before the commencement of our era, Palestine was divided into three distinct provinces—Galilee, Samaria, and .7zidEa (John iv. 3-5 ; Rclancl, pp. 177, seq. ; Strabo, xvi. 2. 34, seq., p. 759) ; and of these divisions Josephus gives a detailed account Yzed. iii. 3). Juda lay on the South, and extended from the Jordan and Dead Sea on the east, to the Mediterranean on the west ; and from about the parallel of Shiloh on the north, to the wilderness on the south ; and also included, appa rently, a strip of coast running as far north as Ptolemais (Josephus, /. c.) This was the province usually meant by the term `71a-bra' in the N. 'I'. (Luke v. ; Matt. iv. 25 ; John iv. 47, 54, etc.); but sometimes the word is used in a wider sense. Thus, in Luke i. 5, Herod is called king of Judxa ; that is, the general name Juckea is given to his whole kingdom, which included all Palestine both east and west of the Jordan (Joseph. Antiq. xvii. 8. 1, seq.) Josephus also says that part of Idumea was embraced in Judma (Bell. jud. iii. 3. 5). The southern part of Palestine, between Hebron, Beer sheba, and Gaza, was then called Idumea Hnu mEn], and thus formed part of the proper province of Judoca.