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Bible Dictionaries
Judah (2)
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or JUDAH (Ἰούδα).—Two passages in the Gospels mention ‘Judah’ ( Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885), or ‘Juda’ (Authorized Version), which is orthographically distinct from ‘Judaea’ (Ἰουδαία) as well as geographically smaller. The one is Matthew 2:6 ‘And thou Bethlehem, land of Judah, art in no wise least among the princes of Judah,’ etc., alluding to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ, in the heart of the hill country. The other is Luke 1:39 ‘And Mary arose in these days and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judah’; which also probably alludes to some town in the centre of the hill country, the birthplace of John the Baptist. In the latter passage, however, instead of ἰς πόλιν Ἰούδα, Reland in 1714 (Pal. [Note: Palestine, Palestinian.] p. 870), endorsed by Robinson in 1841 (BRP [Note: RP Biblical Researches in Palestine.] 2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] ii. 206) and others of more recent date, emend to read εἰς πόλιν Ἰούτα, i.e. ‘Juttah’ in lieu of ‘Judah.’ But there is no good philological reason for thinking that the latter is a corruption or softer pronunciation of the former; and, as the context would indicate, the word ‘Judah’ in Luke 1:39 seems to be parallel to the ‘hill country’ of Luke 1:65 (cf. Cheyne, art. ‘Juttah’ in Encyc. Bibl., also Plummer, Int. Crit. Com. ad Luke 1:39). It is, therefore, probably better to treat the passage as a reference to that portion of the hill country of Judah round about Hebron, or to the south of it. Tradition has fixed upon ‘Ain Kârim, a little west of Jerusalem, as the birthplace of John the Baptist. See, further, artt. Judaea, Hill, etc.
George L. Robinson.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Judah (2)'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/j/judah-2.html. 1906-1918.
