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Bible Dictionaries
Judea
Smith's Bible Dictionary
or Jude'a. (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 in Daniel 5:13, Authorized Version "Jewry," and the first mention of the "province of Judea" is in the book of Ezra, Ezra 5:8. It is alluded to in Nehemiah 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." Matthew 19:1; Mark 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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Smith, William, Dr. Entry for 'Judea'. Smith's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/sbd/j/judea.html. 1901.
