This article presents a timeline of the name Judea as a place name for an area in the Levant, based on an incomplete list of notable historical references across the region's various time periods.
Historical references Ancient period c. 740-732 BCE: King Ahaz's seal: "(belonging) to ’Aḥaz (son of) Yehotam, king of Judah" 733 BCE: Nimrud Tablet K.3751 721-705 BCE: Sargon II's Prisms: "Together with the rulers of Philistia, Judah, Edom, Moab, and those who live on islands and bring tribute and tamartu gifts to my lord Ashur-they sent countless evil lies and unseemly speeches with their bribes to Pir'u, king of Egypt-a potentate, incapable to save them-to set him at enmity with me and asked him to be an ally." c. 716-686 BCE: King Hezekiah bulla: "Belonging to Hezekiah, (son of) Ahaz, king of Judah"; 700 BCE: Azekah Inscription: "[Ashur, my lord, support]ed me {Sargon} and to the land of Ju[dah I marched. In] the course of my campaign, the tribute of the k[ings...] the district [of Hezek]iah of Judah..." 690 BCE: Sennacherib's Annals c. 680–669 BCE: Esarhaddon Prism Inscriptions, Prism B, column 5, line 55: "Manasseh (mme-na-si-i), king of Judah (KUR ia-ú-di)" c. 668-627 BCE: Annals of Ashurbanipal, Cylinder C, col. 1, line 25: "Minsê (Manasseh), king of Judah" 600 BCE: Arad ostraca, Ostracon 6: "The king of Judah should know that we are unable to send the..." 595 BCE: Babylonian Chronicles: "Year 7, month Kislimu: The king of Akkad moved his army into Hatti land, laid siege to the city of Judah... and the king took the city on the second day of the month Addaru. He appointed in it a (new) king of his liking, took heavy booty from it and brought it into Babylon." c. 595-570 BCE: Jehoiachin's Rations Tablets: "Ya’u-kīnu, king of the land of Yahudu" (Babylonian "Jehoiakhin, king of Judah"); 586-539 BCE: Yehud (Babylonian province): The Babylonians rendered the name Judah in Aramaic as Yehud and established it as a Babylonian administrative province. 572-477 BCE: Al-Yahudu Tablets: The tablets are named after the central settlement mentioned in the documents, āl Yahudu (Akkadian "The town of Judah"). c. 550-501 BCE: Khirbet Beit Lei graffiti: "Yahweh (is) the God of the whole earth; the mountains of Judah belong to him, to the God of Jerusalem" 550-200 BCE: Yehud stamp impression corpus: Approximately 582 "Yehud" (the Persian designation for Judah) stamp impressions dating to the Persian and Early Hellenistic periods have been identified. 539-332 BCE: Yehud (Persian province): The Persians inherited the name Yehud, the Aramaic equivalent of Judah, as the official designation of the province. 407 BCE: Elephantine Papyrus No. 30: "To our lord Bagohi, governor of Judah, your servants Yedaniah and his colleagues the priests who are in Elephantine the Fortress..." 350-30 BCE: Yehud coinage 300 BCE–100 CE: Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew term יהודה ("Yehudah", Judah/Judea) is attested across at least 74 distinct manuscripts in the extant Dead Sea Scrolls corpus.Based on catalogued search results for occurrences of יהודה in the official archive. 300 BCE: Hecataeus of Abdera: "... But the greater number were driven into what is now called Judaea, which is not far distant from Egypt and was at that time utterly uninhabited." 300 BCE: Clearchus of Soli, De Somno (On Sleep), quoting Aristotle: "These people [Jews] are descended from the Indian philosophers. The philosophers, they say, are in India called Calani, in Syria by the territorial name of Jews; for the district which they inhabit is known as Judaea. Their city has a remarkably odd name: they call it Hierusaleme." 280 BCE: Manetho, History of Egypt (Aegyptiaca): "There, dreading the power of the Assyrians who were at that time masters of Asia, they built in the land now called Judaea a city large enough to hold all those thousands of people, and gave it the name of Jerusalem."Manetho, Aegyptiaca (History of Egypt), fragment quoted in Josephus, Against Apion (1.14.90). Translation by W. G. Waddell (1940), Loeb Classical Library, p. 89. 141-37 BCE: Hasmonean Judea: Independent Jewish state during the Second Temple period. c. 100 BCE-100 CE: Uzziah tablet: "To this place were brought the bones of Uzziah the king of Judah do not open!" 1st-cent. BCE: Alexander Polyhistor: According to Stephanus Byzantius, Alexander Polyhistor states that the name Judaea derives from that of the children of Semiramis, Juda and Idumaea. 37 BCE: Marcus Terentius Varro, Res Rusticae: "Swallows and storks, for instance, which bear in Italy, do not bear in all lands. Surely you are aware that the date-palms of Syria bear fruit in Judea but cannot in Italy."Varro, Res Rusticae, 2.1.27. Translation by W.D. Hooper and H.B. Ash (1934), Loeb Classical Library, p. 331. 20 BCE: Strabo, Historica Hypomnemata: "After this victory Ptolemy overran other territory, and when evening fell, halted in some villages of Judaea, which he found full of women and infants..." 1st-cent. CE: Aramaic Scroll of Antiochus: "…In the twenty-third year of his (Antiochus Eupator) reign, in the two-hundred and thirteenth year of the rebuilding of this, God's house (Temple), he put his face to go up to Jerusalem. He then answered and said to his nobles, 'Do you not know that the Jewish people in Judea, between us, they do not worship our God, nor do they practice our customs, and they leave off from following the king’s religion for their own religion,' etc."The Scroll of Antiochus (Megillath Benei Hashmonai), printed in the Yemenite Baladi-rite prayer book, Sefer Ha-Tiklāl (Tiklal Qadmonim), ed. Yosef Ḥubārah, Jerusalem 1964, pp. 75b–ff. 1st-cent. CE: Pilate stone: "[Po]ntius Pilatus, [Praef]ectus Iuda[ea]e" (Latin "Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judaea"); 1st-cent. CE: Memnon of Heraclea: "And that the Romans crossed the Jonian Sea, and that Perseus the son of Philip, having succeeded to the throne of Macedonia and, because of his youth, having cancelled the agreements made with his father by the Romans, was subdued after Paulus had defeated him; how they won two battles against Antiochus king of Syria, Commagene and Judaea and expelled him from Europe. 43 CE: Pomponius Mela, De situ orbis (Description of the World): "Syria holds a broad expanse of the littoral, as well as lands that extend rather broadly into the interior, and it is designated by different names in different places. For example, it is called Coele, Mesopotamia, Judaea, Commagene, and Sophene." 50–70 CE: Pedanius Dioscorides wrote: "Balanos aurepsike... it grows in Ethiopia, Egypt, Arabia and Petra, a town in Judaea."Dioscorides, Materia Medica (4-160), p. 715 60 CE: Columella, De Re Rustica: "They say that Mysia and Libya produce enormous quantities of grain, but that the fields of Apulia and Campania are not wanting in rich crops; that Tmolus and Corycus are considered famous for the saffron-flower, and Judaea and Arabia for their precious scents..." 61 CE: Lucan, Pharsalia: "Cappadocia fears my standards, and Judea given to an unknown god, and effeminate Sophene, since I subdued Armenia, savage Cilicia, and the Taurus range". 70 CE: Judaea Capta coinage 76 CE: The Jewish War: Josephus describes Judea.Josephus, De Bello Judaico (The Jewish War) III, 51 (The Jewish War 3.3.5) 76 CE: Josephus mentions Coreae, where travelers from the interior cross into Judea. 78 CE: Pliny the Elder: Et hactenus Iudaea est.Naturalis Historia, 5:66–73: "The rest of Judaea is divided into ten toparchies: Emmaus (Emmaum), Lydda (Lyddam), Joppa, Accrabim (Acrebitenam), Jufna (Gophaniticam), Timnath-serah (Thamniticam), Bethleptephenem, Orinen (the Hills), Jerusalem and Herodium." 80 CE: Marcus Valerius Probus, Commentary on Georgics: "Edomite palms from Idumea, that is Judea, which is in the region of Syria Palestine." 92 CE: Josephus writes in his Antiquities: "Arabia is a country that borders on Judea."Josephus, Antiquities XIV.I.4. (14.14) 100 CE: Plutarch, Parallel Lives: "The triumph [of Pompey] was so great, that though it was divided into two days, the time was far from being sufficient for displaying what was prepared to be carried in procession; there remained still enough to adorn another triumph. At the head of the show appeared the titles of the conquered nations; Pontus Armenia, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, Media, Colchis, the Iberians, the Albanians, Syria, Cilicia, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Palestine, Judea, Arabia, the pirates subdued both by sea and land." 100–110 CE: Tacitus, Histories: "Titus Vespasianus had been dispatched by his father from Judea while Galba was still alive."Tacitus, Histories, 2.1. Translation by Clifford H. Moore (1925), Loeb Classical Library, p. 162. 127 CE: Cave of Letters, Document 16, Registration of Land: "...of the village of En-gedi in the district of Jericho in Judaea, domiciled in his own private property..." 128 CE: Cave of Letters, Document 18, Marriage Contract: "...both of the village of En-gedi in Judaea residing here..." 129 or 135 CE: Syria Palæstina was a Roman province between 135 and about 390. It was established by the merge of Roman Syria and Roman Judaea, shortly before or after the Bar Kokhba Revolt. The historical consensus is that the name was changed by Hadrian to erase the Jewish connection to the land as a form of punishment following the rebellion. 150 CE: Ptolemy: "Palestine (Syria) which is also called Ioudaia..."Ptolmey, Geography (Ptolemy) 5.16.1 189 CE: The Mishnah: "Three countries are to be distinguished in what concerns the law of removal [of seventh year produce once the growing season has past]: Judea, beyond Jordan and Galilee."Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi, The Mishnah (ed. Herbert Danby, Oxford University Press: Oxford 1933, s.v. Tractate Sheviit 9:2. 200 CE: Sextus Julius Africanus, cited by Eusebius in Church History 1.7.14, described Nazareth as a village of Judea. The word "Judea" here is used in a wider sense, including the country both east and west of the Jordan river. 211-233 CE: Cassius Dio: "This was the course of events at that time in Palestine; for this is the name that has been given from of old to the whole country extending from Phoenicia to Egypt along the inner sea. They have also another name that they have acquired: the country has been named Judaea, and the people themselves Jews."Cassius Dio, Historiae Romanae, 37.16.5 c. 363-370 CE: Festus, Breviarium: "Lesser Armenia, which belonged to the same king, was conquered by force, the Roman army reached Mesopotamia, an agreement was made with the Parthians, a war was waged against the Cardueni, Saracens and Arabs, the whole of Judaea was conquered, Cilicia and the [various] parts of Syria came under the rule of the Roman people, the kings of Egypt were allies." 365 CE: Aurelius Victor, Epitome de Caesaribus: "Vespasian ruled ten years. [...] Volgeses, King of Parthia, was compelled to peace. The Syria for which Palestina is the name, and Cilicia, and Trachia and Commagene, which today we call Augustophratensis, were added to the provinces. Judaea, too, was added." 370 CE: Eutropius, Breviarium historiae Romanae: "Under him [Vespasian] Judæa was added to the Roman Empire; and Jerusalem, which was a very famous city of Palestine." 392 CE: Epiphanius of Salamis, On Weights and Measures: "So Hadrian passed through the city of Antioch and passed through Coele-Syria and Phoenicia and came to Palestine — which is also called Judea — forty-seven years after the destruction of Jerusalem."Epiphanius’ Treatise on Weights and Measures: The Syriac Version, Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization (SAOC), page 30, line 54c 400 CE: Martianus Capella, De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii: "The next country is Syria, distinguished by many names. For it is called Palaestina where it is adjacent to Arabia, and Judaea and Phoenicia..." 400 CE Claudian, In Eutropium: "Cilicia, Judaea, Sophene, all Rome's labours and Pompey's triumphs, are there to sell."
Middle Ages