Judea

The name given after the return from exile to the southern part of western Palestine. It extended further north than the old kingdom of Judah and included the southern part of Ephraim. Its chief divisions were the (1) Shephelah, or “lowland,” to the west, on the Philistine frontier; (2) the “hill country,” some 35 miles long, and from 14 to 17 miles in breadth, consisting of stony moorland, capable of little cultivation, but broken up by valleys in which the land is fairly fruitful; (3) the Jordan valley and the Dead Sea in the east, and (4) the Negev, or “Dry Land,” in the south. During the time of the Persian supremacy Judea was part of the fifth satrapy of the Empire and was generally administered by a Jewish governor. In New Testament times, after the death of Herod the Great, Judea fell to Archelaus. On his deposition it was added to the Roman province of Syria and was administered by a prefect or procurator who generally lived at Caesarea.