Biblical Era , c. 830s BCE According to the biblical story of the Patriarchs, Abraham came to the Land of
Canaan as commanded by God and moved around in the hill country (Judaea and Samaria) and the Negev. The country is described as populated by
Canaanites,
Hittites,
Jebusites and other population groups. This pattern continued with his son
Isaac, his son
Jacob and his 12 sons and daughter,
Dina and their families. The
Patriarchs Sarai,
Abraham,
Isaac,
Rebecca and
Jacob were buried at
Hebron in the
Tomb of the Patriarchs. according to
Genesis and
Exodus. After the Conquest of
Joshua the Israelite tribes conquered and lived in most of the land west of the river
Jordan and in the northern part east of that river for close to 400 years. The biblical account in the Books of Kings describes how King
Saul and later King
David and his son
Solomon (
Shlomo) succeeded in fighting the last remnants of non-Israelite populations and unified the tribes into one united monarchy. According to our understanding of the text as well as recent archeological findings, this was to a large degree possible through the Israelite adaption of
Iron Age technologies. Scholarship has been divided as to the historical veracity of the existence and extension of a kingdom that unified Judea and Samaria, but archeological excavations of the last 30 years have time and again found solid evidence that confirms the bibilcal descriptions. Regardless, the Northern Kingdom was conquered by the
Neo-Assyrian Empire in 720 BCE and parts of the population of the 10 northern tribes exiled. The northern Kingdom of Judah remained nominally independent, but paid tribute to the Assyrian Empire from 715 and throughout the first half of the 7th century BCE, regaining its independence as the Assyrian Empire declined after 640 BCE, but after 609 again fell under the sway of imperial rule, this time paying tribute at first to the Egyptians and after 601 BCE to the
Neo-Babylonian Empire, until 586 BCE, when it was finally conquered by Babylonia, the temple in Jerusalem destroyed and many of the inhabitants of Judea exiled to Babylonia.
Persian and Hellenistic periods The Babylonian Empire fell to the conquests of
Cyrus the Great in 539 BCE. Judea remained under Persian rule until the conquest of
Alexander the Great in 332 BCE, eventually falling under the rule of the
Hellenistic Seleucid Empire until the revolt of
Judas Maccabeus resulted in the
Hasmonean dynasty of kings who ruled in Judea for over a century.
Early Roman period Judea lost its independence to the Romans in the 1st century BCE, becoming first a
tributary kingdom, then a
province, of the Roman Empire. The Romans had allied themselves to the
Maccabees and interfered in 63 BCE, at the end of the
Third Mithridatic War, when the
proconsul Pompey ("Pompey the Great") stayed behind to make the area secure for Rome, including his
siege of Jerusalem in 63 BCE. Queen
Salome Alexandra had recently died, and a civil war broke out between her sons,
Hyrcanus II and
Aristobulus II. Pompeius restored Hyrcanus, but political rule soon passed to the
Herodian dynasty, who ruled as
client kings. In 6 CE, Judea came under direct Roman rule as the southern part of the province of
Judaea, although Jews living there still maintained some form of independence and could judge offenders by their own laws, including capital offences, until c. 28 CE. The Hashmonean kingdom, after Pompey's conquest, was divided in 57 BCE by Gabinius, the governor of Syria, into five administrative districts (
synedria or
toparchies), as mentioned by Josephus, later on the region of historical Judaea proper being further divided; the exact number of Judaean districts (in the end ten or eleven according to Josephus and
Pliny) and their location is disputed,
Schürer amending the ancient authors' list as follows: Jerusalem in the centre, later becoming the district of Orine ("Orine Judaea", 'mountainous [region of] Judaea');
Gophna,
Akrabatta north of it;
Thamna and
Lydda to the northwest;
Emmaus (possibly future
Nicopolis/Imwas, although other towns in the region also bore that name) to the west;
Bethleptepha (rather than Josephus'
Pella) to the southwest;
Idumaea to the south;
Engaddi and
Herodeion to the southeast; and
Jericho to the east. Schürer dismisses Pliny's listing of "Jopica" (
Joppa) and Josephus' of Pella, as these were, in his opinion, independent cities not included in Judaea proper. Other regions outside Judaea proper, which had belonged to the Hasmonean and Herodian kingdoms and came under Roman dominance and then direct rule, remained or became also split into districts with regional capitals, these being
Galilee (with the capital at
Sepphoris and later
Tiberias), and
Perea in
Transjordan (with
Amathus); however, a district administered from a certain
Gadara is also mentioned, which can be in three different locations - either in Perea (at or near
Al-Salt), in the
Decapolis at
Umm Qais, or - which is relevant for Judaea - at biblical
Gezer in the foothills of the Judaean Mountains, mentioned by Josephus under a Hellenised form of its Semitic name, Gadara, edited to "Gazara" in the
Loeb edition).
Jewish–Roman wars and Late Roman period First Jewish–Roman War In 66 CE, the Jewish population
rose against Roman rule in a revolt that was unsuccessful. Jerusalem was
besieged in 70 CE. The city was razed, the
Second Temple was destroyed, and much of the population was killed or enslaved.
Bar Kokhba revolt In 132 CE, the
Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136 CE) broke out. After an initial string of victories, rebel leader
Simeon Bar Kokhba was able to form an independent Jewish state that lasted several years and included most of the district of Judea, including the Judean Mountains, the Judean Desert, and northern Negev desert, but probably not other sections of the country.
Aftermath When the Romans finally put an end to the uprising, most of the Jews in Judea were killed or displaced, and a sizable number of captives were sold into slavery, leaving the district mostly depopulated. Jews were expelled from the area surrounding Jerusalem. No village in the district of Judea whose remains have been excavated so far has not been destroyed during the revolt. Roman emperor
Hadrian, determined to root out Jewish nationalism, changed the name of the province from
Judaea to
Syria Palaestina. The province's Jewish population was now mainly concentrated in Galilee, the
coastal plain (especially in
Lydda,
Joppa, and
Caesarea), and smaller Jewish communities continued to live in the
Beit She'an Valley, the
Carmel, and Judea's northern and southern frontiers, including the southern
Hebron Hills and along the shores of the Dead Sea. The suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt led to widespread destruction and displacement throughout Judea, and the district saw a decline in population. The Roman colony of
Aelia Capitolina, which was built on the ruins of Jerusalem, remained a backwater for the duration of its existence. This also initiated a process of romanization that took place during the Late Roman period, with pagan populations penetrating the region and settling alongside Roman veterans. Palaestina Prima consisted of Judea, Samaria, the
Paralia, and
Peraea with the governor residing in
Caesarea. Palaestina Secunda consisted of Galilee, the lower
Jezreel Valley, the regions east of Galilee, and the western part of the former
Decapolis with the seat of government at
Scythopolis. Palaestina Tertia included the
Negev, southern Jordan—once part of Arabia—and most of
Sinai, with
Petra as the usual residence of the governor. Palestina Tertia was also known as Palaestina Salutaris. According to historian H.H. Ben-Sasson, this reorganisation took place under
Diocletian (284–305), although other scholars suggest this change occurred later, in 390.
Crusader period The mostly French army of the First
Crusade conquered Jerusalem from the
Seljuks in 1099 and expanded the territory they held in the following years. According to Ellenblum, the Franks tended to settle in the southern half of the region between Jerusalem and Nablus since there was a sizable Christian population there.
Mamluk period Most of the people living in the northern portion of Judea in the late 16th century were Muslims; some of them resided in towns that today have significant Christian populations. According to the 1596–1597 Ottoman census,
Birzeit and
Jifna, for instance, were wholly Muslim villages, while
Taybeh had 63 Muslim families and 23 Christian families. There were 71 Christian families and 9 Muslim families in
Ramallah, although the Christians there were recent arrivals who had moved from the
Kerak area only a few years previously. According to Ehrlich, the region's Christian population decreased as a result of a combination of factors including impoverishment, oppression, marginalization, and persecution.
Sufi activity took place in Jerusalem and the surrounding area, which most likely pushed Christian villagers in the region to convert to Islam. ==Timeline==