Judaea

Greek and Latin form of Judah, and in the Maccabean era an independent state (1 Macc. 5:45); it sometimes refers to the whole of Palestine, e.g. the territory of Herod the Great (37–4 BCE). In NT times, Herod's son Archelaus ruled as tetrarch over Judaea (4 BCE–6 CE), which did not include Galilee and Perea; but after Archelaus Judaea formed part of the Roman province of Syria, ruled by a Roman prefect or procurator residing in Antioch. Sometimes the NT uses ‘Judaea’ in the broader political sense (e.g. Matt. 19:1) to include Perea, east of the Jordan, bordering on Samaria, and not part of ‘Judaea’ administered by the Romans. (Perea, with Galilee and Samaria, was ruled by Herod Antipas.)