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Bible Dictionaries
Ituraea
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or ITURÆA [the name is probably derived from Jetur , who is mentioned in Genesis 25:15 and 1 Chronicles 1:31 as a son of Ishmael], with Trachonitis, constituted the tetrarchy of Philip ( Luke 3:1 ). But whether ‘Ituræa’ is employed by the Evangelist as a noun or an adjective is a disputed point. Ramsay contends ( Expositor , Jan., Feb., Apr., 1894) that no Greek writer prior to Eusebius in the 4th cent. a.d. ever uses it as the name of a country. The Ituræans as a people were well known to classical writers. According to Cicero ( Philipp . ii. 112), they were a ‘predatory people’; according to Cæsar ( Bell. Afr . 20), they were ‘skilful archers’; according to Strabo (xvi. ii. 10 etc.), they were ‘lawless.’ They seem to have migrated originally from the desert to the vicinity of Southern Lebanon and CÅ“le-Syria. Both Strabo and Josephus ( Ant . XIII. xi. 3) locate them in these parts. The Romans probably caused them to retreat towards the desert again shortly before the Christian era. Lysanias the son of Ptolemy is called by Dio Cassius (xlix. 32) ‘king of the Ituræans.’ He was put to death by Mark Antony in b.c. 34. Zenodorus his successor died in b.c. 20, whereupon a part of his territory fell into the hands of Herod the Great; and when Herod’s kingdom was divided, it became the possession of Philip (Jos. [Note: Josephus.] Ant . XV. x. 3). Whether Ituræa and Trachonitis overlapped (as Ramsay thinks), or were two distinct districts (as Strabo), is uncertain; G. A. Smith in his art. ‘Ituræa’ in Hastings’ DB [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] is non-committal. The passage in Luke seems to favour a distinct and definite district, which was probably somewhere N.E. of the Sea of Galilee.
George L. Robinson.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Ituraea'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/i/ituraea.html. 1909.
