Bible Encyclopedias
Juttah; Jutah

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

jut´a , jōō´ta ( יטּה , yuṭṭāh , Joshua 21:16; Septuagint Τανύ , Tanú ; and in Joshua 15:55 the King James Version, Septuagint Ἰτάν , Itán , A, Iettá ); jōō´ta , jū´ta ( יוּטה , yāṭāh , Joshua 15:55 ): A town in the hill country of Judah, mentioned with Maon, Carmel and Ziph; a Levitical city (Joshua 21:16 ). In some versions of Septuagint it occurs (Ἰοτά , Iotá ) in 1 Chronicles 6:57 . In the Eusebius, Onomasticon (266 49; 133 10) a large village called "Juttah" is described as 18 Roman miles from Eleutheropolis. This agrees with the position of Yuṭṭā , a large and prosperous Moslem village, 3,740 ft. above sea-level, 5 1/3 miles South of Hebron and 15 1/2 miles from Beit Jebrı̄n (Eleutheropolis). There are many rock-cut tombs and ancient winepresses all around the village.

Reland ( Pal , 870) suggested (and many others have followed him) that the πόλις Ἰούδα , pólis Ioúda , translated "city of Judah," in Luke 1:39 , should be pólis Ioúda , "the city Yuta." The translation "city of Judah" is suspicious, because Iouda is without the article, which is usually put before the name of a district; the interchange of "t " and "d " is a very common one. Dr. Paterson, resident many years in Hebron, states that there is a local Moslem tradition in the district that Yuṭṭā was the home of John the Baptist. For Yuṭṭā see PEF , III, 310, Sh XXI .