The name Judea is a Greek and Roman adaptation of the name “Judah“, which originally encompassed the territory of the Israelite tribe of that name and later of the ancient Kingdom of Judah.

The name originates from the Hebrew name “Yehudah”, a son of the Jewish patriarch Jacob/Israel, and Yehudah’s progeny forming the biblical Israelite tribe of Judah (Yehudah) and later the associated Kingdom of Judah.

The name of the region continued to be incorporated through the Babylonian conquest, Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman periods as Yehud, Yehud Medinata, Hasmonean Judea, and consequently Herodian Judea and Roman Judea, respectively.

Judea is central to much of the narrative of the Torah, with the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob said to have been buried at Hebron in the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

The term Judea as a geographical term was revived by the Israeli government in the 20th century as part of the Israeli administrative district name Judea and Samaria Area for the territory generally referred to as the West Bank.

Bar Kokhba revolt

Again 70 years later, the Jewish population revolted under the leadership of Simon bar Kokhba and established the last Kingdom of Israel, which lasted three years, before the Romans managed to conquer the province for good, at a high cost in terms of manpower and expense.

After the defeat of Bar Kokhba (132–135 CE) the Roman Emperor Hadrian was determined to wipe out the identity of Israel-Judah-Judea, and renamed it Syria Palaestina. Until that time the area had been called “province of Judea” (Roman Judea) by the Romans.

 At the same time, he changed the name of the city of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina.

The Romans killed many Jews and sold many more into slavery; many Jews departed into the Jewish diaspora, but there was never a complete Jewish abandonment of the area, and Jews have been an important (and sometimes persecuted) minority in Judea since that time.