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Iturea orIturaea (Ancient Greek:Ἰτουραία,Itouraía) is theGreek name of aLevantine region north ofGalilee during theLate Hellenistic andearly Roman periods. It extended fromMount Lebanon across the plain of Marsyas[dubious –discuss] to theAnti-Lebanon Mountains in Syria, with its centre inChalcis ad Libanum.[1]
The Itureans (Greek:Ἰτουραῖοι) were a semi-nomadic tribe who became sedentarized in the Hellenistic period.[2] The exact origin of the Itureans is disputed. Most scholars identified them asArabs,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] while some believed that they wereAramaean people.[11][12]
They first rose to power in the aftermath of the decline of theSeleucids in the 2nd century BC. Then, from their base around Mount Lebanon and theBeqaa Valley, they expanded into the northern Golan and Mount Hermon, as part of the settlement shift that occurred as a result of the collapse of the Seleucid empire,[13] though no evidence of Iturean settlement or "phase" of settlement appears in the Galilee, including Upper Galilee.[14][15][16]
Several etymologies have been proposed for the nameIturea and much uncertainty still remains.
Based on theSeptuagint translation of 1Ch 5:19 several commentators, includingGesenius,John Gill andWilliam Muir equated the Itureans with Jetur, one of the formerHagrite encampments, named after a son ofIshmael.[17] Later scholars who propose a late origin for the Biblical texts continued to equate the names but viewed the writers of the Bible as basing the Biblical name on that of the Itureans of later centuries.[18] More recent scholars have dismissed such direct relationships between the Biblical Jetur and the Itureans: The account of the Hagrites places Jetur east ofGilead and describes the end of that tribe which was conquered by the Israelites in the days ofSaul, whereas Iturea has been confirmed to be north ofGalilee and the Itureans first appear in theHellenistic period with their location only being referred to as Iturea in the Roman period. Although Jetur is translatedItouraion (Ιτουραιων) in 1Ch 5:19, the rendering of the name is not consistent across the Septuagint with the occurrences in Ge 25:15 and 1Ch 1:31 being transliteratedIetour (Ιετουρ) andIettour (Ιεττουρ) respectively. The translationItouraion in 1Ch 5:19 (if not an error) would thus be a reinterpretation by the translator of the name of this ancient tribe as referring to a contemporary people. Moreover, in Josephus where both names are mentioned, Jetur (Ιετουρ-) is rendered differently in Greek to Iturea (Ιτουρ-). Similarly in the Vulgate the two localities have different Latin names (Iathur for Jetur andItureae for Iturea) showing that writers of antiquity did not view the names as the same.[19]Eupolemus used the term Itureans to refer to people from the Biblical region ofAram-Zobah, not Jetur, when describing the wars ofKing David.
Smith's Bible Dictionary attempted to equate the modern Arabic region nameJedur (جدور) with both Jetur and Iturea. However, the Arabicj (ج) corresponds to Hebrewg (ג) and noty (י), and Arabicd (د) does not correspond to Hebrewṭ (ט) or Greekt (τ) and the mainstream view is that Jedur is instead the BiblicalGedor (גדור).
David Urquhart linked the Itureans withAturea a name for the region of Nineveh, a variant ofAssyria, suggesting that the Itureans were originally Assyrians, also implying a connection with theDruze living in the region in his time. (The name "Druze" is howeverunrelated to "Iturean".)[20]
Ernest Axel Knauf relatedIturea to the Safaitic nameYaẓur (יט׳ור, يظور) which is renderedYaṭur (יטור) in Nabatean Aramaic. Before being established as the name of a people (Al-Yaẓur orYaṭureans), this name is found as a personal name, in particular that of a Nabatean prince with a brotherZabud whose name may be connected with that of the Zabadaeans, another Nabatean tribe who together with the Itureans had been conquered by the Hasmoneans.Yaẓur in Safaitic inscriptions is seemingly a cognate of the Biblical name Jetur (Yeṭur, יטור) and is possibly derived from its original form. If this is the case then BiblicalJetur would indirectly be the origin of the nameIturea although denoting a different region and people centuries before.[21][22] Whether the names are indeed related hinges on their original meanings. The Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon suggests that Jetur means "enclosure" related to the personal nameṬur (טור) and the wordṭirah (טירה) denoting an encampment and explicitly used for the Ishmaelite encampments. This would contradict their being a connection withYaẓur as in Arabic which like Safaitic preserves the distinction between theẓ (ظ) andṭ (ط) sounds, this root is found withṭ and notẓ. Thus if the Itureans derived their name from Jetur, the people known as theYaẓur in Safaitic inscriptions would have been a different people, possibly only a small family group, while if the Itureans derived their name fromYaẓur there would be no connection with Jetur.
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary however suggests that Jetur means "order; succession; mountainous". A connection with "mountain" (more precisely "rock fortress") may refer to the Hebrew wordṣur (צור), a root which survives in Arabicẓar (ظر) meaning "flint", the soundẓ (ظ) having becomeṣ (צ) in Hebrew. The spellingYeṭur (יטור) would thus be the result of an Aramaic spelling convention in which theẓ is represented byṭet (ט) rather than its true Hebrew reflexṣadi (צ). If this meaning is correct, then a linguistic connection between the names Jetur andYaẓur remains a possibility, however no occurrence of an Aramaic spelling of this nature in the Hebrew Bible is known even for names in the Aramaic and Arabic realms and the expected Hebrew spelling would beYaṣur (יצור). The rootṭur (טור) having a basic meaning of row, line or fence (hence "order; succession"), also refers to a mountain range thus also providing a connection with "mountain".
A further phonetic complication exists in equating the name Iturea with either Jetur orYaẓur.Yaẓur as a personal name is consistently found asIatour- (Ιατουρ-) in Greek inscriptions. InIatour- the initial Greek iota (Ι) is consonantal representing the initialy sound ofYaẓur. Similarly, in the transliterationsIetour- (Ιετουρ) andIettour ((Ιεττουρ)) for Jetur in the Septuagint, the iota represents an originaly - the Hebrew letteryod (י). However, inItour- the iota is a vowel suggesting that it represents ani vowel in the original Semitic name rather than the consonanty. An initial iota may also be used for the syllableyi, however such a reading ofItour- (Ιτουρ-) does not produce a meaningful form and no tradition of pronouncing it as such exists. As a vowel is always preceded by a consonant in Semitic words, the initial consonant would have been one of the four guttural consonants dropped in Greek transliteration (א,ה,ח,ע). This contradicts derivations from either Jetur orYaẓur and is the basis of several alternative etymologies proposed byJohn Lightfoot.
Lightfoot considered a possible derivation from the root for "ten" (I.e.`-s-r, עשר) based on identification of Iturea withDecapolis ("ten cities"). However he does not provide a grammatical form that would be vocalized asItour- and ultimately dismisses this possibility as it involves an unattested sound change ofs (ש) intot (ט). Decapolis is also a distinct region to Iturea.
Lightfoot also considered derivations from proposed terms whose meanings he gives as "wealth" (hittur, i.e. היתור) and "diggings" (chitture, i.e. חתורי) He favored the derivation fromchitture noting the descriptions of the landscape. Derivations fromhittur orchitture are problematic however. The Semitictav (ת) is normally transliterated by theta (θ) in Greek, not tau (τ). Additionally, although the consonantshe (ה) andchet (ח) are dropped in Greek transliteration, they survive as arough breathing provided to the initial vowel and are transliterated by "h" in Latin. However no tradition of a rough breathing in the pronunciation ofItour- exists nor is Iturea ever given an initial h in Latin. A further difficulty is that while the roots of these two words are known, the forms which Lightfoot has used are conjectural.
Lightfoot also proposed a derivation from`iṭur (עטור) meaning "crowning" (or "decoration") Unlike his other proposals, this word is well attested and remains a plausible derivation as it would be transliterated asItour- (Ιτουρ) in Greek. Regarding this possibility, Lightfoot notes familiarly of the notion of a country crowned with plenty in Talmudic writings.[23] However the name was first an ethnonym before becoming a toponym, and in theJosippon the Iturean nation is referred to as'iṭuraios (איטוריאוס) in Hebrew rendered with analeph (א) not anayin (ע) showing that Jewish tradition, at least as preserved by the writer of the Josippon, did not view the name as being related to`iṭur (עטור) meaning "crowning".
In theSyriacPeshittas which are the texts closest in time to the period in which the tetrarchy of Iturea existed that provide a Semitic form of the name, it is called'iṭuriya' (ܐܝܛܘܪܝܐ) rendered with an initialalap andyodh (ܐܝ). This may arise from either an initial'i syllable or initialyi syllable in earlier Hebrew or Aramaic. As the latter does not produce a meaningful form it suggests that the original syllable is'i indicating an initialaleph (א) in the original. This accords with the usage ofaleph in the Josippon and suggests that the original Semitic form of the name was'iṭur (איטור or אטור) or'iẓur (איט׳ור or אט׳ור). The latter would share a common root with Hebrewṣur (צור) however the use of aṭ (ט) not anṣ (צ) in the Josippon indicates that the word was not understood as such by the author and indeed no grammatical form that would be vocalized as'iẓur is known for this root. The former possibility'iṭur (איטור or אטור) is the noun form of the known word'iṭer (אטר) meaning "bound" or "shut up" in Hebrew[24] ultimately sharing a common etymology with the wordṭirah (טירה) used for an encampment. A Nabatean personal name written'i-ṭ-r-w (אטרו) based on one or the other of these roots is attested.[25] In Aramaic however the base wordṭur (טור) is used particularly for a line of mountains rather than a boundary of an encampment and the understanding of the name Itureans in Syriac is "mountain dwellers" according with the location of their settlement being the Mount Lebanon region.[26]
In 105 BC,Aristobulus I campaigned against Iturea, and added a great part of it to Judea, annexing the Galilee to theHasmonean kingdom. Josephus cites a passage fromTimagenes excerpted byStrabo which recounts that Aristobulus was:
'very serviceable to the Jews, for he added a country to them, and obtained a part of the nation of the Itureans for them, and bound to them by the bond of thecircumcision of their genitals.[27][28]
Whether the Hasmoneanscircumcised the Itureans and other populations against their will is uncertain: Strabo asserts that they simply created a confederation with such tribes based on the common bond of circumcision, which may be more plausible, though their policy appears to have been one of aggressive Judaizing.[29]
The Iturean kingdom appears to have had its centre in the kingdom ofPtolemy, son ofMennaeus (Mennæus), whose residence was atChalcis(?) and who reigned 85-40 BC. Ptolemy was succeeded by his sonLysanias, called byDio Cassius (xlix. 32) "king of the Itureans." About 23 BC, Iturea with the adjacent provinces fell into the hands of a chief namedZenodorus (Josephus,l.c. xv. 10, § 1;idem,B. J. i. 20, § 4). Three years later, at the death of Zenodorus,Augustus gave Iturea toHerod the Great, who in turn bequeathed it to his sonPhilip (Josephus,Ant. xv. 10, § 3). The Iturean kings minted a series of bronze coins depicting mostly Greco-Roman deities.[30]
The area and the Itureans are mentioned only once in theNew Testament, inLuke 3, but are frequently described by pagan writers such asStrabo,Pliny the Elder, and Cicero. The Jewish writerJosephus also described them. They were known to theRomans as a predatory people,[31] and were appreciated by them for their great skill in archery.[32] They played a notable role in the defense of Jerusalem. A branch of the Itureans were allegedly conquered by the Hasmonean kingAristobulus I (r. 104 to 103 BC) and, according to Josephus, forcibly converted to Judaism.[33][34]
ManyChristian theologians, among them Eusebius,[35] taking into consideration the above-cited passage of Luke, place Iturea nearTrachonitis. According to Josephus, the Iturean kingdom lay north ofGalilee. That Itureans dwelt in the region of Mount Lebanon is confirmed by an inscription of about the year 6 AD (Ephemeris Epigraphica, 1881, pp. 537–542), in whichQuintus Aemilius Secundus relates that he was sent byQuirinius against the Itureans in Mount Lebanon. In 38Caligula gave Iturea to a certainSoemus, who is called by Dio Cassius (lix. 12) and byTacitus (Annals, xii. 23) "king of the Itureans." After the death of Soemus (49) his kingdom was incorporated into the province ofSyria (Tacitus,l.c.). After this incorporation the Itureans furnished soldiers for the Roman army; and the designationsAla I Augusta Ituraeorum andCohors I Augusta Ituraeorum are met with in the inscriptions (Ephemeris Epigraphica, 1884, p. 194).
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906)."Iturea".The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.