Idumea

The Idumeans are an ancient people that before the Christian era populated in recent centuries a region south of Judea. Of the Jews, the Idumeans were identified with the Edomites. Whether this identification is correct, is unclear. The settlement area was in any case by the Greeks Idumea (Greek Ἰδουμαία ( Idoumaía ); Latin Idumea or Idumea ), called the population accordingly Idumeans.

The Idumeans appear in the 6th century BC to the west of the original settlement area of Edom, in the same time the Nabataeans occur. Whether the Nabateans displaced the previously resident Edomites / Idumeans or Edomites are the descendants of the Nabateans and later Idumeans secession, is unclear.

The area Idumea according to the redrawing of Pompey the Great did not extend from Bethlehem in the north to Beersheba in the south and from the Dead Sea in the east to the coastal plain, but all the way to the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The capital was Marissa.

History

After the report of Josephus they were subjected in the reign of John Hyrcanus I. Hasmonäerkönigs and forcibly converted to Judaism. The contrary wrote Strabo, the Idumeans would Nabataeans, so have been Arabs who separated due to a tribal quarrel of the Nabateans, is located west of them and have largely adopted in the wake habits and customs of the Jews. So we can doubt the violent nature of the conversion. It seems rather that the military part of the annexation Idumea under the Hasmoneans mainly to the highly Hellenized cities Marissa (presumably birthplace of Herod the Great) and Dora limited.

Was for the view that the conversion of the Idumeans to Judaism and the inclusion Idumea in the area of Judea essentially been a violent act, speaks especially that in the reorganization of Palestine by Pompey in 63 BC, conquered by the Hasmoneans non-Jewish areas of Judea were spun. Idumea was not one of those areas. From this one can conclude that at that time Idumea was considered both by the Romans and by the Idumeans as an integral part of Judea. Next Josephus reports that among the leaders of the revolt against the Romans 66-74 AD participated Idumeans in a prominent position and with particular zeal. Finally, speak the mutual matrimonial alliances between idumäischem nobility and the Jewish royal family of the Hasmoneans (John Hyrcanus II, a Hasmonean, married a Idumäerin ) that the Idumeans (at least as far as their top layer) were regarded as full-fledged Jews.

Footnotes

• Historical State ( Middle East )