Idumea
The Idumeans are an ancient people who settled in an area south of Judea in the last centuries before the turn of the times. Of Josephus and modern research, the Idumeans are the Edomites identified. Whether this identification is correct is not accepted by everyone. In any case, the settlement area was called Idumäa (Greek Ἰδουμαoα (Idoumaía); Latin Idumæa or Idumea ) by the Greeks , and the population accordingly Idumäer . Similarly, Judea is called Yehuda in Hebrew , IVDÆA in Latin and Ἰουδαία (Ioudaia) in Greek , without questioning the connection between Jews and Judeans .
The Idumeans appear in the 6th century BC. West of the original settlement area of the Edomites, in which the Nabataeans appear at the same time . It is unclear whether the Nabataeans displaced the Edomites / Idumeans who had previously resided there or the Nabataeans descendants of the Edomites and the later Idumeans represent a split.
The archaeologically documented, gradual settlement of the area south of the Kingdom of Judah by Edomites, who then seamlessly connect with the so-called Idumeans, corresponds in any case to the current state of research. Edomite places of worship have been excavated in the Negev, e. B. at Horvat Qitmit, where a seal of a certain Schubnaqos (SWBNQWS) was found: Qos is the main deity of the Edomites and his name is often part of Edomite personal names, similar to the suffix -jahu, a short form of YHWH , often in Israelite name occurs. The prefix or suffix “qos” can be found in Idumaean names even after their conversion to Judaism; so the Idumean brother-in-law Herod the Great was called Costobar or Kostobaros. Such evidence indicates that one can speak with a fair degree of certainty of an identity and continuity between the Edomites east of the Jordan Depression and the Edomites and (later) Idumeans west of it. Different theories are important, but less well documented and less capable of consensus.
The area of Idumea according to the reorganization by Pompey the Great extended from Bethlehem in the north to Be'er Sheva in the south and from the Dead Sea in the east to the coastal plain, but not all the way to the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The capital was Marissa .
history
According to the report of Josephus , they were subjected to the reign of the Hasmonean king John Hyrcanus I and converted to Judaism by force. By contrast, Strabo writes that the Idumeans were Nabataeans, i.e. Arabs who separated from the Nabataeans due to a tribal dispute, settled west of them and subsequently largely adopted the customs and traditions of the Jews. One can therefore doubt the violent nature of the conversion. Rather, it seems that the warlike part of the annexation of Idumea under the Hasmoneans was essentially limited to the strongly Hellenized cities of Marissa (presumably the birthplace of Herod the Great ) and Dora .
For the view that the conversion of the Idumeans to Judaism and the incorporation of Idumea into the territory of Judea was essentially not a violent act, speaks above all that with the reorganization of Palestine by Pompey in 63 BC. The non-Jewish areas conquered by the Hasmoneans were spun off from Judea. Idumea was not one of these areas. It can therefore be concluded that at that time Idumea was considered an integral part of Judea by both the Romans and the Idumeans. Josephus further reports that among the leaders of the uprising against the Romans in AD 66 to 74, Idumeans played a prominent role and with particular zeal. Finally, the reciprocal marital connections between the Idumaean nobility and the Jewish royal family of the Hasmoneans ( John Hyrcanus II , a Hasmonean, married an Idumean woman) also indicate that the Idumeans (at least as far as their upper class is concerned) were regarded as full-fledged Jews.
literature
- Georg Beer : Idumaea . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IX, 1, Stuttgart 1914, Col. 913-918.
Remarks
- ↑ Flavius Josephus , Antiquitates Iudaicae 13,257f.
- ↑ Strabo , Geographika 16,2,34
- ↑ Flavius Josephus, Bellum Iudaicum 4,314-318.