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ITURAEA*, ITUREA, ITUREANS*
Small province mentioned with Trachonitis as forming the tetrarchy of Philip, brother of Herod the Great, during the reign of Tiberius Caesar (Lk 3:1). A reasonable assumption places Iturea northeast of the Sea of Galilee and in the area of Mt Hermon, but its location and boundaries have been much disputed. The name almost certainly comes from Jetur, a son of Ishmael (Gn 25:15), whose descendants were among those conquered by the Israelites east of the Jordan (1 Chr 5:19-20). Thereafter, the Itureans virtually drop from sight until Josephus records another defeat inflicted on them by Aristobulus in 105–104 BC, at which time many of them were faced with a choice between circumcision and exile.
There are frequent mentions by classical writers of Itureans, sometimes described as Syrians or Arabians—skilled bowmen with the predatory tendencies often associated with groups unable or unwilling to settle for long in any one area. In view of this, it is not surprising that we know more about Itureans than we do about Iturea.
Strabo speaks of them as inhabitants of a mountainous country; Dio Cassius a little later tells us that they had a king. Any attempt to understand their history is complicated by divisions in the Roman Empire that affected them, but by the end of the first century AD, many Itureans were to be found under the provincial rule of Syria.
It is easier, then, to discuss the people than the place. Some scholars, indeed, hold that Luke could not have used the noun “Iturea,” for this was a form unknown until three centuries later, and that the adjectival form better fits the case. This prompts another question: Was this Iturean territory within Philip’s tetrarchy? Could Luke have made a slip and anticipated a later regional regrouping? Josephus at one point lists the constituent parts of Philip’s tetrarchy without including Iturea.
Three facts are clear: (1) there is a certain flexibility and overlapping in descriptions of territorial demarcation; (2) the data we have is insufficient for exact conclusions about Iturea; and (3) the evidence is clear from other parts of Scripture that Luke is a careful and reliable writer.