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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

PEREA*

Term not occurring in the NT except in the fourth-century manuscript Codex Sinaiticus and the fifth-century manuscript Codex Washingtonianus, where it appears in Luke 6:17 and is treated as a variant reading by most editors of the Greek NT. It was used in the first century AD by Josephus to refer to the region “beyond the Jordan” (he derived the word Perea from the Greek for “beyond”). The geographical location of the area is therefore best understood from Josephus’s War of the Jews (3.3.3): “Now the length of Perea is from Machaerus to Pella, and its breadth from Philadelphia to Jordan; its northern parts are bounded by Pella, as we have already said, as well as its western with Jordan; the land of Moab is its southern border, and its eastern limits reach to Arabia, and Silbonitis, and besides to Philadelphene and Gerasa.” Gadara is called “the metropolis of Perea” by Josephus because it was a “place of strength” and because “many of the citizens of Gadara were rich men” (War 4.7.3). This Gadara is not to be confused with the Gadara of the Decapolis, modern Um Qeis, but is to be identified with Tell Gadura, about 15 miles (24.1 kilometers) northwest of modern Amman, Jordan.

The Decapolis is separated from Perea in Matthew 4:25, where it is listed among the various sections of Palestine from which people came to hear Jesus. Perea is here called the region “beyond the Jordan,” and is so designated also in Mark 3:8. In one place Matthew referred to Perea as “the region of Judea beyond the Jordan” (Mt 19:1). This is perplexing because politically Perea was never a part of Judea, belonging to the jurisdiction not of Archelaus but of Herod Antipas, who also controlled Galilee. The parallel passage in Mark 10:1 reads, “the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan.” Perhaps Matthew was using the phrase to refer to that part of Perea that, though politically not a part of Judea, was Jewish in population. In his Natural History (AD 77) Pliny spoke of Perea as a place “separated from the other parts of Judea by the River Jordan” (5.70), and the “rest of Judea by the River Jordan” (5.70), and the “rest of Judea” as being divided into 10 local government areas, as though he considered Perea to be a part of Judea. However, this may be a mistaken assumption, since Pliny’s knowledge of the immediate area is somewhat questionable—in the same context he erroneously asserts that the Dead Sea is “more than 100 miles long and fully as wide at its widest part” (Natural History 5.72), whereas in reality it is less than 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) long and only 11 miles (17.7 kilometers) wide.

The area was well known and often mentioned in the OT by the phrase “beyond the Jordan” (Nm 22:1; Dt 1:1, 5), and was occupied in its southern portion by the two Israelite tribes Gad and Reuben (Jos 1:12-14). Stretching from the brook Kerith in the north almost to the Arnon River in the south, Perea was virtually synonymous with OT Gilead (Jos 22:9; Jgs 5:17).

It seems to have been an important district in the decades before the birth of Christ (Hellenistic period) when Jewish (Maccabean) leaders controlled it after 124 BC. Under Roman rule, it was given to Herod the Great until his death in 4 BC, when it passed (according to his will) into the hands of his son Herod Antipas, along with Galilee. Because the area was beautiful and productive and had trees noted for their medicinal balm (Jer 8:22; 46:11), it was always well populated and supported numerous well-known cities, such as Pella, Jabesh-gilead, Succoth, Penuel, and Gerasa (modern Jerash). Herod Antipas even had a fort named Machaerus in the southern extremities of Perea, where he imprisoned John the Baptist and had him put to death (see Josephus’s Antiquities 18.5.2).

It was customary for Jews traveling back and forth from Galilee to Judea to cross the Jordan into Perea in order to avoid contact with the Samaritans. Before his death, John the Baptist had been baptizing in Bethany beyond the Jordan when he announced Jesus as the Lamb of God (Jn 1:28-29), and Jesus returned here during his ministry once when he was being severely persecuted (10:40).