What were the Jewish lands at the time of Jesus?

Answer 1

A:The 'Jewish lands' can be defined by ethnic and religious affiliation of the inhabitants of different areas. Jews were concentrated in the Roman provinces of Judea and Galilee.

The Roman province of Judea incorporated the ancient Jewish homeland of Judah, as well as what had been Idumea, and the largely pagan coastal cities that replaced the Philistine lands of the Old Testament. The area surrounding Jerusalem was undoubtedly predominantly Jewish and the Idumeans had been forcibly converted to Judaism over a century earlier. In addition, archaeologists think the coastal villages and rural areas were predominantly, but not exclusively Jewish, but the cities were predominantly pagan. Thus, Judea was a largely Jewish land, although with a pagan coastal fringe.

The Roman province of Galilee comprised the region to the west and south of the Sea of Galilee, but did not include the coastal plains, which were administered direct from Syria, possibly because of their exclusively pagan nature. As with the Idumeans, Galileans had been forcibly converted to Judaism in the Maccabean period, but most scholars believe the main cities were probably largely pagan. Much of the urban population was probably immigrant, but some could have been native Galileans who reverted to their former religion after the Jews lost control of the region. The Roman-Jewish wars would later lead to major influxes of Jews, clearly making Galilee a Jewish homeland, but even at the time of Jesus Jews were probably a majority in the population.

Between Judea and Galilee was the province of Samaria - corresponding approximately to the former kingdom of Israel. In the first century, the Samarians (or Samaritans) followed an archaic form of Judaism, likely to have been introduced by King Josiah in the seventh century BCE, but possibly after the Babylonian Exile of the Jews. There was at this time considerable hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans, who could best be thought of as a separate ethnic and religious group.

Answer 2

There were probably around 3 million or so Jews in Judea at that time, but we only have records of how many people were slain in various battles in Judea from which to extrapolate.