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PEREA

(Gk. Peraía)

A Transjordanian territory extending south-north from Machaerus to Pella, or roughly from the river Arnon (Wadi Mojib) to the Wadi el-Yābis (since Pella was part of the Decapolis and therefore not included), and east-west from Philadelphia (Amman) to the Jordan River (Josephus BJ 3.3.3 [46]). In the NT the term occurs only in variant readings of Luke 6:17. It is evidently derived from the phrase “beyond the Jordan” (Gk. péran toú Iorodanou), from Heb. ʿēḇer hayyardēn.

Following the exile of Jews from this area in 732 b.c. (2 Kgs. 15:29), it was resettled by Gentiles after the conquest of Alexander. The latter threatened a minority of postexilic Jews in Maccabean times (1 Macc. 5:9, 45-54), which led to conquest of the area by Jonathan, expanded upon by John Hyrcanus and Alexander Jannaeus. Perea became an administrative district under Rome ca. 57 b.c. In 20 b.c. it became part of Herod’s kingdom and subsequently passed back and forth between his descendants (Antipas, 4 b.c.–a.d. 39; Agrippa I, 39-44; Agrippa II, 54-ca. 100), finally becoming part of the Roman province of Syria.

Paul J. Ray, Jr.

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

PEREA

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)