Ituraea

Ituraea is named once in the New Testament — as one of the territories assigned to Philip the tetrarch — and is connected through the older Jetur to an Ishmaelite ancestor whose descendants the Reubenite tribes warred against in 1 Chronicles.

The Tetrarchy of Philip

Luke fixes the start of John the Baptist's ministry by the political map of the day: "Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene" (Lu 3:1). Ituraea sits beside Trachonitis as the region put under Philip's rule.

The Ishmaelite Background

The name traces back to Jetur, one of the sons of Ishmael. The Chronicler's table lists him among the twelve: "Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These are the sons of Ishmael" (1Ch 1:31). The tribe descended from him appears later as a target of Reubenite, Gadite, and half-Manasseh warfare east of the Jordan: "And they made war with the Hagrites, with Jetur, and Naphish, and Nodab" (1Ch 5:19). The Jetur of Ishmael's lineage underlies the later regional name carried by Philip's tetrarchy.