BATANEA. - A district (toparchy) of northern Transjordan in the Greco-Roman period, one of the three (along with Trachonitis and Auranitis) into which ancient Bashan (v.) was divided, whence the name derives, which today has been transferred to a plain east of the Hawrān (Ard el-Bejenijjeh). In rabbinic Hebrew Bāfān took the form Bāthnān and Mathnān, in Aramaic Bātnajj and Batnajjā; hence B.

Its precise location was established by J. G. Wetzstein. B., often mentioned by Flavius Josephus (Batravaia; never in the Bible), lay between Gaulanitis to the west, Trachonitis and Auranitis to the east, Ulatha-Panias (= the "Ituraea" of Lk. 3:1) to the north, and Nabataean Arabia and the Decapolis to the south. Its boundaries were: to the west the Nahr el-'Allān, to the south the Wādi ed-Deheb, to the east the line of the mountains of el-Leğā and of Hawrān; to the north it included Maḥaḡeḥ, Tell el-Harrah (107 m.) and Sanamēn. It therefore corresponded to the fertile plain today called en-Nūqrah. Flavius Josephus, who for ancient times identifies B. with Bashan (Antiq. Iud., IX, 8, 1), sometimes includes Gaulanitis in B. (Antiq. Iud., XVII, 11, 4; Bell. Iud., II, 6, 3) or Trachonitis (Vita, 11). Thus the Onomasticon of Eusebius mentions only Batanaea and Basanitis. Ptolemy, V, 14, 20, and the Onomasticon place B. in Arabia.

Augustus gave B. to Herod, together with Trachonitis and Auranitis, Gaulanitis and Ulatha-Panias, to withdraw it from the raids of the Ituraeans of Zenodorus (d. 20 B.C.). These 5 districts then formed the tetrarchy of Philip (4 B.C.-A.D. 34), incorporated in 34 into the Roman province of Syria, then entrusted to Agrippa I (37-44) and Agrippa II (53-c. 90): of the latter speak inscriptions at Sanamēn and 'Aqrabeh. Its center was Astaroth (v.) and Qarnaim; other cities: Thersila or Tharse, Alima (I Mach. 5:26), Casbon (II Mach. 12:13 ff.), Delmundum, Newe, Pentacomias, Rafana or Raphon (I Mach. 5:37). Herod founded Bathyra (today Basir), settling there a Jewish colony originating from Babylon, against the incursions of the Trachonite Arabs (Fl. Josephus, Ant. Iud., XVII, 2, 1-3).

Lk. 3:1 implicitly includes B. in Trachonitis. In the 4th century there is the episcopal see of Salton of B. (Σάλτων Βατανέως), in "Arabia," suffragan of Bosra; it is identified, it seems, with Dār es-Salt, northwest of Der'ā (Adraa). In B. flourished the Nazarenes and the Ebionites.

Bibliography12 works

BIBL.: J. Buxtorf, Lexicon chaldaicum, talmudicum et rabbinicum, ed. B. Fischer, I, Leipzig 1875, p. 192; J. G. Wetzstein, Reisebericht über Hauran und die Trachonen, Berlin 1860; id., Die batanaischen Giebelgebirge, ibid. 1884; G. Schumacher, Das südliche Basan, in Zeits. des deutschen Palästina-Vereins, 20 (1897), pp. 65-227; R. E. Brünnow and A. von Domaszewski, Die Provincia Arabia, III, Strasbourg 1909, pp. 1-215; G. Schumacher, Unsere Arbeiten im Ostjordanlande, in Zeitschr. des deutschen Palästina-Vereins, 36 (1913), pp. 123-29; 37 (1914), pp. 45-54; 123-34; 260-66; 38 (1915), pp. 136-149; 40 (1917), pp. 143-70; L. Szczepański, Geographia historica Palaestinae antiquae, Rome 1928, pp. 245-47; F.-M. Abel, Moagga en Bathanē, in Revue biblique, 43 (1934), p. 264 ff.; id., Géogr. de la Palestine, II, Paris 1938, pp. 155, 158 ff.

Antonino Romeo

@incollection{ec2_batanea, author = {Romeo, Antonino}, title = {Batanea}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {II}, pages = {995}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/batanea} }

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