BATANEA. - A district (toparchy) of northern Transjordan during the Greco-Roman period, one of three (along with Trachonitis and Auranitis) into which the ancient Bashan (v.) had been divided, from which its name derives. Today, the name is transferred to a plain east of the Hauran (Ard el-Betjenijeh). In rabbinic Hebrew, Bashan takes the form Bithnān and Mathnān; in Aramaic, Bātnajj and Batnajjā; hence B.
Its precise location was established by J. G. Wetzstein. Batan(a)ea, often mentioned by Flavius Josephus (Bārcavāz; never in the Bible), lay between Gaulanitis to the west, Trachonitis and Auranitis to the east, Ulatha-Panias (= "Ituraea" in 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-Leqā and Hauran; to the north it included Mahāgheh, Tell el-Harrah (1707 m.), and Šanamēn. It thus corresponded to the fertile plain now called en-Nūgrah. Flavius Josephus, who in antiquity identified Batan(a)ea with Bashan (Antiquitates Judaicae, IX, 8, 1), sometimes included Gaulanitis (Antiquitates Judaicae, XVII, 11, 4; Bellum Judaicum, II, 6, 3) or Trachonitis (Vita, 11) within II. Thus the Onomasticon of Eusebius mentions only Batanaea and Basanitis. Ptolemy, V, 14, 20, and the Onomasticon place Batan(a)ea in Arabia.
Augustus granted Batan(a)ea to Herod, along with Trachonitis, Auranitis, Gaulanitis, and Ulatha-Panias, to protect it from the raids of Zenodorus’ Ituraeans (d. 20 BC). These five districts later formed the tetrarchy of Philip (4 BC–AD 34), which was incorporated in AD 34 into the Roman province of Syria, then entrusted to Agrippa I (AD 37–44) and Agrippa II (AD 53–c. AD 90); inscriptions at Šanamēn and 'Aqrabeh refer to the latter. Astaroth (v.) and Qarnaim; other cities included Thersila or Tharse, Alima (1 Macc. 5:26), Casbon (2 Macc. 12:13 ff.), Delmundum, Newe, Pentacomias, Rafana or Raphon (1 Macc. 5:37). Herod founded Bathyra (modern Basir), settling there a Jewish colony from Babylonia to counter the incursions of the Trachonite Arabs (Flavius Josephus, Antiquitates Judaicae, XVII, 2, 1–3).
Lk. 3:1 implicitly includes Batan(a)ea within Trachonitis. In the 4th century, there was a bishopric at Salton of Batan(a)ea (Σάλτων Βατανέως), in “Arabia,” a suffragan of Bosra; it is probably to be identified with Dār es-Salt, northwest of Der‘ā (Adraa). The Batan(a)ea region was home to the Nazarenes and Ebionites.