BATANEA. - A north-Transjordanian district (toparchy) in the Greco-Roman period, one of the three (along with Trachonitis and Auranitis) into which the ancient Bashan (v.) was divided, from which its name derives. Today the name has been transferred to a plain east of the Ḥawrān (Ard el-Bejenijjeh). In Rabbinic Hebrew Bāfān took the form Bāthnān and Mathnān, and in Aramaic Bātnajj and Batnajjā; hence Batanea.
The precise location was ascertained by J. G. Wetzstein. Batanea, frequently mentioned by Flavius Josephus (Batranaia; never in the Bible), lay between Gaulanitis to the west, Trachonitis and Auranitis to the east, Ulatha-Paneas (= 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 Ḥawrān; to the north it included Maḥaḡeḥ, Tell el-Harrah (107 m.), and Sanamēn. It thus corresponded to the fertile plain known today as en-Nūqrah. Flavius Josephus, who identifies ancient Batanea with Bashan (Antiq. Iud., IX, 8, 1), sometimes includes Gaulanitis (Antiq. Iud., XVII, 11, 4; Bell. Iud., II, 6, 3) or Trachonitis (Vita, 11) within Batanea. Thus, Eusebius's Onomasticon mentions only Batanaea and Basanitis. Ptolemy, V, 14, 20, and the Onomasticon place Batanea in Arabia.
Augustus gave Batanea to Herod, along with Trachonitis and Auranitis, Gaulanitis, and Ulatha-Paneas, to rescue it from the raids of the Ituraeans of Zenodorus (d. 20 BC). These 5 districts later formed the tetrarchy of Philip (4 BC-AD 34), incorporated in 34 into the Roman province of Syria, and subsequently entrusted to Agrippa I (37-44) and Agrippa II (53-ca. 90): inscriptions at Sanamēn 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, and Rafana or Raphon (1 Macc. 5, 37). Herod founded Bathyra (today Basir), establishing there a Jewish colony originally from Babylon, to counter the incursions of the Trachonite Arabs (Fl. Josephus, Ant. Iud., XVII, 2, 1-3).
Lk. 3, 1 implicitly includes Batanea in Trachonitis. In the 4th century it was the episcopal see of Salton of Batanea (Σάλτων Βατανέως), in "Arabia," a suffragan of Bostra; it is apparently identified with Dār es-Salt, northwest of Der'ā (Adraa). The Nazareans and Ebionites flourished in Batanea.