Yehud (Persian province)

Coins bearing the inscription YHD, or Yehud. The coin at top shows the god YHWH ( Yahweh ), the coin at bottom right has an image of the owl of Athena . Yehud Medinata ( , literally "the province of Yehud"), was the province formed from the former kingdom of Judah during the Achaemenid Persian Empire of the late 6th to late 4th centuries BCE, a period of a little over two hundred years. The name can also be applied to Judah during the preceding fifty years of Babylonian rule, although there is no record of what the Babylonians may have called it. This 250 years covers the period when Judaism began to assume a recognisably modern form characterised by monotheism and ethnic exclusiveness, although still based on Temple and sacrifial cult.

The area of Yehud Medinata corresponded to the previous Babylonian province with the same name, formed after the fall of the kingdom of Judah to the Neo-Babylonian Empire (c.597 after its conquest of the Mediterranean east coast, and again in 585/6 BCE after suppressing an unsuccessful Judean revolt). Yehud Medinata continued to exist for two centuries, until being incorporated into the Hellenistic empires, following the conquests of Alexander the Great. Yehud Medinata article in the Hebrew Language Wikipedia

Today part of Israel Palestine Yehud Medinata ( Aramaic for Province of Judah ), or simply Yehud , was a colony of the Persian Achaemenid Empire , ruled by mostly Jewish governors. The territory was considerably smaller and with a far thinner population than its predecessor, the kingdom of Judah . The area of Yehud Medinata corresponded to the previous Babylonian province of Yehud , which was formed after the fall of the kingdom of Judah to the Neo-Babylonian Empire (c.597 after its conquest of the Mediterranean east coast, and again in 585/6 BCE after suppressing an unsuccessful Judean revolt). Yehud Medinata, part of the Persian satrapy of Eber-Nari , continued to exist for two centuries, until being incorporated into the Hellenistic empires following the conquests of Alexander the Great . The Languages of the Jews: A Sociolinguistic History .

Province of the Achaemenid Empire Today part of - Israel - State of Palestine Yehud Medinata , also called Yehud Medinta ( Jewish Babylonian Aramaic : יְהוּד מְדִינְתָּא Yəhūḏ Məḏīntā ) or simply Yehud , was an autonomous province of the Achaemenid Empire . Located in Judea , the territory was distinctly Jewish , with the High Priest of Israel emerging as a central religious and political leader. It lasted for just over two centuries before being incorporated into the Hellenistic empires , which emerged following the Greek conquest of the Persian Empire . Upon the Persian conquest of Babylon in 539 BCE, the Achaemenid Empire established its own Yehud province to absorb the Babylonian province of Yehud , which, in turn, had been established by the Neo-Babylonian Empire to absorb the Kingdom of Judah upon the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. Around this time, the Persian king Cyrus the Great issued what is commonly known as the Edict of Cyrus , which is described in the Hebrew Bible as a royal proclamation that ended the Babylonian captivity and initiated the return to Zion . In the new province, repatriated Jews began to revive their national identity and reconstruct the Temple in Jerusalem . The province constituted a part of Eber-Nari and was bounded by Idumaea (now part of Achaemenid Arabia ) to the south, lying along the frontier of the two satrapies . Spanning most of Judea—from the Shephelah in the west to the Dead Sea in the east—it was one of several Persian provinces in Palestine , together with Moab , Ammon , Gilead , Samaria , Ashdod , and Idumaea/Arabia, among others. The province's overall population is gauged as having been considerably smaller than that of the fallen Israelite kingdom . The name Yêhūd Mêdīnāta is originally Aramaic and was first introduced after Judah fell to the Babylonians. In Jewish history , the Persian period marks the start of the Second Temple period . Governor Zerubbabel , who led the first Jewish returnees, laid the foundation of the Second Temple . Other Jewish leaders followed, such as Ezra and Nehemiah , and their efforts to rebuild Jewish life in the region are chronicled in biblical books named after them . Another significant Persian-period achievement was the canonization of the Torah , traditionally credited to Ezra and playing an important role in shaping the Jewish identity . The Babylonians translated the Hebrew name [Judah] into Aramaic as Yehud Medinata ('the province of Judah') or simply 'Yehud' and made it a new Babylonian province . This was inherited by the Persians. Under the Greeks, Yehud was translated as Judaea and this was taken over by the Romans. After the Jewish rebellion of 135 CE , the Romans renamed the area Syria Palaestina or simply Palestine . The area described by these land titles differed to some extent in the different periods. The Languages of the Jews: A Sociolinguistic History . The Bible: A Beginner's Guide . Studies in Classical Hebrew . To stop Nehemiah from building the Jerusalem wall: Jewish aristocrats triggered an economic crisis . Status and Territory of 'Yehud Medinta' in the Persian Period (dissertation) (in Hebrew). "Jews, Idumaeans, and Ancient Arabs: Relations of the Jews in Eretz-Israel with the Nations of the Frontier and the Desert During the Hellenistic and Roman Era (332 BCE-70 CE)". The Ruling Class of Judaea: The Origins of the Jewish Revolt against Rome, A.D. 66–70 . The independent Jewish state of Judah came to an end in 586 BC with the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. Much of the population was carried off into exile in Mesopotamia. ... Babylon in turn, however, fell in 539 BC to Cyrus, the energetic king of Persia, and under his patronage and that of his successor the Jews began to revive their national life in Judah. The temple was gradually rebuilt and the High Priest was eventually recognized by the suzerain as the leader of the nation. This small Persian province was distinctively Jewish. The local representatives of the Persian king are known to have been in some cases Jews who maintained close, if not always friendly, relations with the governor of the neighbouring province of Samaria. Thus by the end of the Persian period Jerusalem was the centre of a small and economically backward but well-established Jewish community, accustomed to considerable autonomy, particularly in religious affairs, and unified around the Temple and the High Priest. A Study of Exogamous Marriage in Ezra–Nehemiah Against the Backdrop of Biblical Legal Tradition . The current thinking about Persian period Yehud entails an (ethnically) multi-faceted population, a much better understanding of its archaeology, as well as the interaction between the smallish province of Yehud with other Persian provinces in Palestine, including Moab, Ammon, Gilead, Samaria, Ashdod, Idumea, etc., that were all part of the fifth Persian satrapy called Ebir-Nāri. This interest is not only due to a more careful and differentiated analysis of the material culture (i.e., the archaeology of Persian period Palestine), but also to the fact that most modern scholars view this period as the hotbed of creative literary activity during which most books of the Hebrew Bible were edited or composed thus meriting a closer look. "9. התקופה הפרסית". מבוא לארכיאולוגיה של ארץ-ישראל: משלהי תקופת האבן ועד כיבושי אלכסנדר [ Archaeology of the Land of Israel: From the Neolithic to Alexander the Great ] (in Hebrew).