§. Of Iturea.
This Country seemeth to have taken its denomination from Itur one of the sons of Is∣mael, Gen. 25. 15. and it lay * 1.1 edging upon Arabia, but ‖ 1.2 reckoned to Syria, and upon that reference mentioned by the Evangelist here. For he speaketh of these Countries and Tetrarchies, because Syria and Judea were but one Province, and under one Procon∣sul. And therefore as he nameth the government of Canaan, in the two Countries of Ju∣dea and Galilee, so doth he also the government of Syria, under three, Ituria, Trachonitis and Abilene: And this is agreeable to what he had done in Chap. 2. 1. when he spake of the time of our Saviours birth: for as he there dateth the Tax that then was, by the time of a governor of Syria, so doth he now the beginning of the Gospel by the time of the Rulers there, as well as in Judea. And this was also most sutable to the Roman Records, where, seeing that Syria and Judea were joyned together into one Pro∣vince, it is not to be doubted, but their Governors were named together, as members of one body.