Iudaei

Iudaei is the Latin designation used in classical and late antique texts to refer to Jews, the people of Judea, or adherents of Judaism. The term derives from Iudaea (Judea), the Roman province that corresponds to the historic land of Judah, and ultimately traces to the Hebrew Yehudim. In Latin, Iudaeus is the masculine singular form, Iudaei the masculine plural, and Iudaea the related toponym for the region.

In ancient writings, Iudaei is employed to identify Jewish communities and individuals within the Roman world, as well as to distinguish them from non-Jewish groups. It appears in legal, political, ethnographic, and religious discussions, including descriptions of Judean society, Jewish religious practices, and interactions with Roman authorities. The term can denote both ethnicity and religious affiliation, depending on context, and it is often used alongside geographic identifiers such as Iudaea (the province) or Iudaei in the genitive to indicate possession or relation.

Related linguistic forms include Iudas or Iudaeus as adjectives, and Iudaeorum as the genitive plural. The term is primarily of historical and philological interest today, serving as a convention in the study of Latin sources for early Judaism and the Jewish presence in the Roman world. In modern scholarship, Iudaei is used when discussing ancient texts to refer to Jews without contemporary political or religious connotations.