Meaning of PROVINCE

(Heb. and Aram. "m'dinah", jurisdiction; Gr. "eparcheia", government).

The young "servants of the princes of the provinces" who fought under Ahab against Ben-hadad (1 Kings 20:14, 15) were not Israelites.

Undoubtedly, they were in the service of the petty kings of various regions of Gilead and Hauran, and they joined Israel in resisting the onslaught of the Syrians on the territory south of Damascus.

The provinces constituted administrative divisions of the empires of Babylon and Persia (Dan. 2:49; 3:3).

Darius the Great, king of Persia, who reigned from India to Ethiopia (Herodotus 3:90-94), divided his dominions into twenty governments, called satrapies (1:192; 3:89). (See SATRAPA.)

These circumscriptions were subdivided into smaller jurisdictions, which the Jews called provinces (Est. 3:12; 8:9; cf. Herodotus 3:120, 128; 6:42 with 3:127; 5:11, 27, 30) .

In the time of Ahasuerus, the number of these smaller provinces was one hundred and twenty-seven (Esther 1:1).

During the Persian period, the country of Judah was placed under the jurisdiction of “the governor beyond the river” (Ezra 5:3, 6); Later, a royal decree made it its own province with its own governor (Ezra 2:63; 5:8).

Under the Roman Empire there were two types of provinces: imperial and senatorial. The imperial ones depended directly on the emperor.

All border provinces that required the permanent presence of an army to prevent insurrections had this character.

These provinces were administered by a legate, a military delegate, appointed by the emperor. The procurators, imperial magistrates, collected the taxes and delivered them to the sovereign's private treasury.

The smaller imperial provinces, and certain parts of the larger ones (such as Judea), were administered only by a procurator, the presence of a legate not being considered necessary.

Cilicia (Acts 23:34), Galatia, and Syria (of which Judea was a subprovince), were imperial provinces. The senatorial provinces depended on the Roman Senate; Its military occupation was not precise.

Its governor had the title of proconsul, and was helped by quaestors, who collected taxes and delivered them to the public treasury, which was administered by the Senate.

The island of Cyprus (Acts 13:4, 7), Macedonia (Acts 16:12), Achaia (Acts 18:12), and Asia (Acts 19:10) were senatorial provinces.