> strabo, a contemporary of herod, held that the idumaeans, whom he identified as of nabataean origin, constituted the majority of the population of western judea, where they commingled with the judaeans and adopted their customs. > "as for judaea, its western extremities towards casius are occupied by the idumaeans and by the lake. the idumaeans are nabataeans, but owing to a sedition they were banished from there, joined the judaeans, and shared in the same customs with them." (strabo, geography) >  hp?title=idumea&redirect=no >  aanites idumea is edom. herod and presumably the high priests at the time as long as a large part of the population in judea were edomites. that much is true.
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