International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

jut'-a, joo'-ta (yuTTah, Joshua 21:16; Septuagint Tanu; and in Joshua 15:55 the King James Version, Septuagint Itan, A, Ietta); ju'-ta (yaTah), Joshua 15:55): A town in the hill country of Judah, mentioned with Maon, Carmel and Ziph; a Levitical city (Joshua 21:16). In some versions of Septuagint it occurs (Iota) in 1 Chronicles 6:57. In the Eusebius, Onomasticon (266 49; 133 10) a large village called "Juttah" is described as 18 Roman miles from Eleutheropolis. This agrees with the position of YuTTa, a large and prosperous Moslem village, 3,740 ft. above sea-level, 5 1/3 miles South of Hebron and 15 1/2 miles from Beit Jebrin (Eleutheropolis). There are many rock-cut tombs and ancient winepresses all around the village.

Reland (Pal, 870) suggested (and many others have followed him) that the... polis Iouda, translated "city of Judah," in Luke 1:39, should be polis Iouta, "the city Yuta." The translation "city of Judah" is suspicious, because Iouda is without the article, which is usually put before the name of a district; the interchange of "t" and "d" is a very common one. Dr. Paterson, resident many years in Hebron, states that there is a local Moslem tradition in the district that Yutta was the home of John the Baptist. For YuTTa see PEF, III, 310, Sh XXI.

E. W. G. Masterman