The area of Perea was well known and often mentioned in the Old Testament by the phrase “beyond the Jordan” (Numbers 22:1; Deuteronomy 1:1, 5), and was occupied in its southern part by the two Israelite tribes of Gad and Reuben (Joseph 1:12-14). Stretching from the brook Kerith in the north almost to the Arnon River in the south, Perea was synonymous with Old Testament Gilead (Joshua 22:9; Judges 5:17).
The Decapolis is listed as a separate region from Perea in Matthew 4:25, where it is listed among the various sections of Palestine from which people came to hear Jesus. Perea is here called the region “beyond the Jordan” (the Jordan River), as it is also called in Mark 3:8. In one place Matthew referred to Perea as “the region of Judea beyond the Jordan” (Matthew 19:1). This is perplexing because politically Perea was never a part of Judea, which belonged to the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas, who also controlled Galilee. The parallel passage in Mark 10:1 reads, “the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan.” Perhaps Matthew was using the phrase to refer to that part of Perea that, though politically not a part of Judea, was Jewish in population. In his Natural History ( AD 77) Pliny spoke of Perea as a place “separated from the other parts of Judea by the River Jordan” (5.70), and the “rest of Judea by the River Jordan” (5.70), and the “rest of Judea” as being divided into 10 local government areas, as though he considered Perea to be a part of Judea. However, this may be a mistaken assumption, since Pliny’s knowledge of the immediate area is somewhat questionable. In the same context he wrongly states that the Dead Sea is “more than 100 miles long and fully as wide at its widest part” (Natural History 5.72), whereas in reality it is less than 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) long and only 11 miles (17.7 kilometers) wide.
It seems to have been an important district in the decades before the birth of Christ (Hellenistic period) when Jewish (Maccabean) leaders controlled it after 124 B.C. Under Roman rule, it was given to Herod the Great until his death in 4 BC, when it passed (according to his will) into the hands of his son Herod Antipas, along with all of Galilee. Because the area was beautiful and productive and had trees noted for their medicinal balm (Jeremiah 8:22; Jeremiah 46:11), it was always well populated and supported numerous well-known cities, such as Pella, Jabesh-gilead, Succoth, Penuel, and Gerasa (modern Jerash). Herod Antipas even had a fort named Machaerus in the southern extremities of Perea, where he imprisoned John the Baptist and had him put to death (see Josephus’s Antiquities 18.5.2).
It was customary for Jews traveling back and forth from Galilee to Judea to cross the Jordan River into Perea in order to avoid contact with the Samaritans. Before his death, John the Baptist had been baptizing in Bethany beyond the Jordan when he announced Jesus as the Lamb of God (John 1:28-29), and Jesus returned here during his ministry once when he was being severely persecuted (John 10:40).