Aretas
Summary
A common name among Nabataean Arabian kings, most notably the ruler whose ethnarch at Damascus sought to arrest the apostle Paul.
☩The Nabataean Dynasty
Aretas was the common name (similar to how 'Pharaoh' designated Egyptian kings) of several rulers of the Nabataean Arabs, whose capital was Petra in Arabia. The name in Arabic means 'virtuous' or 'pleasing.' The royal dynasty was founded around 110-100 BC when the Greek kings of Syria and Egypt had lost much of their power. The earliest Aretas known to history is called 'prince of the Arabians' in connection with the fugitive high-priest Jason around 170 BC.
☩Aretas IV and Paul
The Aretas mentioned in Paul's second letter to the Corinthians was Aretas IV, father-in-law of Herod Antipas. His daughter was Herod's first wife, who was divorced when Herod took Herodias—a scandal that John the Baptist denounced and that led to his execution. This divorce caused enmity between Aretas and Herod, and disputes over boundaries led to war, in which Aretas was victorious around AD 38. Emperor Tiberius commanded Vitellius, governor of Syria, to march against Aretas, but Tiberius died before this was accomplished.
☩The Escape from Damascus
Paul recounts that 'in Damascus the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands.' The ethnarch (governor) did this to please the Jews who were watching the gates day and night to kill Paul. Damascus had been a city of the Roman province of Syria, but evidence suggests that under Emperor Caligula, Damascus may have been detached from Syria and given to Aretas, explaining how a Nabataean official had authority there.
Related Verses1 mention
2 Corinthians· 1 verse
References
- 1.George Morrish, "Aretas," in Morrish's Concise Bible Dictionary (George Morrish, 1898).
- 2.James Orr (ed.), "Aretas," in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. I (Howard-Severance Company, 1915).
- 3.James Hastings (ed.), "Aretas," in Dictionary of the Apostolic Church, vol. I (T. & T. Clark, 1915–1918).
- 4.Philip Schaff and Johann Herzog (ed.), "Aretas," in The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, vol. I (Funk and Wagnalls, 1908–1914).
- 5.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Aretas," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).