What is greatly wanted is a coin (or coins) of Damascus between 37 and 54 A.D. Meanwhile, it should be noted that 2 Co 11" is our solitary' piece of positive evidence for Damascus having formed part of the Nabattean kingdom at any time after the Christian era. The fact, as has been shown above, has an important bearing on Pauline chronology.
The best collection and discussion of the evidence is in Schurer, HJP I. ii., esp. his indispensable Append, ii. on the Nabatasan kingdom, pp. 345- 302, to which the above article is prmcipally indebted.
LiTBRATURK. — Sch0r«r Rives ample references to the lit. of the Nuliata>an kiti^'doiii. In more special relation to A. iv. see Ck-rntn, Chrontit. d. Paul. liriffe, fi 22 ; Conybeare atit) llowsoii, vol. 1. ch. Iii. ftppendix ; EutinK', SabalUitcke ln»chr\ftfn atu Aratnen, Ijerlin, 1SS6 (contJUnini; a reconstructed liNt of klni,^ by von Outsi'hniidt) ; J. G. Heyne, djt Ethnarcha Aretits Arahujn reiju (Wiltcmb. \lbb); Anjfer, d* temitorum in Aft. Apt). ralionA, pp. 173-182; Wiescler, rAr(mo/(»i/i>, pp. 167 17'>. and In PHK. m.p. Aretas; Meyer- Wendt on Acts, Hijit. f i n. \ Ruhdin, de Palattiiita et Arabia Fromneiit liomanit (!*■*.'.). Also, in addition to the rcforcnoei to the body of this articlu, see Akauu, Paul, Damascus, Nibaiotb, Etiinarch.
A. Robertson. ARQOB (3i-)(<).— Apparently an officer of IVka hiah, kinjj of Israel, a.s.sa.ssinated by I'ekah together with the king his mostor and one Arieh
146
ARGOB
ARGOB
(2 K 15") ; 80 Ewald, Thenius, Keil, and most. Another explan.ation makes Argob and Arieh conspirators with Pekah. Probably the passage is corrupt. See Klostermann, who suggests the emendation vnsj nxc ys"!^'^^ 'with his 400 warriors'; — by a sudden coup Pekah and his 50 surprise 400.
C. F. BuRNEY. ARGOB (=i-!(< ; once, Dt3'», %vith the art. ^i-iNn).— A district mentioned in Dt 3*- '^- ", 1 K 4", and de- scribed as situated on the E. of Jordan, in Bashan, in the kingdom of 'Og, and as containing three- score cities, all strongly fortified, ' with high walls, gates, and bars, besides very many cities of the country folk ' (i.e. unwalled cities : see Kzk 3S"). The particular district intended is uncertain. The Targuras of Onk. and Jon. represent Argob by njidid (Pseud. -Jon. njuib), i.e. the Trachonitis, oroTpaxui", of Greek writers (see Schiirer, HJP I. ii. lOif.j G. A. Smith, Geogr. 543), some 25 miles S. of Damascus, a remarkable volcanic formation, in shape resembling roughly a pear, about 25 miles from N. to S., and 19 miles from E. to W., the rur;ged surface of which consists of innumer- able rocks or boulders of black basalt, inter- sected by fissures and crevices in every direction (see Trachonitis). This formation, which owes its origin to the streams of lava emitted from the Jebel Hauran, on the S.E., rises some 20-30 ft. above the surroimding plain ; and ' its border is as clearly defined as a rocky coast, which it very much resembles.' It forms a natural fortress, which a small body of defenders could hold even against a determined invader ; and hence its modern name the Leja (i.e. laja'ah, refuge, retreat). Some modern writers have accepted the identifica- tion thus suggested by Onk. and Jon., supporting it further, partly by the fact that the Leja contains the remains of several ancient cities, partly by the philological arguments that Argob signifies • stony,' and that the term Van (AV ' region '), used regularly in connexion with it in the OT, is in- tended as a designation of its rocky boundary spoken of above. The identification is, however, extremely doubtful, and has been abandoned by the best recent authorities. To take the latter point first, the philological arguments appealed to are exceedingly precarious. Argob can be inter- preted stony only upon the questionable assump- tion that the root 3:i is cognate with c:-; : to judge, however, from ap, clods of earth (Job 21'' SS'*), it would denote naturally a rich and earthy soil rather than a stony one, and so (Smith, Gengr. 551) is 'probably equivalent to our word "glebe."' And San is a cord (Jos 2"), or men.turing-line (Mic 2'), fig. a measured portion or allotment (Jos l"* 19'), applied to a particular district or ' region ' (RVm), Zeph 2'- '• ' : there is consequently no ground for supposing it to have been used sjieci- ally on account of the rocky border of the Leja. Secondly, the remains of ancient cities in (or about) what must have been the biblical Bashan are by no means confined to the Leja ; on the con- trary, they are much more numerous on the sloping siUesof the Jebel Hauran (S.E. of the Leja), which, covered by a rich and loamy soil, sinks down gradu- ally, especially on the S. and W., to tlie level of the surrounding plain. The whole of this region is studded with deserted towns and villages — accord- ing to Wetzstein, who has described it most fully (Beiiebericht iiber Haurnn u. die Trachonen , 180(5, p. 42), the E. and S. slopes of the Jebel Hauran alone contain the remains of some 300 such ancient sites ; they are also numerous on the W. and S.W. slopes (cf. Porter, Five Years in Danuisctcs', pp. 229, 239, 251, 253). The dwellings in these deserted localities are of a remarkable character. Wetzslein distinguishes four kinds — (1) some are the habitations of Troglodytes, being caverns