RHEIMS VERSION.— See Versions.
RHESA f P.;<r<l).— A son of Zerubbabel, Lk Z".
RHODA (P6Sv).—^\\e name means ' Rose.' ^\^len St. Peter was miraculously released from prison he went to the house of Mary the mother of Mark. A damsel (Foi5/<rK7j) of the name of Rlioda came to the door, but opened not the gate for gladness, and ran in and told how Peter stood before the gate.
• _L\ike saw or heard the ship (a Roman imperial vessel) called oy itfl Latin name para,ieino G*'ininig or VatitoritniH (compare the inKcrijitioii CIL iii. No. 3, TMvit parasemo Jnop/iarid, i.e. whose Bi);n wm the Pharian Isis) in the Greek translation wctpcLffitj^ i^,6tr)uv^t< (where the dative represents the I^Atin •blat. abaci. , aa in etnunUe Cicerone, vrirm Knupnu); and the formula remains in his text to puzzle those commentators who study only literary Oreek and neglect technical language.
She was accused of bein<' mad, but persisted in hei statement (Ac 12"-"). Nothing further is known of her. The name is fairly common both in litera- ture and inscriptions, and was often given to slave girls. A. C. Headlam.
RHODES f PiJos) ranks among the most brilliant of the many brUliant cities of ancient Greece. The city was foimded in B.C. 408, at the extreme north- eastern point of the island of Rhodes, when the three ancient cities, Lindus, Camii;us, and lalysus, were concentrated in the new foundation. It enjoyed an admirable situation and a splendid climate. The commercial aptitude of the popula- tion knew how to use its advantages by wise laws and just dealings with their competitors and allies in the trade of the eastern Mediterranean. Rhodes was at its highest pitch of power in the 2nd cent. B.C., having been made mistress of great part of Caria and Lycia in the settlement of 189, after the defeat and expulsion from Asia Minor of Antiochus and the Seleucid power. The city was, however, too powerful to suit the Roman policy. In B.C. 166 the Carian and Lycian cities were declared inde- pendent by Rome ; and another blow was struck at Rhodian commercial supremacy by making Delos a free port in the same year. The result of these disasters is to be observed in the diminu- tion and alteration of Rhodian coinage about that time. But Rhodes continued to maintain its commerce. It was relieved of Delian conipetition by the great massacre of the Romans in Delos by Mithridates in B.C. 87; and by continuing loyal to Rome in that critical time, when almost every other Greek citj' joined Mithridates, it recovered favour and was permitted to regain part of its Carian possessions. In the Roman civil wars Rhodes from B.C. 47 to 43 supported the cause of Cajsar, and suffered severely in consequence. C. Cassiiis captured the city in 43, and exacted 4500 talents from its people ; and another Cassius in 42 burned all the Rhodian ships except thirty, which he manned with crews of his own and took away. Rhodes henceforth was a city devoid of real power ; and it sank practically into a common provincial town of the Roman empire, though it ranked as a free city under the early emperors (except for a short time under Claudius, who took away its freedom and afterwards restored it again). Yet Strabo mentions (p. 652) that it was the most splendid city known to him in respect of harbours, streets, walls, and other equipment. Such was its condition in the time of St. Paul. Shortly afterwards Vespasian made it a part of the pro- vince Lycia.
Rhodes is mentioned in the NT only as a point where St. Paul touched on his voyage from Troas to Cnesarea, Ac 21'. The route along the coast between the ports of the province Asia on the one side and those of Syria or Egypt on the other, was probably the most frequented seaway in the whole of the Mediterranean. The vo}"age was marked by a number of stopping points,— Cos, Patara, etc., — where the ordinary ships engaged in the trade called as a matter of course ; and these are men- tioned in Ac 20 and 21, with the exception of Myua (which is given in the Western Text only). Rhodes was one of them ; and the ship on which St. Paul and the whole body of delegates wera sailing touched there between Cos and Patara. This is all in the customary form. Hundreds of ships did the same every year. An excellent illustration is supplied by the voyage of Herod, about B.C. 14, from Palestine by Rhodes, Cos, Chios, and Mityhne, to Byzantium and Sinops (see Jos. Ant. xvi. ii. 2).
Rhodes was also, beyond all doubt, one of the ports of call on the voyage from Alexandria to
RHODES
EIBLAH
26'J
Putooli or to Ostia. It is, indeed, not mentioned in the voj-agea of that class described under MVRA, but none of those narratives gives a list of harbours, and we may assume with confidence ♦.hat in each case Rhodes was a port where the eiiip called (unless in exceptional circumstances). That is proved by the voyage of Vespasian from Alexandria to Rome in A.d. 70, which was by way of the Lycian coast and Rliodes, as is seen by comparinjj Dion Cassius, IxNi. 8, vrith Zonaras, xi. 17, and Jos. BJ VII. ii. 1. The voyage of Herod the Great in B.C. 40 from Alexandria to Rome by Pamphylia and Rhodes is also a good illustration.* Herod evidently passed east and north of Cyprus, like the ship in Ac 27'"* ; but it was the stormy season, and the over-sea voyage, common in the summer season, could not then be risked : see Myka, where these two voyages may be added to the examples quoted.