R. SCOTT.
ARCHELAUS ('A/,xAaos) is named once in the NT (Mt 2--), and probably is referred to in the parable of the Pounds (Lk W-«-). He was tlie elder of the two sons of Herod the Great by Malthace, a Sam- aritan woman (Jos. BJ I. xxviii. 4, xxxiii. 7). Judoea, with the title of ' king,' was bequeathed to him by his father's will ; but he would not assume the royal dignity till he had obtained con- firmation of that will from the emperor Augustus {Ant. XVII. viii. 2-4). Before his departure to Rome a rebellion broke out in Jerusalem ; and in quelling it his soldiers put three thousand men to death, among whom were pilgrims visiting the Holy City for the passover («5. XVII. ix. 3). Thus at the beginning of his reign an evil reputation was gained by Archelaus, and the alarm of Joseph may be understood {'But when he heard tliat A rchclaus did rcitjii in Judwa in the room of his father Hrrod, he ims afraid to go thither ').
After the rebellion, Archelaus proceeded to Rome {Ant. XVII. ix. 3-7, cf. Lk 19'=). Augustus, dealing
114
ARIJIATH^A
ARISTION (AEISTO)
with Herod's will, received a deputation from tlie people of Judiea, -who begged that neither Arche- laus nor any of his brothers should be appointed king (cf. Lfc 19'*). The emperor finally decided that Archelaus should receive Juda-a, Samaria, and Idumsea, -with the title not of 'king,' but of 'ethnarch' {Ant. XVII. xi. 1-4; BJ II. vi. 3). On his return from Rome the ethnarch sought ven- geance against his enemies (cf. Lk 19^) in Judsea and Samaria. In the ninth or tenth year of his reign, after many acts of tyranny and violence, he was banished by the emperor to Vienne in Gaul (Ant. xvil. xiii. 2). According to Jerome, the tomb of Archelaus was pointed out near Bethlehem {fie Situ, et Nomin. Loc. Hebraic. 101. 11).
LrrsRATUKE. — Josephus, Antiquities oftheJews, Warsofthe Jews [BJ], as cited above ; references s. 'Archelaus' in Index to Schurer's Geschichte des Jiidischen Votkes im Zeitalter Jesu Chrieti, 1898-1901 (Eng. tr. of 2nd ed. 1885-901 ; and Hausrath's SeutestamcntUche Zeitgeschidite, 1873-77 [Eng. tr. in 2 vols.
lished i
I 3rd ed.
1 1879.
£RIMATH.S;A {'Api/iaBaia) is mentioned in Mt 27=', Mk 15«, Lk 23», and Jn 19» as the place from which Joseph, who buried the body of Jesus, came up to Jerusalem. In the Ono)nastieon (225. 12) it is identified with 'kpiiaBin 2ei0d (Kamathaim- zophim*), the city of Elkanah and Samuel (I S 1'), near Diospolis (Lydda) and in the district of Timnah (Tibneh). In 1 Mac ll^*, Ramathem is referred to along with Aphsrema and Lydda as a Samaritan toparchy transferred, in 145 B.C., to Judasa. These notices of Ramathaim point to BeitJRima, 13 miles E.N.E. of Lydda, and 2 miles N. of Timnah,— an identification adopted by G. A. Smith (HGHL 254 n. 7) and Buhl [GAP 170). Another possible site is R&m-aUah, 3 miles S.W. of Bethel, suggested by Ewald (Hist. ii. 421). The proposed sites S. of Jerusalem are not ' in the hill- country of Ephraim ' (1 S P). If Arimatha'a, then, be identified with the Ramathaim of Elkanah, it may weU be at the modern hill-village of Brit- Rima. The LXX form of Ramathaim \a' Apixadaiix (ISP and elsewhere), thus providing a link be- tween Ramathaim and Arimathsea.
A. W. Cooke.
ARISTEAS (Letter of).— This interesting piece of fiction may lind a place in this Dictionary, because it gives the first account of that work which more tlian any other paved the way of the gospel in early times, namely, the Greek trans- lation of the OT, the so-called Septuagint. There is no agreement as yet about either the age or the aim of this composition. That it is a fiction is now generally admitted. The author pretends to have been one of the two ambassadors — Andreas, dpxi<ru/iaTO(/>i/\a| of the king, being the other— sent by king Ptolemoeus Philadelphus to the high priest Eleazar of Jerusalem in order to get for him a copy of the Law, and men to translate it for the Royal Library at Alexandria. The letter gives a long description of the gifts sent by Philadelphus to Jerusalem, of the city, its temple and the religious customs of the Jews, and of the table-talk between the king and each of the 72 interpreters. When the work was finished, a solenm curse was de- nounced on any one who should change anything in it (cf. Dt 4=, 'Rev 22'8-i9). Schiirer, I. Abrahams, and others fix the date about B.C. 200 ; Herriot (on Philo) dates it 170-150 ; Wellhausen (Isr. tind Jiid. Gesch." 1897, p. 232) in the 1st cent. B.C. (but in 4th ed. 1901, p. 236, he assims it to the 2nd cent.) ; Wendland, between 96 and 63,t nearer to 96 ; L.
• On this name (which is almost certainly based on a textual corruption), see Hastings' DD, vol. iv. p. IflSa note, f In Hastings' DB iv. 43S'', line 7 from bottom of text, read
Cohn doubts whether it was known to Philo ; Graetz placed it in the reign of Tiberius, and Willrich (Judaica, 1900, pp. 111-130) brings its composition down to 'later than A.D. 33.' Lom- broso was the first to show that the 'author was well acquainted with the details of court life in the times of the Ptolemies ' ; and recent researches have confirmed this ; on the other hand, there are interesting connexions with the Greek of the NT ; compare KarapoXri used absolutely for ' creation ' (Mt 13^5 and Aristeas, § 129 [a usage apparently unknown to Hort ad 1 P 1-", and Swete, Introd. p. 397]); avaTarreaBai (Lk 1' and Aristeas, § 144; Mt 6''- '2 and Aristeas, § 140, etc.).