]\Iore coins and inscriptions date from the time of Aretas IV. than from any Nabatsean reign. While the standing title of Aretas III. was ^i\i\- Xtivos, that which the last chose for himself was Qm -lay, 'Lover of his people.' He set country above culture ; he was a Nabatfean patriot first and a Hellenist afterwards. It was probably this success- ful reign that Josephus had in view when he wrote of the extension of the Nabatsean king- dom from the Euphrates to the Red Sea (Ant. I. xii. 4).
Literature. — In addition to the authorities cited in the body of the art., see Literature appended to art. Arabia, and P. Ewald, art. ' Aretas,' in PRE3. JaMES StRAHAN.
ARISTARCHUS ('Aplarapxos). —A Macedonian Christian and a native of Thessalonica who became one of the companions of St. Paul on his third missionary journey. He is first mentioned on the occasion of the riot in Ephesus, where along with another companion of the Apostle named Gains (q.v.), probaljly of Derbe, he was rushed by the excited multitude into the theatre (Ac 19^^). He
seems to have been an influential member of the Church of Thessalonica, and was deputed along with Secundus (q.v.) to convej' the contributions of the Church to Jerusalem (Ac 20'*). He was thus present in the city at the time of St. Paul's arrest, and seems to have remained in Syria during the two years of the Apostle's imprisonment in Ctesarea, for we find him embarking with the prisoner on the ship bound for the West (Ac 27^). It is not certain that he accompanied St. Paul to Rome. He may, as Lightfoot supposes (Phil.* 34), have dis- embarked at Myra (Ac 27^). On the other hand, Ramsay (St. PauP, 316) believes that both Aris- tarchus and St. Luke accompanied the Apostle on the voyage as his personal slaves. In any case Aris- tarchus was present in Rome soon after St. Paul's arrival, and it is not impossible that he came later with contributions from the Philippian Church to the Apostle. When the Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon were written, Aristarchus was with the Apostle in Rome. In the former (Col 4^") he is called the ' fellow-prisoner ' (<rwaLxiJ'<i\u}Tos) of the writer, and we find the same term, which usually indicates physical restraint, applied to Epaphras (q.v.) in Philem-^. While the idea in the Apostle's mind may be that Aristarchus, like himself, was taken captive by Jesus Christ, it is more probable that Aristarchus shared St. Paul's prison in Rome, either as a suspected friend of the prisoner or voluntarily as tlie Apostle's slave — a position which he and Epaphras may have taken alternately. In Philem'^'' he is called 'fellow- labourer' of the writer. Nothing is known of his subsequent history. According to tradition he suilered martyrdom under Nero.
Literature. — W. M. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller^, London, 1897, pp. 279, 316 ; J. B. Lightfoot, Colossians and Philemoni, do. 1879, p. 236, Pkilippiang*, do. 1878, p. 34 ; artt. in HDB and in DBi ; R. J. Knowling, in JEGT ii. [1900] 414.
W. F. Boyd.
ARISTOBULUS ('ApKXTd^ovXos, a Greek name frequently adopted by Romans and Jews, and borne by several members of the Maccabaean and Herodian families). — In Ro 16^" St. Paul salutes ' them which are of the household of Aristobulus ' (tous iK rCiv 'Apia-To^ovXov), i.e. the Christians in his faTnilia or establishment of freedmen and slaves (perhaps known as Aristobuliani, for which the Greek phrase would be equivalent). Lightfoot thinks that Aristobulus was a grandson of Herod the Great, and brother of Agrippa and Herod. This Aristobulus lived and died in Rome in a private station (see Jos. BJ II. xi. 6, Ant. XX. i. 2). After his death it is supposed that his ' house- hold ' passed over to the Emperor, but retained the name of their former master. The ' household of Aristobulus' would naturally include many Ori- entals and Jews, and therefore probably some Christians. The name Herodion (q.v.), which immediately follows, suggests a connexion with the Herodian dynasty. If Lightfoot is right, the reference to the ' household of Aristobulus ' is strong evidence for the Roman destination of these salutations. The Christians in the ' house- hold' would naturally form one of the distinct communities of which the Church at Rome was apparently made up (cf. v." and the phrases in vv.6-15). We have no knowledge as to whether the master himself was a convert. See Lightfoot, Philippians*, 1878, p. 174 f.
T. B. Allworthy.
ARK.— The LXX and the NT use kl^ut6% = q. wooden chest or box, as a terminus technicus both for Noah's ark (njg), and for the ark (\\-\^) of the covenant.
1. An interesting account of the successive phases of modern opinion regarding the former ark will be found in EBr^^ (s.v.). The writer of Hebrews (IV),
92
AEMAGEDDOI^
AEMOUE
taking the story as he finds it, refers to Noah's forethought as a supreme instance of that faitli which is the conviction of things not seen — a faith by which he not only virtually condemned the world, bringing its careless infidelity into strong relief, but became heir of that righteousness which is faith's crown and reward (ttjs (card Tria-nv 8iKai.o- (Tiivtis). St. Peter (1 P 3'^^-), supplementing a tradi- tion which is found in the Book of Enocft (6-16; cf. Jubilees, 5), imagines Christ, as a bodiless spirit, preaching, in the days between His Passion and His Resurrection, to the spirits in prison. These are the disobedient and, to St. Peter (himself like a spirit in prison during those three days), unhappy children of the unlawful union between angels and the daughters of men, condemned rebels Avho in vain sought the intervention of Enoch on their behalf in that time of Divine long-sufiering when Noah was preparing the ark in which he saved himself and his family (see R. H. Charles, Bk. of Jub., Lond. 1902, p. 43 ff.),