Supposed Coin of Aretas III, with a similar Legend to the foregoing.
another coin extant inscribed ^iKiWrjvoc, i. e. lover of the Greeks (Eckhel, Doctr. Num. iii, 330), that may have belonged to this Aretas. — Kitto, s. v.
It has been supposed by man}' that it was at the above juncture that Aretas took possession of Damas- cus, and placed a governor in it (i9i>ap\t]ij) with a garrison, as stated by the Apostle Paul : " In Damas- cus the governor under Aretas, the king, kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me; and through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands" (2 Cor. xi, 32, compared with Acts ix, 24). In that case we are furnished with a chronological mark in
ARETAS
386
ARGENTEITS CODEX
the apostle's history. From Gal. i, 18, it appears that Paul went up to Jerusalem from Damascus three years after bis conversion. See Paul. The Empe- ror Tiberius died March 16, A.D. 37 ; and, as the af- fairs of Arabia were settled in the second year of Ca- ligula, Damascus was then most probably reoccupied by the Romans. The city under Augustus and Tibe- rius was attached to the province of Syria ; and we have Damascene coins of both these emperors, and again of Nero and his successors. But we have none of Caligula and Claudius, and the following circum- stances make it probable that the rulership of Damas- cus was changed after the death of Tiberius. By this occurrence at Rome a complete reversal took place in the situation of Antipas and his enemy. The former was ere long (A.D. 39) banished to Lyons, and his kingdom given to Agrippa, his foe (Ant. xviii, 7), who had been living in habits of intimacy with the new emperor (Ant. xviii, 6, 5). It would be natural that Aretas, who had been grossly injured by Antipas, should, by this change of affairs, be received into fa- vor ; and the more so as Vitellius had an old grudge against Antipas (Ant. xviii, 4, 5). Now in the year 38 Caligula made several changes in the East, granting Ituraaa to Soaemus, Lesser Armenia and parts of Ara- bia to Cotys, the territory of Cotys to Rhasmetalces, and giving to Polemon, son of Polemon, his father's gov- ernment. These facts, coupled with that of no Dam- ascene coins of Caligula or Claudius existing, make it probable that about this time Damascus, which be- longed to the predecessor of Aretas (Ant. xiii, 5, 2), was granted to him by Caligula. The other hypoth- eses, that the ethnarch was onty visiting the city (as if he could then have guarded the walls to prevent es- cape), that Aretas had seized Damascus on Vitellius giving up the expedition against him (as if a Roman governor of a province would allow one of its chief cities to be taken from him merely because he was in uncertainty' about the pulley of a new emperor), are very improbable (Wieseler, Chron. cles apostoliscken Zeitalters, p. 174). If, then, Paul's flight took place in A.D. 39, his conversion must have occurred in A.D. 36 (Neander's History of the Planting of the Christian Church, i, 107; Lardner's Credibility, etc., Supplement, ch. xi ; Works, v, 497, ed. 1835 ; Schmidt in Keil's Analekt, iii, 135 sq. ; Bertholdt, Einl. v, 2702 sq.). But it is still more likely that the possession of Damascus by Aretas to which Paul alludes occur- red earlier, on the affront of his daughter by the es- pousal of Herodias (Luke iii, 19, 20; Mark vi, 16; Matt, xiv, 3), which stands in connection with the death of John the Baptist (q. v.) ; and in that case it affords neither date nor difficulty in the apostle's his- tory (see Browne's Ordo Sceclorum, p. 113 n. ; Cony- beare and Ilowson, i, 82 ; Smith's Diet, of Class. Biog. s. v.). — Smith, s. v. See Chronology.
4. One or more other kings of Arabia by the same name are mentioned in history (Strabo, xvi, 781 ; Dio Cass, xxxvii, 15; comp. Assemann, Bill. Or. i, 367; ii, 331 ; III, i, 139), and a coin of one of them is ex- tant (Minuet, Disc, des medailles antiques, p. 284, 285; comp. Conybeare and Howson, St. Paul, i. 107) ; but it is not clear that the Aretas whom Josephus names as having a contest with Syllaeus (Ant. xvii, 3, 2; War, i, 29, 3) was different 'from the preceding, and the succeeding kings of that name are unimportant in any Scriptural relation (see Anger, De tempor. ratione, p. 173; llcyne, De Areta Arubum rege, Viteb. 1775;
Third Coin of Areta-' ill, I IT, or Inter, perhaps earlier), with the same Inscription.
Hcinold, De ethnarcha Judaorum Paulo obsidiante, Jen. 1757).
Aretas, or Arethas, a bishop of Caesarea, in Cappadocia, is supposed to have lived in the second half of the sixth century. He wrote a Commentary on the Revelation (SuXAoy?) t&iyijcUuv'), giving a collec- tion of the opinions of different authors. See Andkew (Bisho]) of Ccesared).
Aretius, Benedict, a celebrated theologian and botanist ; professor of logic at Marburg, 1548 ; ap- pointed professor of languages at Berne, in Switzer- land, 1563, and professor of theology the same year ; in which office he remained until his death in 1754, leaving many works, among them — 1. Examtn Theo- loyicum, or Loci Communes (Geneva, 1759 and 1617), a voluminous work, much sought after at the time : — 2. Commentarii Breves in Pentaleuehum (Berne, 1602): — 3. Lectiones vii de Ceena Domini (Geneva, 1589): — 4. Also Commentaries on the Four Gospels, on the Acts, on all the Epistles of St. Paul, on the Apocalypse. In 1580 appeared a Commentary on the whole New Tes- tament, in 11 vols. 8vo. — Adam, Vita Thcol. Germ.; Landon, Ecd. Diet, i, 512.