Aretas

The name of several kings of an Arabian people called the Nabateans. These people are likely descendants of Nebaioth, Ishmael’s oldest son (Genesis 25:12–16; 1 Chronicles 1:29). According to the Jewish historian Josephus, Ishmael’s descendants lived in an area called Nabatene. Nabatene ranged from the Euphrates river to the Red Sea. The capital city, Sela, was called Petra in New Testament times.

The Aretas of 2 Maccabees 5:8, before whom Jason the priest was accused, ruled about 170 BC. The Nabateans were evidently friendly toward the Maccabeans (1 Maccabees 5:24–28; 9:35). Josephus mentioned two other kings named Aretas. Aretas III, originally named Obodas, extended Nabatean control and occupied Damascus during his reign from 87 to 62 BC.

The New Testament references another Aretas. The governor of Damascus under King Aretas was guarding the city to capture the apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 11:32–33). To escape, Paul's associates let him down in a basket through a window in the city wall. That Aretas has been identified as Eneas, who took the title Aretas IV and ruled from 9 BC to AD 40. He attacked and defeated Herod Antipas over a boundary dispute and also as revenge. (Antipas had divorced Aretas’s daughter in order to marry Herodias.