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ETHNARCH

(Gk. ethnárchēs)

A political title (lit., “ruler of the people”) most commonly designating either a dependent monarch (1 Macc. 14:47; 15:1-2) or the leader of the semi-autonomous Jewish community in Alexandria (Josephus Ant. 14.7.2). Additional meanings have been proposed for the unnamed ethnarch under King Aretas in Damascus (2 Cor. 11:32): city governor, tribal sheik, ethnic consul, and tribal military leader. Despite no external evidence for Aretas IV’s control of Damascus, most scholars accept Paul’s account and suggest either that Aretas received Damascus as a benefaction from Gaius in 37 c.e. or that Aretas briefly took control of Damascus after defeating Herod Antipas in 36. A minority understands the ethnarch and Aretas’ jurisdiction as outside Damascus and thus relieved of the burden of asserting Nabatean control of the city. This incident may provide a fixed point within Pauline chronology by placing Paul’s Arabian mission (Gal. 1:7) between 36 and the death of Aretas in 39/40. However, the historical reliability of 2 Cor. 11:32-33 is challenged by its identification as a textual gloss and by the narrative’s similarities to Josh. 2.

Bibliography. J. Taylor, “The Ethnarch of King Aretas at Damascus: A Note on 2 Cor 11,32-33,,” RB 99 (1992): 719-28.

Jennifer K. Berenson Maclean

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ETHNARCH

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)