Clearly the New Testament Epistles conform in their affectionate expressions to the forms that were often employed by other letter-writers of that period of history.

5. Paul and Aretas, King of Arabia.

Paul says: "In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes in order to take me." Aretas is called by Josephus king of Arabia. He was Haretat IV, King of the Nabathæan Arabs. These Nabathæans were found in Arabia by the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal (668–626 B. c.); they conquered Edom about 400 B. C., driving the Edomites over into southern Judah; they helped one of the successors of Alexander the Great at the battle of Gaza in 312 B. c., and founded a dynasty of kings that lasted until overthrown by the Roman Emperor Trajan in 106 A. D. Haretat IV belonged to this line. The following Aramaic inscription, dated in his reign, affords monumental confirmation of his existence:

This is the tomb which Halafu, son of Kosnatan, made for himself and for Shaidu, his son, and his brothers, whatever males are born from this Halifu, both their sons and descendants by right of inheritance forever. And those who may be buried in this sepulcher and in this structure are this Shaidu and Manuath, Kenushath, and Ribamath, and Umaiyath and Shalimath, daughters of this Halifu. Also no descendant of Shaidu has authority, and no man after him of their sons or descendants, to sell this sepulcher, or to inscribe an epitaph or an emblem for anyone, except for the wife of one of them, or for his daughters, or kinsman, or relative by marriage he may inscribe the tomb. If any one shall do contrary to this, then the fine of Dushara, the god, our lord, shall be imposed upon him to the extent of five hundred silver shekels of Haretat, and in accordance with this inscription shall be deposited in the temple of Kaisha. Month Nisan, year fortieth of Haretat, King of the Nabathæans, who loves his people. Rauma and Abdobodat, stone-cutters.2

As Haretat ruled from 9 B. c. to 40 A. D., this inscription was written in 31 A. D., just a few years before Paul escaped from the officers of Haretat at Damascus. There are many other inscriptions dated in the reign of this king.

Another reads as follows:

This is the sepulcher and two monuments over it, which Abdobodat, the general, made for Aitebel, the general, his father, and for Aitebel, the commander of the two camps which are in Luhitu and Abarta, the son of Abdobodat. This is in the district of their command, which they exercised in the two places for thirty-six years in the reign of Haretat, King of the Nabathæans, who loves his people. The above-mentioned (monument) was constructed in the forty-sixth year of his reign.3

12 Cor. 11: 32.

2 Translated from the Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, Pars II, Tom. I, Fasc. ii, No. 209. 3 Ibid., Pars II, Tom. I, Fasc. ii, No. 196.

The forty-sixth year of Haretat was the year 37 A. D. The monument here translated was found at Medeba east of the Jordan (see Num. 21:30; Josh. 13:9), and the two places mentioned in it are believed to be Nabathæan names for Medeba and Rabbah Ammon (2 Sam. 11 : 1, etc.). It is evidence that Haretat had held this territory for a long time. Paul's escape from Damas

cus (2 Cor. 11: 32) occurred between the date of the preceding inscription and this one.