Jews and Others
land: ‘‘and with the passage of time it came about in their case that they ‘were’
Jews.’’^35 Yet even Strabo can assert that theIdoumaioiwere originallyNaba-
taioi, who were expelled by them, and later attached themselves to Jewish
customs.^36 Josephus could easily have placed a different construction on their
conversion.
It should be made clear that what we are speaking of here is neither the
(unknowable) realities of biological descent nor the historical ‘‘facts’’ of actual
relations between the Jews and their neighbours, but the ethnic and religious
categories used by Josephus. In the case of theItouraioiandIdoumaioihe does
not, and in the case of theNabataioihe does, take the opportunity to connect
(at least implicitly) the name of one of the legendary sons of Ishmael to a cur-
rent ethnic name; to assert categorically that this ethnic group wereArabes;
therewith to emphasise the descent from Abraham which they shared with
the Jews; and to use the story of Abraham, Hagar, Ishmael, Sarah, and Isaac
to explain both a custom (circumcision) allegedly common to both groups
and a significant variation (circumcision at eight days and at thirteen years).
It cannot of course be claimed that Josephus either intends to, or does,con-
finethe description ‘‘Arab’’ to the Nabataeans. As we have seen, the preface to
hisJewishWarreflects his awareness that there were ‘‘Arabs’’ living beyond the
Euphrates, in Parthian domains. One such, ‘‘Abias king of the Arabs,’’ indeed
appears in his narrative of the conversion to Judaism of the ruling house of
Adiabene.^37 He can also refer to Arab dynasts operating in Syria in the late
Hellenistic period,^38 and makes an allusion to Arabia Felix (Eudaimon), the
Ye m e n.^39 On one occasion, but as it seems only one, he also speaks of groups
other than the Nabataeans, among those bordering on Judaea, as being ‘‘Arab.’’
This is when he records that Alexander Jannaeus conquered ‘‘of the Arabs the
Moabitaiand theGalaaditai.’’^40
Josephus’ use of the term was thus not strictly confined to one political
group, the inhabitants of the kingdom which had its capital at what he calls
‘‘Arabian Petra.’’ But a large proportion of his uses of the term do refer to this
territory, its population, and their kings. What is more, when he encoun-
ters the termNabataioiin a narrative source, Maccabees, he can expand it
.Ant. , –.
. Strabo,Geog.,,()Stern,Greek and Latin AuthorsI, no. .
. Textton.above;Ant. , –.
.Ant. , –, from Macc. :–;Ant. , , an Arab dynast called Zizos near
Beroea.
.Ant. , —also settled by descendants of Abraham; see text to nn. – above.
Note alsoAnt.,.
.Ant.,.