PETRA: Lost City of Stone," on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City through July 6, provides an in-depth look at the Nabataeans, a civilization contemporary with New Testament events. Learn more about the exhibition "Petra: Lost City of Stone" online at www.amnh.org/exhibitions/petra/.
The Nabataeans were shrewd and prosperous Arabian traders who controlled caravan routes used to bring incense, spice, perfume, and other luxuries to the Mediterranean area, including Greece and Rome, from as far away as India. They also built monumental buildings into mountainsides and water management systems so advanced that—despite only six inches of rain annually—their water supply could have sustained a modern city of 100,000.
Petra, the capital of the Nabataean Kingdom, is only 100 miles southeast of Jerusalem, and two Nabataeans played a role in the Gospels, although their involvement is mostly behind the scenes. The best known is the Nabataean princess who was divorced by Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee at the time of John the Baptist and Jesus. Herod divorced her when he fell in love with Herodias, his halfbrother's wife. Although it was against Jewish law for a man to marry his brother's wife while his brother was still alive, Herod Antipas married Herodias. Herod's ruthlessness deterred most people from challenging the marriage publicly, whatever they may have thought in private. But it did not stop John the Baptist, even though he was arrested and eventually executed as a result.
