IN ARABIA.
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among the Roman Arabs. There were Arabians present at the feast of Pentecost,[1] and St. Paul resided some time in the dominions of the Arabian king Hareth, or Arethas, whose territory included the city of Damascus.[2] Agbarus, so celebrated in the annals of the early Christians, was a prince of the territory of Edessa,[3] and Christianity had made some progress in the desert in the time of Arnobius.[4] Bishops of Bostra (Basra), which was considered as an Arabian town, are mentioned in early records.[5] The tribe of Ghassan was celebrated for its early attachment to the Christian faith;[6] and during the
- ↑ Acts ii. 11.
- ↑ Acts ix. 25. 2 Cor. xi. 33.
- ↑ Bayer, Historia Asrhoena et Edessena, p. 105. Moses Choren. Hist. Armen. lib. i. c. 29. See also Eusebius and the Eccl. Historians.
- ↑ Arnobius, adv. Gentes, lib. 2. p. 50.
- ↑ See Fabricius, Lux. Evangel. p. 693. Buchanan's Christian Researches. At the Nicene council were present six bishops of the province of Arabia, the bishops of Bostra, Philadelphia, of the Jabrudi, Sodomi, of Betharma, and Dionysias (Concil. tom. i. p. 27); of the province of Phœnicia, bordering on Arabia, the bishops of Damascus, Palmyra, Emessa, &c.; of Cœlosyria, the bishops of Antioch, Apamea, Rhaphanea, Hierapolis, Gabala, Zeugma, (or Birtha,) Gindara, (Jindartz,) Acoraba, Germanicia, &c.; of Mesopotamia, the bishops of Edessa, Nisibis, &c. (p. 27.) At the first Constantinopolitan council were bishops of the following sees — Provinciæ Bostron, Dionysia, Adrana, Constantia, Neapolis; Provinciæ Osdroënæ, Edessa, Carræ, Bathna; in Mesopotamia, Amida, Constantina, Imeria.
- ↑ Ibn Kothaib, ap. Eichhorn, Monument. Antiq. Hist. Arab. p. 150.
