Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

PETRA

(Gk. Pétra)

The Great Temple at Petra, probably constructed in the early 1st century c.e. and used into the Byzantine period. The 7000 sq. m. precinct is comprised of a propylaea, a lower temenos, and a monumental grand stairway which leads to the upper temenos, the sacred enclosure for the temple proper
(photograph, A. A. W. Joukowsky; courtesy of the Brown University Excavations)

An ancient capital city in the southeastern desert of modern Jordan. The Petra Basin was most certainly occupied from Neolithic times but gained its first prominence as a stronghold, if not the capital city, of the biblical Edomites. The towering mountain today called el-Habis is regarded by some as the biblical Sela, from whose peak King Amaziah is said to have cast down some 10 thousand Edomites (2 Kgs. 14:7).

Guarded on the east and west by mountain ranges, with a defensible cleft as an entry and ample springs, and adjacent to the major trade routes of the day, Petra provided both security and potential for commercial enterprise. In the later times the site served as the seat of an alliance between a seminomadic Bedouin group that had drifted upward along the coast of the Arabian Peninsula and the sedentary Edomites. The amalgamation of the two peoples became known as the Nabateans, with dissident Edomites withdrawing into southern Palestine and becoming known as Idumeans. Through successful Nabatean commercial ventures, especially because of the lucrative frankincense and myrrh trade, Petra became urbanized, most probably during the reign of King Aretas IV (9 b.c.e.–40 c.e.).

Relative isolation in the eastern desert permitted the Nabateans to escape immediate occupation by Rome after the invasion of Pompey in 64 b.c.e., but Greco-Roman influence in art, architecture, and virtually all aspects of daily life was brought back to Petra by traders. Ultimately Emperor Trajan was forced to consolidate the eastern regions of the empire, and Petra was officially occupied in 110 c.e. Neither this occupation or later Byzantine influence, however, had much effect on Nabatean daily life.

On 19 May 363, a major earthquake destroyed the city. Modern excavations indicate that no major rebuilding was done, and occupation thereafter was relatively slight.

In the late 6th century, Christian influence resulted in a resurgence of Petra, and at least two churches were constructed, but with the Islamic conquest the site ceased to be of strategic importance. The Crusader period brought new interest in the area because of its proximity to taxable routes of Muslim caravans. A major fortress was constructed just outside the western rim of the basin, with a smaller one placed atop el-Habis inside the ancient city center. By this period Petra had accrued considerable biblical folklore, especially connected to Moses and the Exodus, which it maintains to this day.

With the fall of the Latin kingdom, Petra disappeared from Western view, and it was not until the epic journey of Johann Burckhardt in 1812 that the site was “rediscovered” and interest in its people revived. Because of the political situation in the region, no excavations were possible at Petra until those begun in 1929 by George Horsfield, during which the distinctive fine, thin pottery found there became the marker for identifying Nabatean sites throughout Syro-Palestine. Petra today ranks as one of the major tourist sites in the Middle East, both for its natural beauty and for the magnificence of its rock-carved monuments.

Philip C. Hammond

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

PETRA

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)