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Bible Encyclopedias
Petra

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature

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Pe´tra was the capital of the Nabathaean Arabs in the land of Edom, and seems to have given name to the kingdom and region of Arabia Petrœa. As there is mention in the Old Testament of a stronghold which successively belonged to the Amorites (), the Edomites () and the Moabites (, comp. in Hebrew ), and bore in Hebrew the name of Selah, which has the same meaning as Petra in Greek, viz., 'a rock,' that circumstance has led to the conjecture that the Petra of the Nabatheans had been the Selah of Edom. But the consideration of that point in a work of this nature falls more naturally under the Bible head of Selah, to which article accordingly the reader is referred; and there likewise the question will be disposed of as to whether (on the supposition of Petra being the Selah of Scripture) its site is to be identified with that of the modern Kereh, or with the locality of the far famed Wady Musa [ARABIA; IDUMEA; NEBAIOTH].

 

 

 

 

Bibliography Information
Kitto, John, ed. Entry for 'Petra'. "Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature". https://www.studylight.org/​encyclopedias/​eng/​kbe/​p/petra.html.
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