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By: Richard Gottheil, Samuel Krauss
In the Greco-Roman world, one that stood at the head of any community, though not an independent ruler. The Hebrew word "rosh" (
), especially in the Biblical works of the post-exilic time, had perhaps a meaning related to "ethnarch" (Nestle, in Stade's "Zeitschrift," xv. 288; Schrader, "K. A. T." 3d ed., p. 310). The obscure 
= "prince of the people of God"), who bore this title in addition to that of high priest. He was called both "strategos" and "ethnarch" (ib. xiv. 47). The title 
(= "scepter of the prince of the people of God"), referring to Judas Maccabeus, the chief hero of the book. It would follow from this that there were two ethnarchs even in this period: Judas Maccabeus and Simeon. Josephus calls the latter "ethnarch," probably following the Book of Maccabees ("Ant." xiii. 6, § 7). Yet Willrich, not without reason, considers this statement to be erroneous ("Judaica," p. 83).
The title "ethnarch" was officially given to Hyrcanus II., though Pompey refused him the crown ("Ant." xx. 10, § 4). Hyrcanus' title, as given in a document of Cæsar, was "high priest and ethnarch," and his children were to be designated in the same way (xiv. 10, § 2; xiv. 8, § 5). Herod the Great also is called
The head of the Jewish community of Alexandria had the title of "ethnarch" (Strabo, in "Ant." xiv. 7, § 2), and was probably identical with the Alabarch. This may be gathered from a decree of Claudius permitting the succession of ethnarchs (ib. xix. 5, § 2). But Philo says expressly that at the time of Augustus the gerusia took over the functions of the "genarch" ("In Flaccum," § 10), and
In an epitaph at Smyrna the Jewish community is called "people" (
Bibliography:
Grätz, Gesch. 4th ed., iii. 30, comp. note 4;
Schürer, Gesch. 3d ed., i. 344, ii. 82;
J. Weiss, in Herzog-Hauck, Real-Encyc. 3d ed., v. 558;
Büchler, Das Synhedrion in Jerusalem, pp. 46, 207, Vienna, 1902.
ETHNARCH is a Greek word translated by ‘governor’ in 2Co 11:32. It is used also of Simon the high priest (1Ma 14:47; 1Ma 15:1-2). Its exact meaning is uncertain, but it appears to indicate the ruler of a nation or tribe which is itself living with separate laws, etc., amidst an alien race.
A. Souter.
This comparatively rare term is derived from ἔèíïò, ‘a race,’ and ἄñ÷åéí, ‘to rule’; perhaps the nearest English equivalent is ‘chief.’ The word is not known before the 2nd cent. b.c., and appears to indicate a ruler appointed by or over a people who were themselves part of a larger kingdom or empire, the appointment being made or recognized by its overlord or suzerain as valid. The purpose of such an appointment was perhaps primarily to safeguard the religion of a people. The earliest instance of an ethnarch known to us is that of Simon Maccabaeus. In 1Ma_14:47 Simon accepts from the people the following offices-ἀñ÷éåñáôåῦóáé êáὶ åἶíáé óôñáôçãὸò êáὶ ἐèíÜñ÷çò ôῶí Ἰïõäáßùí êáὶ ἰåñÝùí êáὶ ôïῦ ðñïóôáôῆóáé ðÜíôùí (‘to be high priest and to be general and ethnarch of the Jews and their priests and to rule over all’); and in 1Ma_15:2 a letter of King Antiochus of Syria is addressed to him as ἱåñåῖ ìåãÜëῳ êáὶ ἐèíÜñ÷ῃ (‘great priest and ethnarch’). From 1Ma_15:1-2 it is clear that the ἔèíïò was the Jews themselves, and indeed almost everywhere where the term ‘ethnarch’ occurs, it refers to a ruler over Jews. Josephus (Ant. xiv. vii. 2) shows us that the large Jewish community in the great city of Alexandria had an ‘ethnarch’ over it, and he defines his duties precisely thus: äéïéêåῖ ôå ôὸ ἔèíïò êáὶ äéáéôᾷ êñßóåéò êáὶ óõìâïëáßùí ἐðéìåëåῖôáé êáὶ ðñïóôáãìÜôùí, ὡò ἃí ðïëéôåßáò ἄñ÷ùí áὐôïôåëïῦò (‘he governs the race and decides trials in court and has charge of contracts and ordinances as if he were an absolute monarch’).
An inscription (Le Bas-Waddington, Voyage archéologique en Grèce et en Asie Mineure, Paris, 1847-77, vol. iii. no. 2196 = W. Dittenberger, Orientis Grœci Inscriptiones Selectœ, Leipzig, 1905, vol. ii. no. 616) from a village, El-Mâlikîje in the Hauran, mentions by the names ‘ethnarch’ and ‘general (or praetor) of nomads’ a chief of nomad Arabs of the time of Hadrian or Antoninus Pius who must have submitted to the Emperor.
These passages will help to illustrate the reference in 2Co_11:32. The man there mentioned was doubtless ruler of the Jews in Damascus and its territory, who were ‘permitted to exercise their own religious law very freely and fully’ (Ramsay, Pictures of the Apostolic Church, London, 1910, p. 90). He was under Aretas, who has the title âáóéëåýò (‘king,’ i.e. of Arabia), and, indeed, as has been said, the ethnarch was always lower than a king. This fact is illustrated by interesting passages in Josephus (Bellum Judaicum (Josephus) ii. vi. 3, Ant. XVII. xi. 4), where Caesar Augustus makes Archelaus not âáóéëåýò, but ἐèíÜñ÷çò, of half of the territory that had belonged to Herod, promising him the higher title later, if certain conditions were fulfilled; and in Pseudo-Lucian (Macrob. § 17, ed. Jacobitz, Leipzig, 1896, vol. iii. p. 198), where a man is ‘proclaimed âáóéëåýò instead of ἐèíÜñ÷çò of the Bosporus.’
A. Souter.
- Roman-appointed Jewish king or ruler of Palestine. See also Palestine; tetrarch