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Obodas I (; ) was a Nabataean king who ruled over the kingdom from 96 to 85 BC. Tradition holds that Obodas was deified after death, though this may be based on a faulty understanding of Nabataean religious practices which remain largely obscure to modern scholarship.
His name transcribed in Nabataean Aramaic was also found in an inscription carved into a rock overlooking the Ein Avdat gorge, just over four kilometers from the site of the ruins of one of the Nabataean cities he ruled over in Palestine's Negev. It is composed of four letters 'a-b-d-t (Square Aramaic script:אבדת or Arabic language:عبدة), and is transliterated as 'Abdeh, the original Arabic name for the town of Avdat. Al-Mallah transcribes his name in Arabic as ,
Then he ambushed Alexander Jannaeus near Gadara (Umm Qais), just east of the Sea of Galilee. Using camel cavalry, he forced Jannaeus into a valley where he completed the ambush, thereby getting revenge for the Nabateans' loss of Gaza. Moab and Gilead, two mountainous areas east of the Dead Sea and the Jordan River, were returned.
Around 86 BCE, the Seleucid ruler, Antiochus XII Dionysus, invaded Nabatea. During the Battle of Cana, Antiochus was slain and his demoralized army perished in the desert. The Nabataeans, seeing how Obodas defeated both the Hasmoneans and the Greeks, started to venerate Obodas as a god.
Obodas was buried in the Negev, at a place that was renamed in his honour, Avdat. He was succeeded by his brother Aretas III.
"May he who reads be remembered in good memory before Obodas the god
The next three lines in Arabic use a more poetic language and have challenged scholars seeking to translate them, particularly since the Nabataean alphabet could not represent all the sounds that exist in Arabic, and the similarity between the "d" and "r" letters in Nabataean script complicates decipherment. One of the first translations and most cited is:
"And he acts neither for benefit nor for favor. And if death claims us
The inscription is dated to no later than 150 CE, making it the oldest inscription in Arabic (using a non-Arabic alphabet) documented to date.
Hashim Yahya Al-Mallah (2011). 9782745158444, Dar Al Kotob Al Ilmiyah دار الكتب العلمية. . ISBN 9782745158444 which means "submission, obedience or worship (of god)".
Life
Obodas I was the successor of Aretas II, and one of his sons, from whom he inherited the war with the Hasmonean kingdom.Francisco del Río Sánchez (2026). 9788447537488, Publicaciones i Ediciones de Universitat de Barcelona. . ISBN 9788447537488 He defeated them around 93 BCE on the Golan Heights.
Inscriptions
Nabataeans wrote using a variation of the Aramaic language script that they developed into Nabataean Aramaic, however, their spoken language - or at least one of the prominent ones used between them - was Arabic language. (2026). 9780191056994, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191056994 There are several inscriptions mentioning Obodas, most cut into stone, and at least one inscribed onto a bronze object.
Ein Avdat ('Abdeh)
The six-line inscription carrying the king's name was carved into a rock overlooking the gorge of Ein Avdat several kilometers to the north of where the ruins of the city of Abdeh lie. The script used is Nabataean Aramaic, and the first half of the inscription is in that language, while the last three are written in a colloquial form of the Arabic. There is some damage to the inscription that obscures half of the second line. The first three lines are translated by Moshe Sharon as follows:
And may he who wrote (also) be remembered ...
Garmalāhi son of Taymalāhi a statue before Obodas the god"
Let me not be claimed. And if affliction seeks, let it not seek us
Garmalāhi wrote with his hand"
Petra
An inscription at Petra dedicated to the deity Dushara mentions Obodas and calls him "king of the Nabataeans" and "king of the Arabs", the same titles carried by his father Aretas II.
Bronze disc
A bronze disc carrying an inscription mentioning "Obodas the god" (lʿbdt ʾlhʾ) was discovered in Khirbet al-Falahat in Wadi Musa. The disc is speculated to have formed part of an incense oil burner or lamp, though no Nabataean examples of the complete item has yet been discovered. The lettering is inscribed on the outer edge of the object and is assumed to continue on the parts of the other parts of the burner or lamp that remain undiscovered. The English translation reads:
"This is the oil burner (or oil lamp?) and the summer vessel (?) which Zwyls the priest and his son 'Abd'obodat dedicated to Obodas the God in the temple of cult reliefs (?) in Gaia for the life of Rabbel the king, king of the Nabataeans who gives life and saves his people and for the life ..."
'Abd'obadat is a Nabataean personal name that appears in other dedicatory inscriptions and it means "servant of Obodat", and Abd is a common component in Arabic personal names.
See also
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