Ethnarch (Hastings' Dictionary)

ln 2 Co 11« it is stated that ' in Damascus the ethnarch under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes,' the word etnnarch being tr. in both AV and RV by Governor. Its exact meaning seems doubtful : it is used of Simon the high priest (1 Mac 14" 16'-'), of Hyrcanus (Jos. Anl. xiv. x. 2), and of Archelaus (Anl. xvn. xi. 4 ; JSJ u. vi. 3). It was also used for the governor of the Jews in Alex- andria (Strabo, an. Jos. Ant. XIV. vii. 2), and the head of the Jewish community in F'al.

in the time of Origen (Origenes, Ep. ad A/ricanum, § 14). The last two instances suggest that the normal use of the word was for the ruler of a nation or f6i>os living with separate laws and customs amongst those of a diti'erent race. But the sense of the term seems to have widened, and it be- came a little superior to that of tetrarch, but inferior to that of king (Schiirer, ffJP n. ii. 244, etc.) A. C. Headlam. ETHNI C^K).— An ancestor of Asaph (1 Ch 6", oaJled in v." Jeatherai).

See Genealogy.