I love putting together stuff that nobody thought of putting together before, so here’s the link between Indy and the Magi: You know the backdrop for the final scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is the famous “Treasury” at the historic site of the ancient city of Petra. It’s pictured here. Well, the Treasury is not a treasury of any kind. Instead it is the tomb of the Nabatean king Aretas IV.
These tombs carved in rock faces were common throughout the realm of the Babylonians, and although Aretas IV dates from a time much later, the prevalence of the rock face tombs show the influence of the Babylonians who controlled the Arabian peninsula around 500 BC. This was the time of the reign of King Nabonidus who was the father of the Biblical Belshazzar. Nabonidus lived at Tayma in Arabia and his son ruled as regent in Babylon.
Fast forward five hundred years and the fabulously wealthy Nabatean kingdom occupied present day Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, Syria and parts of Iraq. Aretas IV took the throne in 9 BC and reigned as King of the Nabateans until 40 AD. This means he was king of the Nabateans during the birth of Jesus Christ. Herod the Great’s mother was a Nabatean princess and he spent much of his boyhood at the Nabatean capital of Petra. Aretas IV’s daughter married Herod Antipas — Herod the Great’s son. This was the wife Herod Antipas divorced…