Nabateans, or Nabuthites Nabathites
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(1 Macc. 5:25, Gen. 25:13, Is. 60:7)—a nomadic people in Stony Arabia, tracing their lineage from the eldest son of Ishmael, Nebaioth. The prophet Isaiah (60:7) mentions the flocks of Nebaioth together with the flocks of Kedar, which shall come up with acceptance as an offering upon the altar of the Lord—that is, he speaks of the Nabateans as one of the nomadic peoples who, in time, are to enter into the Church of Christ. The Nabateans of the apocryphal books were undoubtedly an Arabian tribe and lived between the Euphrates and the Red Sea (1 Macc. 5:25, 9:35).
They are mentioned by Josephus, Plutarch, Strabo, Ovid, Lucan, and Juvenal. In recent times they have drawn particular attention on account of the following two circumstances: first, owing to the discovery of the so-called very ancient Nabatean literature. This theory was first put forward by the Petersburg professor Chwolson (Remains of Ancient Babylonian Literature, 1859). The other circumstance, which places the Nabateans in a particular light, is the supposition that the famous inscriptions on the rocks of Sinai were produced chiefly by them—an opinion defended with particular force by many German scholars.
In more recent times the name of the Nabateans has been applied to a small tribe inhabiting the marshy country of Chaldea, or Arabian Iraq, a tribe engaged in agriculture but very ignorant. An ancient tradition of the Eastern Church, transmitted by Assemani (Bibliotheca Orientalis, vol. III, pt. II, p. 4), testifies that the Gospel was preached to the Nabateans in apostolic times.