Herod

(hero-like). This family though of Idumean origin and thus alien by race, was Jewish in faith. I. HEROD THE GREAT was the second son of Antipater, an Idumean, who was appointed procurator of Judea by Julius Caesar, B.C. 47. Immediately after his father’s elevation when only fifteen years old, he received the government of Galilee and shortly afterward that of Coele-Syria. Though Josephus says he was 15 years old at this time, it is generally conceded that there must be some mistake, as he lived to be 69 or 70 years old, and died B.C. 4; hence he must have been 25 years old at this time.—ED.) In B.C. 41 he was appointed by Antony tetrarch of Judea. Forced to abandon Judea the following year, he fled to Rome, and received the appointment of king of Judea. In the course of a few years, by the help of the Romans he took Jerusalem (B.C. 37), and completely established his authority throughout his dominions. The terrible acts of bloodshed which Herod perpetrated in his own family were accompanied by others among his subjects equally terrible, from the number who fell victims to them. According to the well-known story) he ordered the nobles whom he had called to him in his last moment to be executed immediately after his decease, that so at least his death might be attended by universal mourning. It was at the time of his fatal illness that he must have caused the slaughter of the infants at Bethlehem. (Matthew 2:16-18) He adorned Jerusalem with many splendid monuments of his taste and magnificence. The temple, which he built with scrupulous care, was the greatest of these works. The restoration was begun B.C. 20, and the temple itself was completed in a year and a half. But fresh additions were constantly made in succeeding years, so that it was said that the temple was “built in forty and six years,” (John 2:20) the work continued long after Herod’s death. (Herod died of a terrible disease at Jericho, in April, B.C. 4, at the age of 69, after a long reign of 37 years.—ED.) II. HEROD Antipas, Antipas was the son of Herod the Great by Malthake, a Samaritan. He first married a daughter of Aretas, “king of Arabia Petraea,” but afterward Herodias, the wife of his half-brother, Herod Philip. Aretas, indignant at the insult offered to his daughter, found a pretext for invading the territory of Herod, and defeated him with great loss. This defeat, according to the famous passage in Josephus, was attributed by many to the murder of John the Baptist, which had been committed by Antipas shortly before, under the influence of Herodias. (Matthew 14:4) ff.; Mark 6:17 ff.; Luke 3:19 At a later time the ambition of Herodias proved the cause of her husband’s ruin. She urged him to go to Rome to gain the title of king, cf. (Mark 6:14) but he was opposed at the court of Caligula by the emissaries of Agrippa, and condemned to perpetual banishment at Lugdunum, A.D. 39. Herodias voluntarily shared his punishment, and he died in exile. Pilate took occasion from our Lord’s residence in Galilee to bend him for examination, (Luke 23:6) ff., to Herod Antipas, who came up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. The city of Tiberias, which Antipas founded and named in honor of the emperor, was the most conspicuous monument of his long reign. III. HEROD PHILIP I. (Philip,) (Mark 6:17) was the son of Herod the Great and Mariamne. He married Herodias the sister of Agrippa I by whom he had a daughter, Salome. He was excluded from all share in his father’s possessions in consequence of his mother’s treachery, and lived afterward in a private station. IV. HEROD PHILIP II. was the son of Herod the Great and Cleopatra. He received as his own government Batanea Trachonitis, Auramtis (Gaulanitis), and some parts about Jamnia, with the title of tetrarch. Luke 3:1. He built a new city on the site of Paneas, near the sources of the Jordan, which be called Caesarea Philippi, (Matthew 16:13; Mark 8:27) and raised Bethsaida to the rank of a city under the title of Julias and died there A.D. 34. He married Salome, the daughter of Herod Philip I. and Herodias. V. HEROD AGRIPPA I. was the son of Aristobulus and Berenice, and grandson of Herod the Great. He was brought up at Rome, and was thrown into prison by Tiberius, where he remained till the accession of Caligula, who made him king, first of the tetrarchy of Philip and Lysanias; afterward the dominions of Antipas were added, and finally Judea and Samaria. Unlike his predessors, Agrippa was a strict observer of the law, and he sought with success the favor of the Jews. It is probable that it was with this view he put to death James the son of Zebedee, and further imprisoned Peter. (Acts 12:1) ff. But his sudden death interrupted his ambitious projects. (Acts 12:21,23) VI. HEROD AGRIPPA II—was the son of Herod Agrippa I. In A.D. 62 the emperor gave him the tetrarches formerly held by Philip and Lysanias, with the title of king. (Acts 25:13) The relation in which he stood to his sister Berenice, (Acts 25:13) was the cause of grave suspicion. It was before him that Paul was tried. (Acts 26:28)

Son of Aristobulus and Bernice, and grandson of Herod the Great. He was made tetrarch of the provinces formerly held by Lysanias II., and ultimately possessed the entire kingdom of his grandfather, Herod the Great, with the title of king. He put the apostle James the elder to death, and cast Peter into prison (Luke 3:1; Acts 12:1-19). On the second day of a festival held in honour of the emperor Claudius, he appeared in the great theatre of Caesarea. “The king came in clothed in magnificent robes, of which silver was the costly brilliant material. It was early in the day, and the sun’s rays fell on the king, so that the eyes of the beholders were dazzled with the brightness which surrounded him. Voices here and there from the crowd exclaimed that it was the apparition of something divine. And when he spoke and made an oration to them, they gave a shout, saying, ’It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.’ But in the midst of this idolatrous ostentation an angel of God suddenly smote him. He was carried out of the theatre a dying man.” He died (A.D. 44) of the same loathsome malady which slew his grandfather (Acts. 12:21-23), in the fifty-fourth year of his age, having reigned four years as tetrarch and three as king over the whole of Palestine. After his death his kingdom came under the control of the prefect of Syria, and Palestine was now fully incorporated with the empire.

Herod’s son by Malthace (Matt. 14:1; Luke 3:1, 19; 9:7; Acts 13:1). (See ANTIPAS.)

(Matt. 2:22), the brother of Antipas (q.v.).

The son of Herod Agrippa I. and Cypros. The emperor Claudius made him tetrarch of the provinces of Philip and Lysanias, with the title of king (Acts 25:13; 26:2, 7). He enlarged the city of Caesarea Philippi, and called it Neronias, in honour of Nero. It was before him and his sister that Paul made his defence at Caesarea (Acts 25:12-27). He died at Rome A.D. 100, in the third year of the emperor Trajan.

(Mark 6:17), the son of Herod the Great by Mariamne, the daughter of Simon, the high priest. He is distinguished from another Philip called “the tetrarch.” He lived at Rome as a private person with his wife Herodias and his daughter Salome.

The son of Herod the Great and Cleopatra of Jerusalem. He was “tetrarch” of Batanea, Iturea, Trachonitis, and Auranitis. He rebuilt the city of Caesarea Philippi, calling it by his own name to distinguish it from the Caesarea on the sea-coast which was the seat of the Roman government. He married Salome, the daughter of Herodias (Matt. 16:13; Mark 8:27; Luke 3:1).

(Matt. 2:1-22; Luke 1:5; Acts 23:35), the son of Antipater, an Idumaean, and Cypros, an Arabian of noble descent. In the year B.C. 47 Julius Caesar made Antipater, a “wily Idumaean,” procurator of Judea, who divided his territories between his four sons, Galilee falling to the lot of Herod, who was afterwards appointed tetrarch of Judea by Mark Antony (B.C. 40), and also king of Judea by the Roman senate.

He was of a stern and cruel disposition. “He was brutish and a stranger to all humanity.” Alarmed by the tidings of one “born King of the Jews,” he sent forth and “slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under” (Matt. 2:16). He was fond of splendour, and lavished great sums in rebuilding and adorning the cities of his empire. He rebuilt the city of Caesarea (q.v.) on the coast, and also the city of Samaria (q.v.), which he called Sebaste, in honour of Augustus. He restored the ruined temple of Jerusalem, a work which was begun B.C. 20, but was not finished till after Herod’s death, probably not till about A.D. 50 (John 2:20). After a troubled reign of thirty-seven years, he died at Jericho amid great agonies both of body and mind, B.C. 4, i.e., according to the common chronology, in the year in which Jesus was born.

After his death his kingdom was divided among three of his sons. Of these, Philip had the land east of Jordan, between Caesarea Philippi and Bethabara, Antipas had Galilee and Peraea, while Archelaus had Judea and Samaria.