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Herod

Herod

Luke 1:5


 Herod
Herod (hairʹuhd), name of a family of Idumean origin with strong connections with the Roman government who, from the time of Queen Alexandra (76-67 B.C.), became centrally involved in the affairs of the Jewish state. Members of the family, under a variety of titles, governed Palestine and adjacent areas from ca. 55 B.C. until near the close of the first century A.D. The name ‘Herod’ is Greek and originated with a shadowy ancestor about whom, even in antiquity, little was known. Two ancient traditions make him either a descendant of a notable Jewish family with a lineage traceable to the Babylonian exile or a slave in the temple of Apollo in the Philistine city of Ashkelon. Neither can be proved. 

The first Antipater, the grandfather of Herod the Great, rose to the position of military commander of his native Idumea under the Hasmonean rulers Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 B.C.) and Alexandra. The Idumeans had been forcibly converted to Judaism by John Hyrcanus (134-104 B.C.), and thus the family of Herod was, at least technically, Jewish. Herod’s father, also named Antipater (or Antipas), was by all accounts not only a skilled soldier but also a shrewd politician and diplomat. His successful intervention in favor of Hyrcanus II in the latter’s struggle for supremacy with his brother Aristobulus, coupled with the outstanding services he rendered to Pompey and Julius Caesar in their campaigns, earned him Roman citizenship and the post of procurator of Judea, granted by Caesar in 47 B.C. Antipater and his Nabatean wife, Cypros, had four sons and a daughter, and the two eldest, Phasaelus and Herod, were nominated by their father as governors (Gk. stratÄ“goi), the former of Judea and the latter of Galilee. The following members of the family appear in the NT:


1 Herod I (Herod the Great), king of the Jews. He was probably about twenty-five years old when, as governor of Galilee, he successfully campaigned against Galilean bandits, executing the leaders and coming out of the subsequent showdown with the Jewish Sanhedrin in Jerusalem not only politically stronger but also with enhanced status in the eyes of Rome. When, in 40 B.C., the Roman Senate appointed Herod King of the Jews, he was given a prize still requiring conquest, for on the throne of Judea sat Antigonus II, the last of the Hasmonean rulers, newly placed there by Rome’s enemies, the Parthians. Herod succeeded, with the backing provided by his friend Mark Antony, in taking Jerusalem in 37 B.C. Antigonus was executed by the Romans at Herod’s request, and, in the same year, Herod married Mariamne I, a Hasmonean (one of ten wives). From 37 until his death in 4 B.C., Herod ruled as king of the Jews, a reign marked by his total loyalty to Rome, his grandiose and sometimes magnificent building programs, his family strife, and his harsh repression of any opposition. Herod showed an uncanny ability to maintain favor with the Roman leadership, managing, for example, to switch his allegiance from Antony to Octavian (later Augustus) after the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C.

In honor of Augustus, Herod rebuilt ancient Samaria into the Hellenistic city of Sebaste (Gk., ‘Augustus’), and he constructed, on the site of a minor anchorage on the Mediterranean coast called Strato’s Tower, the magnificently planned and constructed city of Caesarea Maritima, a major port and the Roman administrative center for Palestine. There is much to admire in Caesarea, including the enormous blocks of stone with which a breakwater was constructed to make a harbor, the sewers that were designed to be flushed out by the sea, and the theaters and temples of the city. The crown of Herod’s constructions, however, was the Temple in Jerusalem, which he rebuilt on a grandiose scale. The project, begun in 20 B.C., was not completed until A.D. 62, and it is this Temple that Jesus and his disciples knew. Recent excavations along the south and southwest walls of the Temple Mount have revealed the broad stairways leading up to the two wide gates on the southern wall, as well as many details of the construction of the walls and of the streets around them. 
Herod also fortified his realm with a string of impressive wilderness fortresses, the major ones being Masada, Machaerus, the Herodium in Perea, the Alexandrium, Cypros, Hyrcania, and the Herodium southeast of Bethlehem (the only one built on a previously unfortified site and also the place where Herod was buried). These fortresses served as prisons and, given the internal strife that marked Herod’s relations with his family, occasionally as places of imprisonment and execution for members of the family. Eventually, Herod ordered the execution of his Hasmonean wife, Mariamne, of their two sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, of other members of the Hasmonean family, and of his son Antipater.

According to Matt. 2:1-18 (cf. Luke 1:5), the birth of Jesus occurred while Herod was king, probably no earlier than 6 B.C. The king’s well-known ruthlessness in defending his throne against any threat forms the background for the story of the massacre of Bethlehem’s children (Matt. 2:16-17).

After Herod’s death in 4 B.C., Augustus Caesar resolved the dispute that broke out among three of Herod’s surviving sons by dividing the kingdom but withholding the royal title from the heirs. To Archelaus, son of Malthace, went the title ‘ethnarch’ and half of the territory (Judea, Idumea, and Samaria). The other half was split into two tetrarchies: Antipas, younger brother of Archelaus, received Galilee and Perea; Philip, son of Cleopatra, received Batanea, Trachonitis, and Auranitis. See also Augustus; Caesarea; Ethnarch; Idumaea; Maccabees; Phasael; Samaria, City of; Temple, The; Tetrarch.

2 Herod Archelaus, son of Herod the Great and ethnarch of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea (4 B.C.-A.D. 6). See also Archelaus.
3 Herod Philip, son of Herod the Great and tetrarch of Batanea, Trachonitis, and Auranitis (4 B.C.-A.D. 33/34). He ruled uneventfully and apparently successfully in his northern domains. His name is remembered in that of Caesarea Philippi (see Matt. 16:13; Mark 8:27), which was his rebuilding of the ancient Panias near the springs of the Jordan River. Philip apparently married his niece Salome, daughter of Herodias and of Philip’s half-brother Herod the son of Mariamne (Mark 6:17 and Matt. 14:3 apparently confuse Philip and Herod). See also Caesarea Philippi; Herodias; Salome.

4 Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great and tetrarch of Galilee and Perea (4 B.C.-A.D. 39). He is ‘that fox’ of Luke 13:31-32 and the Herod most frequently mentioned in the NT. Both Jesus and John the Baptist were his subjects and carried out their public careers mostly in his territories (Matt. 14:1-12; Mark 6:14-29; Luke 3:19-20; 9:7-9; Mark 8:15; Luke 13:31-32; 23:6-16; Acts 4:27). His career was dominated by his relationship to Herodias, whom he married in spite of the fact that she was his niece and married to his half-brother Herod when they met and that he was compelled to divorce a daughter of Aretas, the powerful king of the Nabateans, in order to marry her. John, who, according to the Gospels, had criticized this marriage, was imprisoned and later executed by Antipas at Machaerus (Matt. 14:1-12; Mark 6:14-29; Luke 3:19-20; 9:7-9). According to the Gospel of Luke, Antipas also played a role in the trial of Jesus (Luke 23:6-16; Acts 4:27).

Antipas’ capital was Tiberias, characteristically named after the Roman emperor, which Antipas built on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and which was later to play a central role in the history of Judaism. Antipas’ star set as that of his nephew and brother-in-law Agrippa was rising. When Gaius Caligula became emperor, he granted to Agrippa Philip’s former territories, but with the title of king. Under Herodias’ prodding, Antipas went to Rome to seek royal status. Not only did he fail, but the agents of Agrippa accused him of crimes against Rome, and the outcome for him was deportation to Gaul and the grant of his territories to Agrippa. Herodias, to her credit, followed him into exile. See also Herodias; John the Baptist; Tiberias.
5 Herod Agrippa I. See Agrippa I.
6 Herod Agrippa II. See Agrippa II.      F.O.G.



Achtemeier, Paul J., Harper & Row and Society of Biblical Literature. Harper’s Bible dictionary 1985 : 385–388. Print.

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