HEROD
291
HEROD
the daughter of Aretas, King of Arabia, but later lived
with Herodias, the wife of his own half-brother Philip.
This union with Herodias is mentioned and blamed
by Josephus (Ant., XVIII, v) as well as in the N. T.,
and brought Antipas to ruin. It involved him in a
war with Aretas in which he lost his army, a calamity
that Josephus regarded " as a punishment for what he
did against John that was called the Baptist; for
Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded
the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness
towards one another, and piety towards God, and so
to come to baptism" (Ant., XVIII, v, 2). The
N. T. gives the reason why Herodias sought John's
head.. As she had married Herod Philip — not the
tetrarch of the same name — who lived as a private
citizen at Rome, by whom she had a daughter, Salome,
she acted against the law in leaving him to marry An-
tipas. John rebuked Antipas for the adulterous
union, and Herodias took vengeance (Matt., xiv, 3-
12; Mark, vi, 17-29). Josephus does not say that
John's death was caused by the hatred of Herodias,
but rather by the jealousy of Herod on account of
John's great influence over the people. He was sent
to the frowning fortress of Machaerus on the moun-
tains east of the Dead Sea, and there put to death
(Jos., "Ant.", XVIII, V, 2). Griitz (Gesch. d. Jud.,
Ill, xi, 221 — Hist. (Eng.), II, 147) as in other instances
thinks the gospel story a legend; but Schijrer admits
that both Josephus and the evangelists may be right,
since there is no contradiction in the accounts (Hist,
of the Jewish People, etc., Div. I, V, ii, 25). The
most celebrated city built by Antipas was Tiljerias on
the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. He named it
after his friend the Emperor Tiberius, and made it the
capital of the tetrarchy. The city gave its name to
the sea, and yet stands ; it was for a long time a great
school and centre of Jewtsh learning. It was before
this Herod that Our Lord appeared and was mocked
(Luke, xxiii, 7-13). Antipas had come to Jeru.salem
for the Pasch, and he is named with Pilate as a per-
secutor of Christ (Acts, iv, 27). The enmities that
existed between him and Pilate were cau.sed by Pi-
late's having put to death some Galileans, who be-
longed to Herod's jurisdiction (Luke, xiii, 1); a re-
conciliation was effected as related in Luke, xxiii, 12.
When Herodias saw how well her brother Agrippa had
fared at Rome, whence he returned a king, she urged
Antipas to go to Ca>sar and obtain the royal title, for
he was not king, but only tetrarch of Galilee — the N.
T. however sometimes calls him king (Matt., xiv, 9;
Mark, vi, 14), and Josephus likewise so styles Arche-
laus (Ant., XVIII, iv, 3), though he was never king,
but only ethnarch. Contrary to his better judgment
he went, and soon learned that Agrippa by messengers
had accused him before Caligula of conspiracy against
the Romans. The emperor banished him to Lyons,
Gaul (France), A.u. 39, and Herodias accompanied
him (Jos., "Ant.", XVIII, vii, 2). Josephus (Bel.
Jud., II, ix, 6) says: "So Herod died in Spain whither
his wife had followed him". The year of his death is
not known. To reconcile the two statements of
Josephus about the place of exile and death, see
Smith, "Diet, of the Bible", s. v. "Herodias" (note).
IV. Aghippa I, also called the Great, was a grandson
of Herod the Cireat and Mariamne, son of Aristobulus,
and brother of Herodias. The history of his life and
varying fortunes is stranger than romance. He was
deeply in debt and a prisoner in Rome under Tiberius ;
but Caius, having come to the throne in a.d. 37, made
him king over the territories formerly ruled by Philip
and Lysanias, to which the tetrarchy of Antipas was
added when the latter had been banished in a.d. 39
(Jos., "Ant.", XVIII, vi, vii). In a.d. 41 Judea and
Samaria were given to him by the Emperor Claudius,
whom he had helped to the throne (Jos., " Ant.", XIX,
iv, 1), so that the whole kingdom which he then gov-
erned was greater than that of Herod his grandfather
(Jos., "Ant.", XIX, v, 1). He was, like many other
Herods, a builder, and, according to Josephus, he so
strengthened the walls of Jerusalem that the emperor
became alarmed and ordered him "to leave off the
building of those walls presently" ("Ant.", XIX, vii,
2). He seems to have inherited from his Hasmonean
ancestors a great love and zeal for the law (Jos.,
"Ant.", XIX, vii, 3). This characteristic, with his
ambition to please the people (ibid.), explains why he
imprisoned Peter and beheaded James (Acts, xii, 1-3).
His death is described in "Acts", xii, 21-23; "eaten
up by worms, he gave up the ghost." He died at
Ca^sarea during a grand public festival ; when the peo-
ple having heard him speak cried out, " It is the voice
of a god and not of a man ", his heart was elated, and
"an angel of the Lord struck him, because he had not
given the honour to God". Josephus gives substan-
tially the same account, but states that an owl ap-
peared to the king to announce his death, as it had
appeared many years before to predict his good for-
tune (Jos., "Ant.", XIX,viii, 2). His death occurred
in A.D. 44, the fifty-fourth year of his age, the seventh
of his reign (ibid.). Gratz considers him one of the
best of the Ilerods (Gesch. d. Jud., Ill, xii — Hist.
(Eng.), II, vii) ; but Christians may not be willing to
subscribe fully to this estimate.
V. Aghippa II was the son of Agrippa I, and in A.D. 44, the year of his father's death, the Emperor Claudius wished to give him the kingdom of his father, but he was dissuaded from his purpose because a youth of seventeen was hardly capable of assuming respon- sibilities so great (Jos., "Ant.", XIX, ix). About .\.D. 50 he was made King of Chalcis (Jos., " Bel. Jud.",
II, xii, 1), and afterwards ruler of a much larger terri- tory including the lands formerly governed by Philip and Lysanias (Jos., "Bel. Jud.", II, xii, 8). He was also titular king of Judea, and in twenty years ap- pointed seven high-priests (Gratz, "CSesch. d. Jud.",
III, xiv— "Hist." (Eng.), II, ix). When the Jews wishetl to free themselves from the dominion of Rome in the time of Florus, Agrippa showed them the folly of violent measures, and gave them a detailed account of the vast resources of the Roman empire (Jos., "Bel. Jud.", II, xvi, 4). St. Paul pleaded before this king, to whom Festus, the governor, referred the case (Acts, xxvi). The Apostle praises the king's knowledge of the " customs and questions that are among the Jews " (v. 3) ; Josephus likewise appeals to his judgment and calls him a most admirable man — 6avtia<n(iTaTos (Cont. Ap., I, ix). It was, therefore, not out of mere compliment thai; Festus invited him to hear what St. Paul had to say. His answer to the Apostle's appeal lias been variously interpreted : it may mean that St. Paul had not quite convinced him, which sense seems to suit the conte.xt better than the irony that some see in the king's words. The indifference, however, \\hich he manifested was in harmony with the "great pomp" with which he and his sister Berenice had en- tered the hall of audience (Acts, xxv, 23). After the fall of Jerusalem he lived at Rome, where he is said to have died in the third year of Trajan, a.d. 100. Gratz (Gesch. d. Jud., Ill, xvii, 410) gives a.d. 71-72 as the date of his death, a date based upon a more correct reading of a Greek text as authority.
Many histories and special studies throw light upon the Herodian age and family, but nearly all we know about the Herods comes through Josephus. The following, among many works, may be consulted:
ScHi-RER, GeKch. d. Jiid. Volkes ini Zcitalter Jesu Christi (Leipzig, 1898-10011, with comprehensive bibliography; tr. .4 Hist, of the Jewish People in the Time of J. C. (Edinburgh. 1837- 1898); Gratz. Gesch. </. Jiitl. (Ill, 11 vols.. Leipzig); tr. Hist, of the Jews. 6 vols. (.Jew. Pub. Soc, Phila., 1891-1902), without notes or references, II: Mu.man, The Historj/ of the Jews (3 vols. New York, 1870): and histories by Jost, Ewald, etc.; Hast- ings. A Dirt, of Christ and the Gospels (New York. 1907); Edersheim, The Lifeand Times of Jesus the Messiah, 1; Farrar, The Herods; Josephus, Ant., Books XIV-XX; Idem, Bel. Jud., Books I and II.
John J. Tiernet.
