Herod Antipas

(hero-like). This family though of Idumean origin and thus alien by race, was Jewish in faith.

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)

* See other occurrences of the same term: Herod.