Bible Lexicons

Ἡρῴδης, Ἡρῴδου, ὁ (equivalent to ἡρωιδης, sprung from a hero: hence, the Etym. Magn., pp. 165, 43; 437, 56 directs it to be written Ἡρῴδης (so WH), as it is found also in certain inscriptions (cf. Lipsius, Gram. Unters., p. 9; WH. Introductory § 410; Tdf. Proleg. 109; Pape, Eigennamen, under the word)), Herod, the name of a royal family that flourished among the Jews in the time of Jesus and the apostles. In the N. T. are mentioned,

1. the one who gave the family its name, Herod surnamed the Great, a son of Antipater of Idumaea. Appointed king of Judaea in by the Roman senate at the suggestion of Antony and with the consent of Octavian, he at length overcame the great opposition which the country made to him and took possession of the kingdom in ; and, after the battle of Actium, he was confirmed in it by Octavian, whose favor he ever after enjoyed. He was brave and skilled in war, learned and sagacious; but also extremely suspicious and cruel. Hence, he destroyed the entire royal family of the Hasmonaeans, put to death many of the Jews that opposed his government, and proceeded to kill even his dearly beloved wife Mariamne of the Hasmonaean line and the two sons she had borne him. By these acts of bloodshed, and especially by his love and imitation of Roman customs and institutions and by the burdensome taxes imposed upon his subjects, he so alienated the Jews that he was unable to regain their favor by his splendid restoration of the temple and other acts of munificence. He died in the 70th year of his age, the 37th of his reign, the 4th before the Dionysian era. Cf. Josephus, Antiquities 14, 14, 4; 15, 6, 7; 7, 4; 8, 1; 16, 5, 4; 11, 6, etc. In his closing years John the Baptist and Christ were born, Matthew 2:1; Luke 1:5; Matthew narrates in chapter 2 (cf. Macrobius, sat. 2, 4) that he commanded the male children in Bethlehem from two years old and under to be slain. Cf. especially Keim in Schenkel 3:27ff; Schürer, Neutest. Zeitgesch. § 15, and the books there mentioned.

2. Herod surnamed Antipas, son of Herod the Great and Malthace, a Samaritan woman. After the death of his father he was appointed by the Romans tetrach of Galilee and Peraea. His first wife was a daughter of Aretas, king of Arabia; but he subsequently repudiated her and took to himself Herodias, the wife of his brother Herod (see Φίλιππος, 1); and in consequence Aretas, his father-in-law, made war against him and conquered him. He cast John the Baptist into prison because John had rebuked him for this unlawful connection; and afterward, at the instigation of Herodias, he ordered him to be beheaded. Induced by her, too, he went to Rome to obtain from the emperor the title of king. But in consequence of accusations brought against him by Herod Agrippa I., Caligula banished him (A.D. 39) to Lugdunum in Gaul, where he seems to have died. (On the statement of Josephus (b. j. 2, 9, 6) that he died in Spain see the conjecture in B. D. under the word .) He was light-minded, sensual, vicious (Josephus, Antiquities 17, 1, 3; 8, 1; 11, 4; 18, 5, 1; 7, 1f; b. j. 2, 9, 6). In the N. T. he is mentioned by the simple name of Herod in Matthew 14:1, 3, 6; Mark 6:16-18, 20-22; Mark 8:15; Luke 3:1, 19; Luke 8:3; Luke 9:7, 9; Luke 13:31; Luke 23:7f, 11f, 15; Acts 4:27; Acts 13:1; once, Mark 6:14, he is called βασιλεύς, either improperly, or in the sense of royal lineage (see βασιλεύς). Cf. Keim, the passage cited, p. 42ff; Schürer, the passage cited, p. 232ff

3. Herod Agrippa I (who is called by Luke simply Herod, by Josephus everywhere Agrippa), son of Aristobulus and Berenice, and grandson of Herod the Great. After various changes of fortune, he gained the favor of the emperors Caligula and Claudius to such a degree that he gradually obtained the government of all Palestine, with the title of king. He died at Caesarea, A.D. 44, at the age of 54, in the seventh (or 4th, reckoning from the extension of his dominions by Claudius) year of his reign (Josephus, Antiquities 17, 1, 2; 18, 6; 19, 4, 5; 6, 1; 7, 3; b. j. 2, 11, 6), just after having ordered James the apostle, son of Zebedee, to be slain, and Peter to be cast into prison: Acts 12:1, 6, 11, 19-21. Cf. Keim, the passage cited, p. 49ff; Schürer, the passage cited, p. 290ff; (Farrar, St. Paul, vol. ii. Excurs. vi.).

4. (Herod) Agrippa II, son of the preceding. When his father died he was a youth of seventeen. In A.D. 48 he received from Claudius Caesar the government of Chalcis, with the right of appointing the Jewish high priests, together with the care and oversight of the temple at Jerusalem. Four years later Claudius took from him Chalcis and gave him instead a larger dominion, viz. Batanaea, Trachonitis, and Gaulanitis, with the title of king. To these regions Nero, in A.D. 53, added Tiberias and Tarichaeae and the Peraean Julias, with fourteen neighboring villages. Cf. Josephus, Antiquities 19, 9, 1f; 20, 1, 3; 5, 2; 7, 1; 8, 4; b. j. 2, 12, 1 and 8. In the N. T. he is mentioned in Acts 25:13, 22-26; Acts 26:1f,(),. In the Jewish war, although, he strove in vain to restrain the fury of the seditious and bellicose populace, he did not desert the Roman side. After the fall of Jerusalem, he was vested with praetorian rank and kept the kingdom entire until his death, which took place in the third year of the emperor Trajan (the 73rd of his life, and 52nd of his reign). He was the last representative of the Herodian dynasty. Cf. Keim, the passage cited, p. 56ff; Schürer, the passage cited, p. 315ff (Less complete accounts of the family may he found in BB. DD.; Sieffert in Herzog edition 2 under the word; an extended narrative in Hausrath, Neutest. Zeitgesch. vol. i. Abschn. v. Cf. also Edersheim, Jesus the Messiah, book ii., chapter ii. and Appendix iv.)