Herod’s kingdom

A builder king and his dynasty

Herod the Great ruled Judea with Rome’s backing, rebuilt the Temple and left a dynasty whose kings run through the Gospels and the book of Acts.

An Idumean made king by Rome

Herod did not come from the old royal family. He was the son of Antipater, an Idumean, from a southern people forcibly brought into Judaism by the Hasmonean ruler John Hyrcanus around 125 BC. The father rose by serving Rome, and the son learned the lesson. In 40 BC, with the Parthians occupying Jerusalem, Herod fled to Rome, where the Senate, backed by Mark Antony and Octavian, proclaimed him king of Judea. He had to conquer his own kingdom: he took Jerusalem only in 37 BC, with the help of Roman legions. To gain legitimacy he married Mariamne, a princess of the Hasmonean dynasty, the family that had led the Maccabean revolt. When Octavian defeated Antony, Herod skillfully switched sides and kept his throne. He reigned until his death, in 4 BC according to most scholars, always balancing two audiences: the emperor, to whom he owed everything, and a people who never fully accepted him.

The builder king

Herod left the most visible mark of his age in stone. Around 20 BC, in the eighteenth year of his reign, he began rebuilding the Jerusalem Temple (Josephus, Antiquities 15.380). He enlarged the esplanade with gigantic retaining walls until it formed a platform of about 14 hectares; the Western Wall, where Jews pray today, is part of that wall. On the coast he built the city of Caesarea from scratch, with an artificial harbor, Sebastos, made of concrete that hardened underwater, cutting-edge Roman technology. He built fortress-palaces in the desert, such as Masada, on a cliff by the Dead Sea, and the Herodium near Bethlehem, an artificially shaped hill where he wished to be buried. He rebuilt Samaria under the name Sebaste and raised, beside the Temple, the Antonia fortress, named in honor of Mark Antony. He even funded buildings and games outside his kingdom. The projects gave work to thousands, but they cost heavy taxes.

Power, fear and family

The same man was ruthless toward any threat to his throne. He had the young high priest Aristobulus III, Mariamne’s brother, drowned in a pool at Jericho; then he executed Mariamne herself in 29 BC, and years later the two sons he had with her, Alexander and Aristobulus, strangled around 7 BC. A few days before his own death, he also had his eldest son, Antipater, killed. Josephus says that, already ill, he ordered prominent men locked in the hippodrome at Jericho to be killed on the day of his death, so the country would be in mourning; the order was not carried out (Antiquities, book 17). It is against this backdrop that Matthew tells of the killing of the boys of Bethlehem. No source outside the Bible mentions it, but Bethlehem was a small village, and many scholars estimate that few children were affected, a small episode beside the crimes Josephus records. Matthew’s portrait fits a king who saw rivals everywhere.

The divided inheritance

When Herod died, Augustus divided the kingdom among three sons, giving none of them the title of king. Archelaus received Judea, Samaria and Idumea as ethnarch. He started badly: according to Josephus, at the Passover after his father’s death his soldiers killed about 3,000 people near the Temple. After years of complaints from Jews and Samaritans, Augustus deposed him in AD 6 and exiled him to Vienne in Gaul; Judea then received a Roman prefect. Matthew says that Joseph, returning from Egypt, was afraid of Archelaus and went to Galilee. Philip received the territories northeast of the Sea of Galilee, with a largely non-Jewish population, and ruled until AD 34 with a reputation for moderation. He rebuilt Paneas as Caesarea Philippi, where Peter would confess Jesus as the Christ, and raised Bethsaida to a city named Julias. He is the tetrarch Philip whom Luke mentions.

Antipas, the “fox” of Galilee

The Herod who appears in Jesus’ ministry is Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and Perea from 4 BC to AD 39. He rebuilt Sepphoris, a few miles from Nazareth, and around AD 20 founded a new capital on the lakeshore, Tiberias, in honor of the emperor. He married Herodias, who had been the wife of one of his half-brothers; Mark calls that man Philip, Josephus calls him simply Herod, and many scholars think they are the same person. To do so he divorced his first wife, daughter of the Nabatean king Aretas IV, who later inflicted a military defeat on him. Josephus confirms that Antipas arrested and executed John the Baptist at the fortress of Machaerus, fearing his influence might spark a revolt, and says many saw the defeat as punishment for John’s death (Antiquities 18.116-119). Jesus called him a fox. In AD 39 Caligula exiled him to Gaul, and Herodias went with him.

The Agrippas and the end of the dynasty

A grandson of Herod, Herod Agrippa I, grew up in Rome close to the imperial family. A friend of Caligula and later of Claudius, he gradually received his grandfather’s entire former kingdom and ruled it from AD 41 to 44. He was the one who had James, the brother of John, killed and Peter arrested (Acts 12). His death in Caesarea, during festivities in honor of the emperor, is told in Acts and also by Josephus: dressed in a silver robe that shone in the sun, he was hailed as a god, did not refuse the flattery and died after five days of pain (Antiquities 19.343-350). His son, Agrippa II, ruled territories to the north and had authority over the Temple, including the power to appoint high priests. Around AD 59 he heard Paul in Caesarea alongside his sister Bernice. In 66 he tried to persuade Jerusalem not to revolt and, in the war, sided with Rome. With his death, around AD 93 or a little later, Herod’s dynasty came to an end.

Did you know?

• Macrobius (5th century) attributes to Augustus a Greek pun: better to be Herod’s pig, which a Jew will not kill, than his son. Curiously, he links the line, in a garbled way, to a killing of boys two years old and under. Macrobius, Saturnalia 2.4.11
• In 2007 archaeologist Ehud Netzer announced he had found Herod’s tomb on the slope of the Herodium after decades of searching; some specialists still debate the identification. Herodium, excavations of Ehud Netzer (2007)
• The 46 years of construction mentioned in John 2:20 fit Josephus: if the rebuilding began around 20 BC, the conversation took place around AD 27 or 28. The Temple was completed only around AD 63. John 2:20; Josephus, Antiquities 15.380 and 20.219
• In the Western Wall tunnels there is a Herodian block about 13 meters (over 40 feet) long; its weight is estimated at hundreds of tons. Western Wall tunnels, Jerusalem
• Acts and Josephus independently describe the death of Agrippa I in Caesarea in AD 44: acclaimed as a god, sudden pain and death within days. Acts 12:21-23; Josephus, Antiquities 19.343-350

Where this shows up in the Bible

• Mateus 2:1-3: The magi ask about the newborn ‘King of the Jews’ at the court of a man who had received that title from the Roman Senate and had already killed relatives for less. Herod’s alarm is understandable; so is that of all Jerusalem with him: the city knew the price of the king’s fits of fear. Matthew sets two kings face to face: one appointed by Rome, the other born in Bethlehem.
• Mateus 2:19-23: Herod’s death brought no automatic relief. Archelaus inherited Judea and began his rule with a massacre at Passover; Joseph’s fear was well founded. The move to Nazareth, under Antipas, explains why Jesus grew up in Galilee, far from the center of power, and was called a Nazarene.
• João 2:18-21: Herod’s Temple was the most impressive building in the land and was still under construction when Jesus spoke. The 46 years mentioned fit Josephus’ chronology. Before that stone monument, Jesus speaks of another temple, his body, destroyed and raised in three days. Four decades later, Herod’s work would fall.
• Marcos 6:17-20: Mark shows Antipas torn between his fascination with John and the pressure of Herodias, whose marriage the prophet condemned as a breach of the law about a brother’s wife. Josephus confirms the arrest and execution but stresses another motive: fear of a revolt. Both reasons may have weighed together on an insecure ruler.
• Lucas 23:6-12: Pilate uses the fact that Jesus is a Galilean to bring in Antipas, who was in Jerusalem for Passover. Antipas wanted to see a miracle, like someone waiting for a show, and receives silence. Luke records a subtle political detail: the two rulers, formerly enemies, become friends that day, united by contempt for the accused.
• Atos 12:20-23: Tyre and Sidon depended on food from Agrippa’s kingdom and needed to please him. The acclamation scene matches Josephus’ account. Luke highlights the theological cause: the king who persecuted the church accepted divine honors and fell. Right afterward, he notes that the word of God kept growing and multiplying (Acts 12:24).

To go deeper

• Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, books 14–20
• Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War, book 1
• Macrobius, Saturnalia 2.4.11
• Ehud Netzer, The Architecture of Herod, the Great Builder (2006)
• Peter Richardson, Herod: King of the Jews and Friend of the Romans (1996)

Where to read in the Bible

• Matthew 2:1
• Luke 3:1
• Atos 12:1
• Atos 25:13

Connections

• governou Bethlehem · factual · Matthew 2:1
• linked to Herod Antipas · factual · Luke 3:1
• reconstruiu The Second Temple · factual · João 2:20
• construiu Caesarea Maritima · factual · Atos 23:35

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