Who are the various Herods mentioned in the Bible?

The rule of the Herods was subservient to Rome. Several members of the Herod family are mentioned in the New Testament history, but most were enemies to Christ and to those who bore His name. (1) Herod the Great, one of the worst tyrants of all time, massacred the children of Bethlehem (Matt. 2:16). (2) Archelaus was the son of Herod the Great whom Joseph feared (Matt. 2:22). (3) Herod Antipas executed John the Baptist (Matt. 14:1-12), and mocked Jesus (Luke 23:11). (4) Herod Agrippa I. executed James, the brother of John (Acts 12:1-2). (5) Herod Agrippa II. had Paul brought before him as prisoner (Acts 25:13-27).

HEROD THE GREAT. We read of four Herods in Scripture. We propose to mention them one after another, so that the reader may have them clearly distinguished in mind. Herod the Great was the son of Antipater, an Idumean. Antipater was a man of mean origin, who ingratiated himself into favour with the Emperor, and was appointed procurator of Judea. His son, Herod, was born B.C. 62. He began his career very early for he was made procurator of Galilee when only fifteen years old. Josephus tells us this was no impediment to him, for he possessed great ability, courage and ambition. In B.C. 40 he was appointed King of the Jews. In the 18th year of his reign he undertook to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem, not at the urge of piety, for he was a very wicked man, guilty of the murder of his own wife, and sons, and of many others also. His motive was to ingratiate himself with the Jews, and to get the glory of such an ambitious undertaking. Both the Bible and Josephus tells us of the rebuilding of the Temple.

There are four Herods referred to in the New Testament. The first of these is called Herod the Great (Matt. 3) who was reigning as king (under the Romans) when our Lord was born. This was one of the most atrociously wicked rulers that ever lived. Augustus, at that time Emperor of Rome, said smilingly (and making a play upon the words in the language in which he was speaking), that "it was better to be Herod's swine than Herod's son": and another thus describes him sans compliment, if not sans phrase, "A heathen at heart, a savage in character, a brute in passions, and a fawning slave to the Imperial Court, he made use of his position to betray his country to the Romans, by fostering immorality, cultivating alien customs, sapping religious faith, corrupting the priesthood and massacring the nobles." He was an Idumean or descendant of Edom, that is Esau, who had struggled against Israel before he was born, had tried to kill him in his manhood, whose descendants had tried to stop the march of the Israelites through the wilderness, attacked them ceaselessly in the land, and now were making a last desperate effort to destroy the Messiah, the true Israel. This Herod was the man who ordered his own wives and sons to be murdered, prepared a general massacre of the nobles "to make the people mourn," and slaughtered the poor little infants of Bethlehem, whilst he was advertising his piety and patriotism by making the people build the most gorgeous temple in the world. The subject is not inviting to continue. Only that when we are told that Christ was merely the efflorescence of a long-continued progress in mankind, it is well to remember of what kind the leading man was in the country to which He came,

It was the son of this man who ruled as Tetrarch in Galilee at the time of the crucifixion. He was called Herod Antipas. What religion the father had was of an architectural nature, but the son liked a good sermon: he "sat under" John the Baptist and "heard him gladly." (Mark 6:20.) "Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things … " and that is more than everyone who "sits under" a popular preacher does. So that "he was not all bad." No, but in a sense he was worse than if he had been. Notwithstanding all this he continued to live in the vilest debauchery, eventually murdered his religious teacher, and joined himself with the royal and priestly conspirators who put to death the Son of God. When men show a religious tendency and at the same time live bad lives, it is usual to speak of them as hypocrites, to impute to them deliberate deception; but this is often very incorrect. Such men as Herod Antipas are entirely and morbidly sincere in their religion. Their consciences are not conveniently hardened like those of men of the nature of Herod the Great, or Nero, who took a distinct pleasure in doing evil. A conscience at any time may be said to be an inconvenient and expensive thing to keep; but a conscience like that of Antipas, just strong and superstitious enough to worry and haunt him with his misdeeds, (Mark 6:16) but not strong enough to keep him from perpetrating them, must be almost intolerable. It is difficult to understand how such a man could be an object of affection to any living creature; and yet Herodias, vile-natured as she was, going from one of her half-brothers to another, subtle instigator of murder and worse, — Herodias left everything for him, first her husband and her honourable position, and finally followed him to Gaul into poverty and banishment when he was subsequently disgraced.

A change had recently taken place in the government of Judæa and Samaria. After the death of Herod the Great, who ruled over the whole land, his son Archelaus was appointed by the Emperor Augustus ruler over Judæa, Idumæa and Samaria, with the title of Ethnarch. To Herod Antipas, his brother, were assigned Galilee and Peræa with the title of Tetrarch. And to Philip, the other brother, was given the tetrarchy of Trachonitis, Auranitis, Batanæa, and part of what was called the house of Zenon, or Zenodorus. Herod Antipas fixed his capital at Tiberias. Philip had for his, Cæsarea Philippi. [47] Archelaus, after ruling about ten years, was deprived of his province for his severities, and a Roman governor under the Syrian Prefect administered its affairs. Herod Antipas was banished in AD 39. Philip died in his government AD 34. Under Claudius a fresh change took place; for Herod Agrippa, the son of Aristobulus, and grandson therefore of Herod the Great, who had previously received from the Emperor Caligula the tetrarchies of his two uncles, Antipas and Philip, received in addition, as soon as Claudius was settled on the Imperial throne, part of the territory formerly assigned to Archelaus - viz., the provinces of Judæa and Samaria, with the title of king. Thus for a brief space a king again reigned in Judæa in the person of Herod Agrippa, who lived chiefly at Jerusalem. A strict observer of the law, but receiving his kingdom from the Emperor, he doubtless sought to win favour with the Jews by laying hands on Apostles to put them to death. It was evidently a political, and, as the king thought, a politic, move on his part.

Hitherto all attempts to stop the movement in Jerusalem have proceeded from the ecclesiastical authorities. But since the persecution which arose about Stephen subsided, the Sanhedrin seems to have let the matter alone. Now the civil power wielded by Agrippa entered the lists, and began to conduct a crusade against the followers of the Lord Jesus. Would it be successful where the others had failed? At first it seemed to triumph; for James the brother of John was executed, and no sign from heaven attested its abhorrence of the deed. The company of the Apostles Herod Agrippa had now diminished by one. The Christians could not by human means successfully enter into conflict with the king. The sword of the executioner had taken the life of James. Was the charm which seemed for so long to have surrounded the Apostles now broken?

Grandson of Herod the Great, and son of Aristobulus and Berenice. He was appointed by the emperor Caligula to the government of Ituraea and Abilene, with the title of king. Eventually he had the government of Judaea and Samaria given to him by Claudius. He was an observer of the law of Moses, and added to the extent of Jerusalem by a wall on the north of the city. It was he who put to death James the son of Zebedee to please the Jews, and imprisoned Peter, who was miraculously delivered. His miserable end is recorded in Acts 12.

Son of Herod the Great by Malthace a Samaritan. He succeeded his father in the tetrarchy of Galilee and Peraea. This was he whom the Lord called 'that fox.' He heard John the Baptist 'gladly,' yet put him to death. He was present at Jerusalem when the Lord was before Pilate, and by the courtesy of Pilate they settled their difference; but he treated the Lord with brutal indignity. He had married a daughter of Aretas king of Arabia, but subsequently induced Herodias the wife of Philip, his own half-brother, to leave her husband and live with him. This led to the death of John the Baptist by her desire, as recorded in scripture; and also to his being attacked and defeated with great loss by Aretas. Prompted by Herodias, he sought from the emperor Caligula the title of king (which did not belong to him though so called in Mark 6:14), but this ambition led to his perpetual banishment, A.D. 39. Herodias voluntarily accompanied him.

Son of Herod the Great by Malthace, a Samaritan. He succeeded his father as Ethnarch of Idumea, Judaea, Samaria, and the maritime cities of Palestine. From his known oppressive character Joseph feared to bring back the infant Jesus into his territory, and turned aside to Galilee, which was under the jurisdiction of his brother Antipas. Matt. 2:22. He reigned 10 years. Josephus relates that soon after his accession he put to death 3,000 Jews: eventually, for his tyranny to the Jews and the Samaritans he was deposed and banished to Vienne in Gaul.

Grandson of Herod the Great. His early years were passed as a spendthrift and a wanderer, but at length being at Rome he contrived to win the favour of Caligula who on coming to the throne in A.D. 37, declared Agrippa to be the successor of' Philip the Tetrarch, who had died three years previously. By preferring charges against Antipas, who had married his sister Herodias, Agrippa, got this prince deposed and banished, and in A.D. 39 he succeeded him in the territories of Galilee and Peraea. He was still a guest of Caligula at Rome when that tyrant was cut off in A.D. 41, and having used his influence in the election of Caligula's successor Claudius, this emperor not only confirmed the previous grants, but added those of Judaea, Samaria, and Abilene, so that his possessions were nearly identical with those of his grandfather Herod the Great. He was in these possessions when we read of him in the New Testament as 'Herod the king,' Acts 12. He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and because he saw it pleased the Jews he seized Peter also. This happened about A.D. 43, and within a year the king, allowing himself to be called a god, was smitten by the Almighty and died a miserable death. The account given by Josephus as to Agrippa's administrative qualities, his exertions for the Jews whilst at Rome, and his desires to strengthen and embellish Jerusalem, may be true; but his seizing the apostles to please the Jews stamps him as one unfitted to rule, while his overweening pride in the last scene of his life made him the just object of the wrath of Him who will not give His glory to another.

Agrippa was the son of Herod Agrippa I, whose awful end is related in Acts 12. At the death of his father (AD 44), the Emperor Claudius, thinking him too young to succeed to all the territories that Herod Agrippa had recently received, appointed him King of Chalcis (AD 48 or 49). At the age of twenty-six he received from the Emperor an increase of territory, consequent on the death of his great-uncle Herod Philip. This included Trachonitis, Gaulanitis, Batanea, and Abilene, which last had originally been ruled over by the tetrarch Lysanias (Luke 3:1). On the accession of the Emperor Nero, Agrippa, who evidently played his cards well, received further extension of territory by the addition of the cities of Abila and Julias in Peræa, and of Tarichæa and Tiberias in Galilee. His residence was at Cæsarea Philippi. Besides this, he was invested with the prerogative of appointing the high priests, and with the wardenship of the Temple, and the disposition of the Corban, or sacred treasure. [91]

Bernice was his sister, and the eldest daughter of Herod Agrippa I, her youngest sister being the beautiful Drusilla, of whom we have already made mention. Of Bernice, morally, there is nothing good to report. She seems to have sunk lower than her sister Drusilla. She was married three times, first to Marcus, next to her uncle Herod of Chalcis, then to Polemo II, king of part of Cilicia. Like her sisters Mariamne and Drusilla, she deserted her husband, King Polemo, and was at the time of this visit living with her brother Agrippa at Cæsarea Philippi; and if reports are true, and the lines of the Roman satirist Juvenal ( Sat ., vi. 156) are correct, her relations with her brother must be described as incestuous. Infatuating men by her charms, she had that fatal gift of beauty, ensnaring indeed to the other sex, and which has blasted the character of not a few who have possessed it. And if Tacitus ( Hist ., ii. 81) is correct, as referred to by Dean Alford, she was the mistress of Vespasian, and then ( Suet ., Tit., c. 7) the mistress of Titus his son, who would, it is said, have married her, but the jealousy of the Romans forbade it. Such were the guests of Festus at Cæsarea.

HEROD AGRIPPA II was the son of Herod Agrippa I., and a great-grandson of Herod the Great. We mention him out of chronological order in order to place the four Herods before the attention of our readers, one after the other, thus enabling them to be distinguished the one from the other. In the Acts of the Apostles he is spoken of as King Agrippa. Josephus gives his history, but in no place do the Scriptures and Josephus touch the same incident, unless it be the case of Bernice, mentioned as sitting beside King Agrippa on the famous occasion when the Apostle Paul stood before him on trial. They are apparently presented in Acts 25 as husband and wife, the wife sitting beside her husband when the Apostle Paul addressed the court. As a matter of fact Bernice was his sister. The relationship between the two was a matter of grave suspicion. It is in these little touches that the comparison between the Scriptures and Josephus is so striking and convincing.

He was the son of Antipater an Idumaean, who was a proselyte to Judaism. His father having aided Caesar in his war with Egypt was rewarded by being made procurator of all Judaea, and he made his son Herod, then only fifteen years of age, governor of Galilee. On the death of Julius Caesar the country was in anarchy; but eventually Herod contrived to ingratiate himself with Antony and Octavian, and was appointed KING OF JUDAEA. He began his reign (B.C. 37) with blood: there were a few left of the Asmonaean house, descendants of the Maccabees; these were put to death and their adherents, and the whole of the Sanhedrim except two.

Herod had married Mariamne, daughter of Alexandra, who had a son named Aristobulus, a descendant of the Maccabees. Herod, being afraid of Rome to which Alexandra had appealed, made Aristobulus high priest; but when he witnessed the joy of the people his jealousy was aroused, and he caused the young man to be drowned, while bathing with his comrades, through their pretended rough play. Herod honoured his funeral, but none were deceived, and on Alexandra appealing to Cleopatra and Antony, he was summoned to appear. He left orders with his uncle Joseph that if he were put to death, Mariamne was to be killed. Herod succeeded in satisfying Antony; and indeed he had Coele-syria added to his dominions. On his return, his sister Salome poisoned his mind with suspicions of his wife's infidelity with Joseph, who had unwisely betrayed the orders of Herod. He was however reconciled with his wife, but Joseph was put to death and Alexandra imprisoned.