| Herod the Great or Herod | |
|---|---|
| Basileus (King) | |
| Reign | 37–4 BCE |
| Born | 73/74 BCE |
| Died | 4 BCE (aged 70) |
| Place of death | Jericho, Samaria |
| Buried | Herodium, Judea |
| Predecessor | Antigonus II Mattathias |
| Successor |
Herod Archelaus, Herod Antipas Philip the Tetrarch |
| Wives | Doris Mariamne I Mariamne II Malthace Cleopatra of Jerusalem |
| Offspring | Antipater II Prince Alexander Prince Aristobulus IV Princess Salampsio Herod Philip I Herod Antipas Herod Archelaus Olympias the Herodian Prince Herod Herod Philip II |
| Dynasty | Herodian Dynasty |
| Father | Antipater the Idumaean |
| Mother | Cypros |
| Religious beliefs | Second Temple Judaism |
Herod (Hebrew: הוֹרְדוֹס, Hordos, Greek: Ἡρῴδης, Hērōidēs), also known as Herod the Great (born 73 or 74 BCE, died 4 BCE in Jericho[1]), was a Roman client king of Judea.[2][3][4] His epithet of "the Great" is widely disputed as he is described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis."[5][6][7] He is also known for his colossal building projects in Jerusalem and elsewhere, including his expansion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem (sometimes referred to as Herod's Temple) and the construction of the port at Caesarea Maritima. Important details of his biography are gleaned from the works of the 1st century CE Roman-Jewish historian Josephus Flavius.
The Romans made Herod's son Herod Archelaus ethnarch of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea (biblical Edom) from 4 BCE to 6 CE, referred to as the tetrarchy of Judea. Herod's other son Herod Antipas was tetrarch of Galilee from 4 BCE – 39 CE. Archelaus was judged incompetent by the Roman emperor Augustus who then combined Samaria, Judea proper and Idumea into Iudaea province[8] under rule of a prefect until 41.
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Herod was born around 74 BCE in the south (Idumea was the most southern region).[9][10] He was the second son of Antipater the Idumaean, a high-ranked official under Ethnarch Hyrcanus II, and Cypros, a Nabatean. Herod was a practicing Jew, as the Edomites and many Nabateans had been converted to Judaism by the Hasmoneans.[11] A loyal supporter of Hyrcanus II, Antipater appointed Herod governor of Galilee at 25, and his elder brother, Phasael, governor of Jerusalem. He enjoyed the backing of Rome but his brutality was condemned by the Sanhedrin.[12]
In 43 BCE, following the chaos caused by Antipater offering financial support to Caesar's murderers, Antipater was poisoned. Herod, backed by the Roman Army, executed his father's murderer. After the battle of Philippi towards the end of 42 BCE, he convinced Mark Antony and Octavian that his father had been forced to help Caesar's murderers. After Antony marched into Asia, Herod was named tetrarch of Galilee by the Romans.
Two years later Antigonus, Hyrcanus' nephew, took the throne from his uncle with the help of the Parthians. Herod fled to Rome to plead with the Romans to restore him to power. There he was elected "King of the Jews" by the Roman Senate.[13] Josephus puts this in the year of the consulship of Calvinus and Pollio (40 BCE), but Appian places it in 39 BCE.[10] Herod went back to Judea to win his kingdom from Antigonus and at the same time he married the teenage niece of Antigonus, Mariamne (known as Mariamne I), in an attempt to secure a claim to the throne and gain some Jewish favor. However, Herod already had a wife, Doris, and a three-year-old son, Antipater, and chose therefore to banish Doris and her child.
Three years later, Herod and the Romans finally captured Jerusalem and executed Antigonus. Herod took the role as sole ruler of Judea and the title of basileus (Gr. Βασιλευς, king) for himself, ushering in the Herodian Dynasty and ending the Hasmonean Dynasty. Josephus reports this as being in the year of the consulship of Agrippa and Gallus (37 BCE), but also says that it was exactly 27 years after Jerusalem fell to Pompey, which would indicate 36 BCE. (Cassius Dio also reports that in 37 "the Romans accomplished nothing worthy of note" in the area.[14]) According to Josephus, he ruled for 37 years, 34 years of them after capturing Jerusalem.
As Herod's family had converted to Judaism, his religious commitment had come into question by some elements of Jewish society.[15] When John Hyrcanus conquered the region of Idumaea (the Edom of the Hebrew Bible) in 140–130 BCE, he required all Idumaeans to obey Jewish law or to leave; most Idumaeans thus converted to Judaism, which meant that they had to be circumcised.[16] While King Herod publicly identified himself as a Jew and was considered as such by some,[17] this religious identification was undermined by the decadent lifestyle of the Herodians, which would have earned them the antipathy of observant Jews.[18]
Herod later executed several members of his own family, including his wife Mariamne.
Herod's most famous and ambitious project was the expansion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.
In the eighteenth year of his reign (20–19 BCE), Herod rebuilt the Temple on "a more magnificent scale".[19] Although work on out-buildings and courts continued another eighty years,[19] the new Temple was finished in a year and a half. To comply with religious law, Herod employed 1,000 priests as masons and carpenters in the rebuilding.[19] The finished temple, which was destroyed in 70 CE, is sometimes referred to as Herod's Temple. Today, only the four retaining walls remain standing, including the Wailing Wall or Western Wall. These walls created a flat platform (the Temple Mount) upon which the Temple was then constructed.
Some of Herod's other achievements include the development of water supplies for Jerusalem, building fortresses such as Masada and Herodium, and founding new cities such as Caesarea Maritima and the enclosures of Cave of the Patriarchs and Mamre in Hebron. He and Cleopatra owned a monopoly over the extraction of asphalt from the Dead Sea, which was used in ship building. He leased copper mines on Cyprus from the Roman emperor.
On September 25, 2007, Yuval Baruch, archaeologist with the Israeli Antiquities Authority announced his discovery of a quarry compound which provided King Herod with the stones to renovate the Second Temple. Coins, pottery and iron stakes found proved the date of the quarrying to be about 19 BCE. Archaeologist Ehud Netzer confirmed that the large outlines of the stone cuts is evidence that it was a massive public project worked on by hundreds of slaves.[20]
Herod the Great appears in the Gospel according to Matthew (Ch. 2), which describes an event known as the Massacre of the Innocents. According to this account, after the birth of Jesus, Magi from the East visited Herod to inquire the whereabouts of "the one having been born king of the Jews", because they had seen his star in the east and therefore wanted to pay him homage. Herod, as King of the Jews, was alarmed at the prospect of a usurper. Herod assembled the chief priests and scribes of the people and asked them where the "Anointed One" (the Messiah, Greek: Ο Χριστός (ho christos)) was to be born. They answered, in Bethlehem, citing Micah 5:2. Herod therefore sent the Magi to Bethlehem, instructing them to search for the child and, after they had found him, to "report to me, so that I too may go and worship him". However, after they had found Jesus, the Magi were warned in a dream not to report back to Herod. Similarly, Joseph was warned in a dream that Herod intended to kill Jesus, so he and his family fled to Egypt. When Herod realized he had been outwitted by the Magi, he gave orders to kill all boys of the age of two and under in Bethlehem and its vicinity. Joseph and his family stayed in Egypt until Herod's death, then moved to Nazareth in Galilee in order to avoid living under Herod's son Archelaus.
Regarding the Massacre of the Innocents, although Herod was certainly guilty of many brutal acts, including the killing of his wife and two of his sons, no other known source from the period makes any reference to such a massacre.[21] Since Bethlehem was a small village, the number of male children under the age of two might not exceed 20. This may be the reason for the lack of other sources for this history,[22] although Herod's order in Matthew 2:16 includes those children in Bethlehem's vicinity making the massacre larger numerically and geographically. Modern biographers of Herod tend to doubt the event took place.[23]
Since the work of Emil Schürer in 1896[24] most scholars have agreed that Herod died at the end of March or early April in 4 BCE. [25][26]
Further evidence is provided by the fact that his sons, between whom his kingdom was divided, dated their rule from 4 BCE,[27] and Archilaus apparently also exercised royal authority during Herod's lifetime.[28] Josephus states that Philip the Tetrarch's death took place after a 37-year reign, in the 20th year of Tiberius (34 CE).[29]
Josephus tells us that Herod died after a lunar eclipse.[30] He gives an account of events between this eclipse and his death, and between his death and Passover. A partial eclipse[31] took place on March 13, 4 BCE[32], about 29 days before Passover, and this eclipse is usually taken to be the one referred to by Josephus.[33] There were however three other, total, eclipses around this time, and there are proponents of both 5 BCE[34]– with two total eclipses,[35][36] and 1 BCE.[10]
Josephus wrote that Herod's final illness – sometimes named as "Herod's Evil"[37] – was excruciating.[38] From Josephus' descriptions, some medical experts propose that Herod had chronic kidney disease complicated by Fournier's gangrene.[39] Modern scholars agree he suffered throughout his lifetime from depression and paranoia.[40] More recently, others report that the visible worms and putrefaction described in his final days are likely to have been scabies; the disease might have accounted for both his death and psychiatric symptoms.[41] Similar symptoms attended the death of his grandson Agrippa I in CE 44.
Josephus also stated that Herod was so concerned that no one would mourn his death, that he commanded a large group of distinguished men to come to Jericho, and he gave order that they should be killed at the time of his death so that the displays of grief that he craved would take place [42]. Fortunately for them, Herod's son Archilaus and sister Salome did not carry out this wish [43].
After Herod's death, his kingdom was divided among three of his sons by Augustus. Augustus "appointed Archilaus, not indeed to be the king of the whole country, but ethnarch or one half of that which had been subject to Herod, and promised to give him the royal dignity hereafter, if he governed his part virtuously. But as for the other half, he divided it into two parts, and gave it to two other of Herod's sons, to Philip and to Herod Antipas, that Herod Antipas who disputed with Archilaus for the whole kingdom. Now, to him it was that Perea and Galilee paid their tribute, which amounted annually to two hundred talents, while Batanea with Trachonitis, as well as Auranitis, with a certain part of what was called House of Lenodorus, paid the tribute of one hundred talents to Philip; but Idumea, and Judea, and the country of Samaria, paid tribute to Archilaus, but had now a fourth part of that tribute taken off by the order of Caesar, who decreed them that mitigation, because they did not join in this revolt with the rest of the multitude."[44] Archilaus became ethnarch of the tetrarchy of Judea, Herod Antipas became tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea, and Philip became tetrarch of territories east of the Jordan.
The location of Herod's tomb is documented by Josephus, who writes, "And the body was carried two hundred furlongs, to Herodium, where he had given order to be buried."[45] Josephus provides more clues about Herod's tomb which he calls Herod's monuments:
So they threw down all the hedges and walls which the inhabitants had made about their gardens and groves of trees, and cut down all the fruit trees that lay between them and the wall of the city, and filled up all the hollow places and the chasms, and demolished the rocky precipices with iron instruments; and thereby made all the place level from Scopus to Herod's monuments, which adjoined to the pool called the Serpent's Pool.[46]
Professor Ehud Netzer, an archaeologist from Hebrew University, read the writings of Josephus and focused his search on the vicinity of the pool and its surroundings at the Winter Palace of Herod in the Judean desert. An article of the New York Times states,
Lower Herodium consists of the remains of a large palace, a race track, service quarters, and a monumental building whose function is still a mystery. Perhaps, says Ehud Netzer, who excavated the site, it is Herod's mausoleum. Next to it is a pool, almost twice as large as modern Olympic-size pools.[47]
It took 35 years for Netzer to identify the exact location, but on May 7, 2007, an Israeli team of archaeologists of the Hebrew University led by Netzer, announced they had discovered the tomb.[48][49][50][51] The site is located at the exact location given by Flavius Josephus, atop of tunnels and water pools, at a flattened desert site, halfway up the hill to Herodium, 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) south of Jerusalem.[52] The tomb contained a broken sarcophagus but no remains of a body.
| Wife | Children |
|---|---|
| Doris |
|
| Mariamne I, daughter of Hasmonean Alexandros |
|
| Mariamne II, daughter of High-Priest Simon |
|
| Malthace |
|
| Cleopatra of Jerusalem |
|
| Pallas |
|
| Phaidra |
|
| Elpis |
|
| A cousin (name unknown) |
|
| A niece (name unknown) |
|
It is very probable that Herod had more children, especially with the last wives, and also that he had more daughters, as female births at that time were often not recorded.[55]
Herod the Great + Doris | Antipater II d. 4 BCE?
Herod the Great + Mariamne I, d. 29 BCE?, dt. of Alexandros. | ————————————————————————————————————————————— | | | | Aristobulus Alexander Salampsio + Phasael II Cypros d. 7 BCE? d. 7 BCE? | m. Antipater(2) m. Berenice Cypros | ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— | | | | | Mariamne III Herod V Herodias Herod Agrippa Aristobulus V m. her uncle King of Chalcis + King of Judea | Archelaus ? m. 1. Herod II Boethus Herod Agrippa II her uncle 2. Herod Antipas her uncle
Herod the Great + Mariamne II, dt. of Simon the High-Priest. | Herod II Boethus
Herod the Great + Malthace (a Samaritan) | ———————————————————————————————————————————————— | | | Herod Antipas Archelaus Olympias b. 20 BCE? + Phasaelis, dt. of Aretas IV, king of Arabia "divorced" to marry: + Herodias, dt. of Aristobulus (son of Herod the Great)
Herod the Great + Cleopatra of Jerusalem | Philip the Tetrarch d. 34 CE
Antipater the Idumaean + Cypros, Princess from Petra, Jordan in Nabatea. | ————————————————————————————————————————————— | | | | | Phasael Herod the Great Joseph Pheroras Salome I (74-4 BCE)
| Sign & Meaning |
|---|
| + = married |
| | = descended from |
| ../——— = sibling |
| dt. = daughter |
| b. = born |
| d. = died |
| m. = was married to |
| ? = not included here or unknown |
Alexandros + Alexandra
|
———————————————————————————————————
| |
Aristobulus III Mariamne, dt.
(d. 35 BCE) m. Herod the Great
(last Hasmonean scion;
appointed high priest; drowned)
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Herod the Great
House of Herod
Died: 4 BCE |
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| Preceded by Antigonus |
King of the Jews 37 BCE – 4 BCE |
Succeeded by Herod Archelaus |
| Ruler of Galilee 37 BCE – 4 BCE |
Succeeded by Herod Antipas |
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| Ruler of Batanea 37 BCE – 4 BCE |
Succeeded by Herod Philip II |
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