(4) Ilerod and the murder of the Innocents. — Herod comes into connexion with the gospel narra- tive, in two ways. Both St. .Mattliew fj') and St. Luke (2') agree in stating that it was during his reign our Lord was born. There is no rea.son to doubt that statement, only it has become quite clear tlint it could not also be during a taxing under Qiiirinius (see CllRONOLOQY OF NT, i. 404 f, ). St. .Mattliew also gives us an account of the visit of tlie wise men, of their interview with Herod, and of the subsequent murder of the infants under two years old at Bethlehem. We have no other account of the event, which could not have been conspicuous in Herod's life ; and all that it is necessary to say is that it wa.s exactly consistent with his character, especially during the later years of his life. Reference is especially made to Ant. XVI. xi. 7, XVII. ii. 4— events which can have nothing to do with the massacre at Bothli-hem, but show conclusively the temper of the king. Macrobius (5tli cent.) sjiys, .1 wjustus, cum atulissct inter pucros quos in Syria Herode.i, rex Jiidtroruin, intra bimntitm jussit intcrfici ftimn qiioi/if tint Oituum, ait: Melius est llerodis porcum esse quam
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filium (Macrol). Saturn, ii. 4), a statement which is so 4-un fused as to be quite valueless.
vi. The SUCCESSOKS of Hkrod.— Herod had made three wills. By the lirst he nominated Antipater his siicccs.sor ; if he died before his father, Herod, son of the second Mariaiune (.see llKUOD, below), was to succeed ; by the second, Antipas was declared his successor ; by the third, Arehelaus was to be king, and Antipas and I'liilip were to have tetrarchies. After suppressing some disturbances on his father's death, Arehelaus went to Koine to claim liis inlicritance, to the same
Jdaee went Antipas to attempt to obtain what lad been left him under the second will, and a little later came l*hilij>, not for his own sake, but to support the claims of Arclielaus. Oilier deputations came asking to be freed from tlie rule of the Herods altogether. Wliile AMj,'nstus delayed to give his decision, disturbances broke out throughout uU Palestine, wliich were with diiliculty suppressed. Ultimately, Au<^i.stus prac- tically conlirmed Herod's will. Arehelaus was to ";overn Jnda-a, Samaria, and Idunuva, but only with the title of etiinarch, not of king ; Antipas, GalUee and Penea ; Philip, Trachonitis and Itunea. AVhen Arehelaus came home he removed the liijih priest Joazar, son of Uoethius, who had taken part in the rebellion. There can be little doubt that this expedition of Arehelaus to obtain the kinj,'doni suggested the parable in Lk I'J" etc. of the nobleman who went to a far country to receive a kingdom.
(1) Arch KLAUS CApxAaos) was the elder of the two sons of Herod by Malthace, a Samaritan woman [Ant. xv'Il. i. 31. He was brought up at Konie with his own brother Antipas, at a private house. He had been accused by Antipater of disloyalty, and so had been at lirst kept out of any inheritance. His visit to Home has been narrated above. After he had acquired the king- dom, there is little related of him. He outraged Jewi.sh sentiment by marrying Glaphyra, wiilow of his brother Alexander, although she had had chiUlren by him, and had another husband (Juba of Mauritania) living, and his own wife was alive. He built a palace at Jericho, and a \'illage in his own honour of the name of Archelais. He was the worst of all Herod's sons that survived, and, after nine years of his rule, the people of Jud;ea and Saman.a could no longer endure his cruelty and tyranny. They complained to Augustus, who summoned Arehelaus to Rome, and, after hearing the case, banished him to Vieiine. From this time to the year a.d. 41 Palestine was under Koman procurators.
Arehelaus is mentioned once in the NT, in Mt 2^.
(2) Antipas or Heuod Antipas ('AyT(iros), called in NT ' Herod the tetrarch.' He was the son of Herod by Malthace, and in the second of his father's wills had been designated sole heir. Ulti- mately, he received only Galilee and Pertea, a district which brought him in a yearly revenue of 200 talents. The two portions were divided from one another by the confederation of Greek cities called Decapolis. He seems to have had the ability to govern his country, a decidedly dilUcuIt one, and, like his father, he was distinguished for his love of building. He built as liLs capital Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee.
His first wife was a daughter of Aretas, king of the Nabat.aeans, but once on a visit to Konie he visited the house of his brother Herod (Philip), son of the younger Mariamne. This Herod hod married Herodias, his niece, daughter of Aristobulus, and had by her a daughter, Salome. With Herodias Antipas fell violently in love, and determined to divorce his wife and marrv her. This the daughter
of Aretas became aware of, and fled to her futhei for protection.
About this time the territory of Antipas wa« the .scene of the preaching of John the liaptist and of our Lord. It is needless to repeat the story which is told us in the Gospels of .loim the Haptist, of Herodias, of John's rebuke, imiirisonment, and ultimate death (.Mt ll'"-, .Mk U""-, l.k ;j'-'). Accord- ing to Jo.seplius, the rea.son Herod gave for ira- l)risoning hini was the fear that he might create a revolt or disturbance among the people. The execution took place at the fortress of Machajrus, beyond the Jordan (Ant. xvill. v. 2).