Hero'dias (HpaiSiag, a female patronymic from 'HpiocijQ : on patronymics and gentilic names in lac, see Matthia?, (11: Gram. § 101 and 103), the name of a woman of notoriety in the N. T.. daughter of Aristobu- lus, one of the sons of.jMariamne and Herod the Great, and consequently sister of Agrippa I. She first married Herod, simiamed Philip, another of the sons of Mari- amne and the first Herod (.1)?^ xviii, 5, 4; comp. H'ar, i, 29, 4), and therefore her full uncle; then she eloped from him, duruig his lifetime {iUd.), to marry Herod
5 HERODIAS
Antipas, her step-imcle, who had long been married to, and Avas still living with, the daughter of /Eneas or Aretas — his assumed name — king of Arabia {Ant. xvii, 9, 4). Thus she left her husband, who was still ahve, to connect herself with a man whose wife was still alive. Her paramour was, indeed, less of a blood relation than her original husband; but, being likewise the half- brother of that husband, he was already coimected with her by affinity — so close that there was only one case contemplated in the law of jNIoses where it could be set aside, namely, when the married brother had died child- less (Lev. xviii, 16, and xxii, 21, and for the exception Deut. XXV, 5 sq.). Now Herodias had already had one child — Salome (the daughter whose dancing is men- tioned in the Gospels) — by Philip (.4?;^ xviii, 5, 4), and, as he was still alive, might have had more. Well there- fore may she be charged by Josephus ^nth the inten- tion of confounding her countrj^'s institutions {Ant. xviii, 5, 4) ; and well may John the Baptist have remonstrated against the enormity of such a connection with the te- trarch, whose conscience would certauily seem to liave been a less hardened one (ISIatt. xiv, 9 says he "was sorrj';" Mark vi, 20 that he "feared" John, and "heard him gladly"). A.D. 28. The consequences both of the crime and of the reproof which it incurred are well known. Aretas made war upon Herod for the injiu-y done to his daughter, and routed him with the loss of his whole army {Ant. xviii, 5, 1). The head of John the Baptist was granted at the suggestion of Herodias (IMatt. xiv, 8-11 ; Mark vi, 24-28). According to Jose- phus. the execution took place in a fortress called INIa- chaerus, on the frontier between the dominions of Aretas and Herod; according to Pliny (v, 15), lookuig down upon the Dead Sea from the south (compare Robinson, i, 570, note). It was to the iniquity of this act, rather than to the immorality of that illicit comiection, that, the historian says, some of the Jews attributed the de- feat of Herod. In the closing scene of her career, in- deed, Herodias exhibited considerable magnanimity, as she preferred going with Antipas to Lugdunum, and there sharing his exile and reverses, till death ended them, to the remaining with her brother Agrippa I, and partaking of his elevation {A nt. xviii, 7, 2). This town is probably Lugdmium Convenarum, a town of Gaul, situated on the right bank of the Garonne, at the foot of the Pyrenees, now St. Bertrand de Comminges (jSIur- ray, Handbook of France, p. 814) ; Ensebius, H. E. i, 11, says Vienne, confounding Antipas with Archelaus. Bur- ton on Matt, xiv, 3, Afford, and moderns in general, Ly- om. In Josephus ( War, ii, 9, 6), Antipas is said to have died in Spain — apparently, from the context, the land of his exile. A town on the frontiers, therefore, Uke the above, would satisfy both passages. See Herod.
There are few episodes in the whole range of the New Testament more suggestive to the commentator than this one scene in the life of Herodias.
1. It exhibits one of the most remarkable of the un- designed coincidences between the N. T. and Josephus ; that there are some discrepancies in the two accounts onlj' enhances their value. Jlore than this, it has led the historian into a brief digression upon the life, death, and character of the Baptist, which sjieaks volumes in favor of the genuineness of that still more celebrated passage in which he speaks of " Jesus," that " wise man, if man he may be called" (.4 nt. xviii, 3, 3 ; comp. xx, 9, 1, unhesitatingly quoted as genuine by Ensebius, Hist. Eccl. i, 11). See .John the B.vptist.
2. It has been warmly debated whether it was the adulterj' or the incestuous connection that drew down the reproof of the Baptist. It has already been shown that, either way, the offence merited condemnaticn upon more grounds than one.
3. The birthday feast is another undesigned coinci- dence between Scripture and profane history. The Jews abhorred keeping birthdays as a pagan custom (Bland on Matt, xiv, 6). On the other hand, it was usual with the Egyptians (Gen. xl, 20 ; comp. Josephus^
HERODION
217
HERON
Ant. xii, 4, 7), with the Persians (Heron, i, 133), with the Greeks, even in the case of the dead, whence the Christian custom of keeping anniversaries of the mar- tyrs (Biilur ad Herod, iv, 26), and with the Komans (Pei^. Sat. ii, 1-3). Now the Herods may be said to have gone beyond Rome in the observance of all that was Roman. Herod the Great kept the day of liis ac- cession ; Antipas — as we read here — and Agrippa I, as Josephus tells us (.4?*^ xix, 7, 1), their birthday, with such magnificence that tlie " birthdays of Herod" (He- rodis dies) had passed mto a proverb when Persius wrote {Sat. V, 180). See Biktiidav.