Herod Philip I: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 15:56, 12 January 2009
Herod II or Herod Boethus (ca. 27 BC - 33 AD)[1] was the son of Herod the Great and Mariamne II, the daughter of Simon Boethus the High Priest (Mark 6:17). For a brief period he was his father's heir.
Herod was the first husband of Herodias, and because the Gospel of Mark states that Herodias was married to Philip, some scholars have argued that his name was actually Herod Philip. Many scholars dispute this, however, and believe the Gospel writer was in error, a suggestion supported by the fact that the later Gospel of Luke drops the name Philip.[2]
Life and marriage
Herod the Great's execution of his Hasmonean sons, Alexander and Aristobulus IV in 7 BC, left the latter's daughter Herodias orphaned and a minor. Herod engaged her to Herod II Boethus, her half-uncle, and her connection to the Hasmonean bloodline supported her new husband's right to succeed his father.
As Josephus reports in Jewish Antiquities (Book XVIII, Chapter 5, 4):
Herodias, [...], was married to Herod, the son of Herod the Great by Mariamne II, the daughter of Simon the High Priest. [Herod II and Herodias] had a daughter, Salome...[3]
This marriage led to opposition to the marriage from Antipater III, Herod the Great's eldest son, and so Herod demoted Herod II Boethus to second in line to the succession. Antipater's execution in 4 BC for plotting to poison his father seemed to leave Herod II Boethus , now Herod I's eldest surviving son, as first in line, but his mother's knowledge of the poison plot yet failure to stop it led to his being dropped from this position in Herod I's will just days before he died.
Divorce
Herodias married Herod Boethus's half-brother, Herod Antipas. According to Josephus:
Herodias took upon her to confound the laws of our country, and divorced herself from her husband while he was alive, and was married to Herod Antipas[3]
It was this proposed marriage that John the Baptist opposed (Matt. 14: 3-5, Luke 3:18-20). Leviticus 18:16 says it is unlawful for a man to see his brother's wife naked, which meant that John was right and the match was illegal under Mosaic law.
The Gospel of Matthew indicates that John was executed because he criticized this marriage (Matt 14:3-12). Josephus does not specifically say this but the two events, the marriage and the execution—and the resulting war with Aretas IV Philopatris, King of the Nabataeans—do appear to be linked. (Josephus, Antiquities 18:116-119)
Herod had lived in Rome with Herodias as a private citizen[4] and therefore survived his father's deathbed purges. Herod Antipas and his other remaining half-brothers shared Judaea out amongst them. This eventually cost him his marriage to Herodias, who divorced him to marry his younger and more successful half-brother, Herod Antipas.
Notes
- ^ Kokkinos, The Herodian Dynasty, p. 237
- ^ Harold W. Hoehner, Herod Antipas: A Contemporary of Jesus Christ (Zondervan, 1983), page 132 - 134.
- ^ a b W. Whiston translation at Project Gutenberg
- ^ Merrill Chapin Tenney, Walter M. Dunnett, 'New Testament Survey', Pub. by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (1985)
References
- Kokkinos, Nikkos (1998). The Herodian Dynasty: Origins, Role in Society and Eclipse. Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha Supplement Series. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. pp. 236–240. ISBN 1-85075-690-2.