Herod Philip I
Herod II or Herod Boethus, or Herod Philip I (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][3]
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...[4]
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, and failure to stop it, led to his being dropped from this position in Herod I's will just days before he died.
Divorce
Herodias later 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[4]
According to the Gospel of Matthew[5] and the Gospel of Luke,[6] it was this proposed marriage that John the Baptist opposed. The Gospel of Matthew indicates that John was executed because he criticized this marriage[7]. Josephus does not say this but the two events, the marriage and the execution — and the resulting war with Aretas IV Philopatris, King of the Nabataeans[8] — may be linked.
Herod had lived in Rome with Herodias as a private citizen[9] and therefore survived his father's deathbed purges. Herod Antipas and his other remaining half-brothers shared Judaea out amongst them.
Notes
- ^ Kokkinos, The Herodian Dynasty, p. 237
- ^ Harold W. Hoehner, Herod Antipas: A Contemporary of Jesus Christ (Zondervan, 1983), page 132 - 134.
- ^ see also, for example, E. Mary Smallwood, "Behind the New Testament", Greece & Rome, Second Series, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Apr., 1970), pp. 81-99 [1]
- ^ a b W. Whiston translation at Project Gutenberg
- ^ Matthew 14:3-5
- ^ Luke 3:18-20
- ^ Matt 14:3-12
- ^ (Josephus, Antiquities 18:116-119)
- ^ 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.