HEROD THE GREAT

King of Judea at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ (Mt 2.1). He was born about 73 b.c., the second son of the Idumean Antipater, chief official of the hasmonaean king Hyrcanus II; his mother was Cyprus, a Nabataean woman.

Early Life. Throughout his early life, when various factions successively gained dominance in Palestine, Herod, like his father, managed always to align himself with the winning side. He first came to prominence at the age of 25, when as governor of Galilee he overreached his authority by executing some rebellious brigands; Herod escaped condemnation by the Jerusalem Sanhedrin only by leaving Judea and joining the Roman administration of Syria. When in 46 b.c. a follower of Pompey took over the Roman governor's army, Herod, his father, and his elder brother Phasael fought against him on behalf of the party of Julius Caesar. After Caesar's assassination (44 b.c.), however, they supported the republican C. Cassius, who had taken command of Syria, and aided him in preparations for the war against Mark Antony. Soon after, in 43 b.c., a personal enemy, Malichus, had Antipater murdered, and seized the government of Judea. Herod, with Cassius' connivance, had Malichus killed, and Hyrcanus reappointed Phasael governor of Jerusalem. While Cassius joined Brutus for the impending battle against Antony and Octavian, Herod and Phasael had to put down a revolt raised by Malichus's brothers and another raised on behalf of Hyrcanus's nephew and rival Antigonus. With this opposition overcome, Herod then strengthened his position by his betrothal to Hyrcanus's granddaughter Mariamme; thus the Idumean Herod, whose family had been Jewish for barely three generations, was to some extent identified with the legitimate Hasmonaean dynasty.

Tetrarch of Galilee. After the battle of Philippi (41 b.c.), Phasael and Herod ingratiated themselves with the victorious Mark Antony. Despite opposition from Jewish delegations, Antony made Phasael and Herod tetrarchs of Judea and Galilee respectively. In 40 b.c., however, the Parthians invaded Syria, and Antigonus, with the assurance of Parthian support, again marched on Jerusalem. Phasael and Hyrcanus fell into Antigonus's power, but Herod slipped away from Jerusalem with his family and household, and committed them to his brother Joseph's care in the fortress of Masada in southeastern Judea. Phasael seems to have committed suicide; Hyrcanus was mutilated and taken away to Mesopotamia.

Refused asylum with the Nabataean king at Petra, Herod went to Rome in the fall of 40 b.c. to appeal to Antony. In a formal session of the senate Antony and Octavian had Herod named king. After his arrival at Ptolemais (Accho) in the spring of 39 b.c., Herod gathered an army and relieved the besieged Masada, but he was unable to begin the siege of Jerusalem until the spring of 37 b.c., when he also married Mariamme. On taking Jerusalem Herod began his reign with a series of proscriptions, which all but eliminated the Sanhedrin. Antigonus was executed by order of Antony.

Herod faced only three dangers to his power thereafter: Cleopatra of Egypt, the surviving Hasmonaeans, and the fall of his patron, Antony. Cleopatra used her influence with Antony to acquire much of Herod's best land, including Jericho and the port of Joppe (Jaffa); she supported a plot to restore an independent Idumea; at the request of Mariamme's mother, Alexandra, she exerted pressure on Herod to appoint his brother-in-law, the young Aristobulus, high priest. As legitimate successor to the high priesthood and kingship, and as a figure attractive to the people, Aristobulus presented a threat to the parvenu Herod, who accordingly had him killed shortly after his appointment in 36 b.c. Hyrcanus, who had returned from Babylon upon the fall of Antigonus, was also murdered by Herod in 30 b.c., as the last possible rival for power. Antony's defeat at Actium removed Cleopatra as a threat to his kingship, but also put Herod in danger of removal. He quickly changed his allegiance, giving aid to Octavian's forces, and in 30 b.c. Octavian confirmed him as king and even restored the land Cleopatra had taken over, along with other coastal towns and Samaria, Gadara, and Hippos. In 22 b.c. his territory was further enlarged, to include Trachonitis, Batanaea, and Auranitis (Hauran).

King of Judea. Once established as a client king, Herod was occupied with construction projects. He required force to stay in power, and so he built or strengthened many fortresses: Masada, Alexandrium, Hyrcania, Antonia, Phasaelis, Herodium, Machaerus, and Cyprus (at NT Jericho). His army was made up mostly of mercenaries. Besides building for military purposes, Herod lavished money on cities, temples, and theaters. His outstanding achievements were rebuilding the city of Samaria as Sebaste (27 b.c.), his fortress-palace in jerusalem (23 b.c.), the port of Caesarea (22 b.c.), and the new Temple of Jerusalem (built between about 20 and 10 b.c.). Herod was a benefactor to many cities of the empire as well, financing expensive projects out of his immense wealth; these had the effect of protecting the interests of Jews in the Diaspora and reducing anti-Jewish feeling in the Hellenistic cities. Throughout his reign, Herod was on good terms with Augustus, until in 9 b.c. a misunderstanding over his actions in a military campaign against the Nabataeans brought him into the emperor's disfavor.

Herod's family life was complex and unhappy, full of intrigue and conflict. He was passionately devoted to his wife, Mariamme, and hence prone to jealousy. Salomé, his sister, out of resentment against the Hasmonaean Mariamme and her sons, Aristobulus and Alexander, poisoned Herod's mind against them. Convinced of Mariamme's unfaithfulness, Herod had her executed in 29 b.c., and her mother, Alexandra, within the year, again at Salomé's instigation. About 23 b.c. Herod married another Mariamme, daughter of Simon of Alexandria, whom he appointed high priest; by her he had a son called Herod, to whom Herodias was first married. Mariamme II was followed by seven other wives; the most important were Malthace, mother of Archelaus and herod antipas, and Cleopatra of Jerusalem, mother of Philip the Tetrarch. Salomé and Herod's brother Pheroras plotted to discredit Alexander and Aristobulus. As a result, in 14 b.c. Herod recalled to the court his first wife, Doris, and her son Antipater, and the latter, out of ambition, became a willing accomplice to the schemes of Salomé and Pheroras. On the basis of their accusations, Herod had Alexander and Aristobulus executed in Sebaste in 7 b.c., and named Antipater heir. But in 4 b.c., when he learned of Antipater's intrigues against his sons and himself, Herod had him executed too; he named Archelaus, Antipas, and Philip joint heirs. Herod himself died a short time later, apparently of cancer.

The account in Mt 2.16 of the slaughter of the Holy innocents at Bethlehem is entirely in keeping with the king's cruel jealousy.

Bibliography: flavius josephus, Ant. 14:19; Bell Iud. 17–2.183. s. h. perowne, The Life and Times of Herod the Great (Nashville 1959). a. h. m. jones, The Herods of Judaea (Oxford 1938) 1–155. f. m. abel, Histoire de la Palestine depuis la conquête d'Alexandre jusqu'à l'invasion Arabe, 2 v. Études Bibliques 1:310–406. a. momigliano, The Cambridge Ancient History (London and New York 1923–29) 10:316–339. j. blinzler, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65)² 5:263–265. w. foerster, Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (3d ed. Tübingen 1957–65) 33:266–268. Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Bible, tr. and adap. by l. hartman (New York 1963) from a. van den born, Bijbels Woordenboek 988–990.

[j. p. m. walsh]