The Death of Herod and the Division of His Kingdom

Josephus describes the last months of Herod the Great at length. He writes that the king was about seventy and gravely ill (Josephus, Antiquities 17.146–148, 168–173). Two teachers of the law in Jerusalem, Judas and Matthias, told their students that the golden eagle Herod had set over the great gate of the temple broke the law against images, and a group of young men cut it down in broad daylight. No fewer than forty were arrested with their teachers. Herod had Matthias and his companions burned alive, and Josephus adds that there was an eclipse of the moon that night (Josephus, Antiquities 17.149–167).

The king sought relief at the hot springs of Callirrhoe beyond the Jordan and then returned to Jericho (Josephus, Antiquities 17.146–148, 168–173). There, Josephus says, he had leading men from the whole nation shut in the hippodrome and ordered that they be killed at his death, so that the country would mourn; his sister Salome released them instead (Josephus, Antiquities 17.174–179, 193). He had his son Antipater executed and died five days later (Josephus, Antiquities 17.187, 191).

His final will named Archelaus king, made Herod Antipas tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, and gave another son, Philip, the districts north-east of the Sea of Galilee. It was to take effect only when the emperor had confirmed it (Josephus, Antiquities 17.188–190, 195). Archelaus buried his father at Herodium (Josephus, Antiquities 17.194–199). He told the crowds in the temple that he would not use the title of king until Augustus granted it. When mourners for the executed teachers stoned his soldiers at Passover, he sent in his army, and about three thousand people were killed (Josephus, Antiquities 17.200–218).

Archelaus then sailed for Rome (Josephus, Antiquities 17.219–222). A delegation of fifty from Judea followed and asked Augustus to end the rule of Herod’s family and attach the country to the province of Syria (Josephus, Antiquities 17.299–314). Augustus gave Archelaus half the kingdom, namely Judea, Samaria and Idumea, with the title of ethnarch and the promise of kingship if he ruled well. Antipas received Galilee and Perea, and Philip received Batanea, Trachonitis and Auranitis (Josephus, Antiquities 17.317–320) (Josephus, Jewish War 2.93–97).

Matthew sets the childhood of Jesus against these events. In his account Joseph, who had fled to Egypt with the child and his mother, returns after Herod’s death, is afraid to settle in Judea when he hears that Archelaus rules there, and makes his home at Nazareth in Galilee (Matthew 2:19–23). The division shaped the setting of the Gospels: Luke names Herod Antipas as tetrarch of Galilee and Philip as tetrarch of Ituraea and Trachonitis when John the Baptist began to preach (Luke 3:1).