Herod Antipas
Son of Herod the Great and ruler of Galilee and Perea throughout the ministry of Jesus. He imprisoned John the Baptist and put him to death. The Gospels call him Herod.
Antipas received Galilee and Perea, with the title of tetrarch, when Augustus divided the kingdom of his father Herod the Great (Josephus, Antiquities 17.318). He fortified Sepphoris and built a new city on the Sea of Galilee, which he named Tiberias after the emperor Tiberius (Josephus, Antiquities 18.27, 36–38). Luke names him as tetrarch of Galilee when John the Baptist began to preach (Luke 3:1).
He agreed to divorce his wife, a Nabataean princess, in order to marry Herodias, the wife of one of his half-brothers; the princess fled to her father, King Aretas, who later destroyed his army (Josephus, Antiquities 18.109–115). He imprisoned John the Baptist and had him executed (Mark 6:14–29) (Josephus, Antiquities 18.116–119); see the Execution of John the Baptist. In Luke, Jesus calls him “that fox”, and Pilate sends Jesus to him during the trial because Jesus was a Galilean (Luke 13:31–32) (Luke 23:6–12).
Josephus relates that Herodias urged him to ask the emperor Gaius for the title of king. Her brother Agrippa accused him of storing arms for seventy thousand men, and Gaius deposed him and banished him to Gaul, where Herodias chose to follow him (Josephus, Antiquities 18.240–255). In his earlier work Josephus gives the place of exile as Spain (Josephus, Jewish War 2.181–183).
In the timeline
- 4 BC, estimated dateThe Death of Herod and the Division of His Kingdom
Herod the Great dies at Jericho. Augustus divides his kingdom among three sons: Archelaus in Judea, Antipas in Galilee and Perea, Philip in the north-east. Matthew sets the return of Jesus’ family from Egypt at this point.
- c. AD 28–29, estimated dateJohn the Baptist Preaches at the Jordan
Luke dates to the fifteenth year of Tiberius the preaching of John, who calls Israel to repentance in the wilderness and baptises crowds in the Jordan. All four Gospels and the Jewish historian Josephus describe him.
- c. AD 28–32, estimated dateThe Execution of John the Baptist
Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, has John the Baptist put to death. The Gospels tell of a beheading in prison and connect it with John’s rebuke of the tetrarch’s marriage to Herodias; Josephus places the death at Machaerus and gives a political motive.
- AD 30 or 33, estimated dateThe Trials before the Council and Pilate
The Gospels tell how Jesus is questioned before the high priest Caiaphas and the council, judged guilty of blasphemy, and handed in the morning to the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, who has him flogged and orders him crucified as “King of the Jews”.
Primary sources
Jewish Antiquities
- Josephus, Antiquities 17.318lexundria.com
- Josephus, Antiquities 18.27, 36–38lexundria.com
- Josephus, Antiquities 18.109–115lexundria.com
- Josephus, Antiquities 18.116–119lexundria.com
- Josephus, Antiquities 18.240–255lexundria.com
The Jewish War
- Josephus, Jewish War 2.181–183lexundria.com