THE HOUSE OF HEROD

HEROD AND HIS CLAN

Figure 1 Herod the Great as he appeared on a coin of his time (before 4 BC).

          The Herod family was from Idumea and were Edomite in origin, which means they were descendants of Esau. They occupied the country south and east of Israel and are the ancestors of today’s Arabs.

          Even though hostile to Jews by descent, the Herods were Jews by conversion. One of Herod the Great’s wives (Mariamne 2) was the daughter of Simon, the High Priest. While all the Herods considered themselves Jewish by faith, undoubtedly theirs was the shallowest of conversions, unmarked by any outward traces of actual belief. It seems their acceptance of Judaism was intended to pacify their unruly subjects, not satisfy God. Like many today who profess to be Christians, theirs was more show than substance. The possible exception may be Herod Antipas, who, despite his incestuous and adulterous union with Herodias actually seems to have had some degree of faith or at least the willingness to consider faith as more than just window dressing for his political career.

          The knowledge we have of the Herods comes to us compliments of Flavius Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews. In Antiquities, chapter 18, section 4, Josephus says this of the tangled Herod clan:

“...but Herodias, their sister, was married to Herod [Philip], the son of Herod the Great, who was born of Miriamne, the daughter of Simon the High Priest, who had a daughter, Salome, after whose birth Herodias took it upon herself to confound the laws of our country, and divorce herself from her husband while he was alive, and was married to Herod [Antipas]; her husband’s brother by the father’s side, he was Tetrarch of Galilee; but her daughter Salome was married to Philip, the son of Herod, and Tetrarch of Trachonitis; and as he died childless, Aristobulus, the son of Herod, the brother of Agrippa, married her; and they had three sons, Herod, Agrippa, and Aristobulus.”

          From the chart on the next page, you can see some of the messy affairs that caused the Herods to be generally despised by everyone who knew them. Herod Antipas, who had John the Baptist beheaded because of his drunken lust for his own niece took his brother Philip’s wife Herodias. His niece Salome then married her own uncle, who also shared the name of her true father, Philip. She then left him and married her cousin Aristobulus (who was Agrippa II’s half brother)!! What a mess!

SALOME (lived 1st century AD)

          The daughter of Herodias and of Herod Philip I, a son of Herod the Great, Herodias herself was a granddaughter of Herod the Great and sister of Herod Agrippa I. Salome’s dancing at the birthday banquet of her stepfather, Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, so pleased the Tetrarch that it induced him to offer her whatever she wished, up to half his domain. At the behest of Herodias, who desired the death of John the Baptist because he had denounced her marriage to her first husband’s half-brother, Salome demanded John’s head. It was brought to her on the infamous silver platter.

          Salome was later married to her father’s half-brother, Herod Philip II, the Tetrarch of what is now Syria, and then to Aristobulus, ruler of Lesser Armenia. The story of Salome and of the death of John the Baptist is related in both Matthew 14:6-11 and Mark 6:21-28.

          Salome appears to be a Jewish name of long standing that is the feminine form of Solomon. The name means peaceful, which is truly ironic in light of the lifestyle of the best-known Salome in history. it is Josephus who tells us that the girl in the story of the beheading of John the Baptist was named Salome. Nowhere in the Bible does it name her. In the Gospel accounts it merely identifies her as the daughter of Herodias.

          The escapades of Salome and Herod Antipas and their foul murder of John the Baptist were the basis of a play by Oscar Wilde called Salome, which was made into a famous opera of the same name by Richard Strauss.