Herodias

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

HERODIAS ( Ἡρῳδιάς).—Herodias was the daughter of Aristobulus (son of Herod the Great and Mariamne the Hasmonaean) and Bernice (daughter of Salome, Herod’s sister, and Costobar), and thus the full sister of Herod, king of Chalcis, and Agrippa i. ( Ant . xviii. v. 4). She married first her half-uncle Herod, son of Herod the Great and Mariamne, the high priest’s daughter. In  Mark 6:17 and  Matthew 14:3 the first husband of Herodias is called Philip , the brother of Herod (Antipas). This Philip, therefore, most probably bore also the name ‘Herod’ (as did also his brothers Archelaus and Antipas), and is to be distinguished from Philip the tetrarch ( Luke 3:1; cf.  Matthew 16:13,  Mark 8:27), who married Salome, the daughter of Herod Philip and Herodias ( Ant . xviii. v. 4). In  Mark 6:17 the reading Φιλίππου is given by Tisch. (ed. maj. viii.) without citation of a variant. In  Matthew 14:3 Φιλίππου has the support of אBCL, etc., but is omitted in Daceff´g´kvg. In  Luke 3:19 Φιλίππου is inserted by ACK, etc., cop syrutr. armcdd aeth, but omitted by אBDL, etc. The reading thus appears to be original in Mk., probably original in Mt., and derivative in Luke. The statement (. Bibl. ii. 2032), ‘In spite of  Mark 6:17 we cannot hold that he ever really bore the name Philip,’ as well as the remark of Schürer3 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] (i. 435, n. [Note: note.] 19), ‘Since, according to Josephus, not the tetrarch but the above-named Herod was the first husband of Herodias, the statement of Mark and Matthew is evidently a mistake’ ( ein entschiedenes Versehen ) are too positive. They do not rest on any more substantial evidence than the fact that Josephus calls this son of Herod the Great simply Herod. The argument that two sons of Herod would not have borne the same name Philip is weakened by the fact that even according to Josephus two sons of Herod bore the same name—Herod, son of Mariamne, the high priest’s daughter, and Herod, son of Cleopatra ( Ant . xvii. i. 3, xviii. v. 4). Herod Philip had been designated in the first will of Herod the Great as the alternate of Antipas in succession to the throne ( Ant . xvii. iii. 2; BJ i. xxix. 2), but was subsequently omitted because of his mother’s connexion with the plot of Antipater ( Ant . xvii. iv. 2; BJ i. xxx. 7). He continued in private life in Rome, where Antipas, while guest in his brother’s house, persuaded Herodias to desert her husband and marry him. This second marriage of Herodias was especially offensive to the Jews, because her husband, to whom she had borne a child, was still alive (cf.  Leviticus 18:16,  Deuteronomy 25:5; also Ant . xvii. xiii. I). John the Baptist rebuked Antipas for his action, and paid the penalty with his life for rousing the anger of an ambitious and unscrupulous woman. Her connexion with the downfall of Antipas has been mentioned (cf. art. Herod under ‘Antipas’ ). In the last recorded incident of her life, when Herodias voluntarily followed Antipas into exile and haughtily refused the Emperor’s bounty, she displayed, like her grandmother Mariamne when unjustly sentenced to death, the proud fortitude and fine dignity of the old Hasmonaean house now brought so low through its union with the Herods ( Ant . xviii. vii. 2; cf. xv. ix. 5).

Literature.—Schürer, GJ V [Note: JV Geschichte des Jüdischen Volkes.] 3 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] i. 435–449 (English translation, cf. Index); E. S. Ffoulkes in Smith’s D B [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] 2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] ii. 1055 f.; Sieffert in PR E [Note: RE Real-Encyklopädie fur protest. Theologic und Kirche.] 3 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] vii. 769 f.; Woodhouse in Encyc. Bibl . ii. 2033; Headlam in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible ii. 360; I. Broydé in Jewish Encyc . vi. 360 f.; J. D. Davis, D B [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] 293 f.

W. P. Armstrong.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

A granddaughter of Herod the Great and Mariamne, daughter of Aristobulus, and sister of Herod Agrippa I. She was first married to her Uncle Herod Philip, but afterwards abandoned him and connected herself with his brother Herod Antipas. It was by her artifice that Herod was persuaded to cause John the Baptist to be put to death, she being enraged at John on account of his bold denunciation of the incestuous connection which subsisted between her and Herod. When Herod was banished to Lyons, she accompanied him,  Matthew 14:3,6   Mark 6:17   Luke 3:19 . See Herod III.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Hero'dias. Daughter of Aristobulus, one of the sons of Mariamne and Herod the Great, and consequently, sister of Agrippa I. She first married Herod Philip I; then she eloped from him to marry Herod Antipas her step-uncle. The head of John the Baptist was granted at the request of Herodias.  Matthew 14:8-11;  Mark 6:24-28. (A.D. 29). She accompanied Antipas into exile to Lugdunum.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Herodias ( He-Rô'Di-As ). Daughter of Aristobulus, one of the sons of Mariamne and Herod the Great, and consequently sister of Agrippa I. She first married Herod Philip I.; then she eloped from him to marry Herod Antipas, her step-uncle. The head of John the Baptist was granted at the request of Herodias.  Matthew 14:8-11;  Mark 6:24-28, a.d. 29.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Matthew 14:3-11 Mark 6:17-28 Luke 3:19

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Mark 6:17 Mark 6:17Herod

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

HERODIAS . See Herod, No. 3, and John the Baptist.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

See Herod Antipas and Herod'S Family

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( ᾿Ηρωδίας , a female patronymic from ῾Ηρώδης : on patronymics and gentile names in Ιας , see Matthise, Gk. Gramm. § 101 and 103), the name of a woman of notoriety in the N.T., daughter of Aristobulus, one of the sons of Mariamne and Herod the Great, and consequently sister of Agrippa I. She first married Herod, surnamed Philip, another of the sons of Mariamne and the first Herod (Ant. 18, 5, 4; comp. War, 1, 29, 4), and therefore her full uncle; then she eloped from him, during his lifetime (ibid,), to marry Herod Antipas, her step-uncle, who had long been married to, and was still living with, the daughter of Eneas or Aretas-his assumed name-king of Arabia (Ant. 17, 9, 4). Thus she left her husband, who was still alive, to connect herself with a man whose wife was still alive. Her paramour was, indeed, less of a blood relation than her original husband; but, being likewise the half brother of that husband, he was already connected with her by affinity — so close that there was only one case contemplated in the law of Moses where it could be set aside, namely, when the married brother had died childless ( Leviticus 18:16;  Leviticus 22:21, and for the exception  Deuteronomy 25:5 sq.). Now Herodias had already had one child — Salome (the daughter whose dancing is mentioned in the Gospels) — by Philip (Ant. 18, 5, 4), and, as he was still alive, might have had more. Well therefore may she be charged by Josephus with the intention of confounding her country's institutions (Ant. 18, 5, 4); and well may John the Baptist have remonstrated against the enormity of such a connection with the tetrarch, whose conscience would certainly seem to have been a less hardened one ( Matthew 14:9 says he "was sorry;"  Mark 6:20 that he "feared" John, and "heard him gladly"). A.D. 28. The consequences both of the crime and of the reproof which it incurred are well known. Aretas made war upon Herod for the injury done to his daughter, and routed him with the loss of his whole army (Ant. 18, 5, 1).

The head of John the Baptist was granted at the suggestion of Herodias ( Matthew 14:8-11;  Mark 6:24-28). According to Josephus, the execution took place in a fortress called Machaerus, on the frontier between the dominions of Aretas and Herod; according to Pliny (5, 15), looking down upon the Dead Sea from the south (compare Robinson, 1, 570, note). It was to the iniquity of this act, rather than to the immorality of that illicit connection, that, the historian says, some of the Jews attributed the defeat of Herod. In the closing scene of her career, indeed, Herodias exhibited considerable magnanimity, as she preferred going with Antipas to Lugdunum, and there sharing his exile and reverses, till death ended them, to the remaining with her brother Agrippa I, and partaking of his elevation (Ant. 18, 7, 2). This town is probably Lugdunum Convenarum, a town of Gaul, situated on the right bank of the Garonne, at the foot of the Pyrenees, now St. Bertrand de Commines (Murray, Handbook of France, p. 314); Eusebius, H. E. 1, 11, says Vienne, confounding Antipas with Archelaus. Burton on  Matthew 14:3, Alford, and moderns in general, Ly Ons. In Josephus (War, 2, 9, 6), Antipas is said to have died in Spain-apparently, from the context, the land of his exile. A town on the frontiers, therefore, like the above, would satisfy both passages. (See Herod).

There are few episodes in the whole range of the New Testament more suggestive to the commentator than this one scene in the life of Herodias.

1. It exhibits one of the most remarkable of the undesigned coincidences between the N.T. and Josephus; that there are some discrepancies in the two accounts only enhances their value. More than this, it has led the historian into a brief digression upon the life, death, and character of the Baptist, which speaks volumes in favor of the genuineness of that still more celebrated passage in which he speaks of "Jesus," that "wise man, if man he may be called" (Ant. 18, 3, 3; comp. 20, 9, 1, unhesitatingly quoted as genuine by Eusebius, Hist, Ecclesiastes 1, 11). (See John The Baptist).

2. It has been warmly debated whether it was the adultery or the incestuous connection that drew down the reproof of the Baptist. It has already-been shown that, either way, the offence merited condemnation upon more grounds than one.

3. The birthday feast is another undesigned coincidence between Scripture and profane history. The Jews abhorred keeping birthdays as a pagan custom (Bland on  Matthew 14:6). On the other hand, it was usual with the Egyptians ( Genesis 40:20; comp. Josephus, Ant. 12, 4, 7), with the Persians (Herod. 1, 133), with the Greeks, even in the case of the dead, whence the Christian custom of keeping anniversaries of the martyrs (Bahr Ad Herod. 4, 26), and with the Romans (Pers. Sat. 2, 1-3). Now the Herods may be said to have gone beyond Rome in the observance of all that was Roman. Herod the Great kept the day of his accession; Antipas-as we read here-and Agrippa I, as Josephus tells us (Ant. 19:7, 1), their birthday, with such magnificence that the "birthdays of Herod" (Herodis dies) had passed into a proverb when Persius wrote (Sat. 5, 180). (See Birthday).

4. Yet dancing, on these festive occasions, was common to both Jew and Gentile, and was practiced in the same way: youths and virgins, singly, or separated into two bands, but never intermingled, danced to do honor to their deity, their hero, or to the day of their solemnity, Miriam ( Exodus 15:20), the daughter of Jephthah ( Judges 11:34), and David ( 2 Samuel 6:14) are familiar instances in Holy Writ: the "Carmen Saeculare" of Horace, to quote no more, points to the same custom amongst Greeks and Romans. It is plainly owing to the elevation of woman in the social scale that dancing in pairs (still unknown to the East) has come into fashion. (See Dance).

5. The rash oath of Herod, like that of Jephthah in the O.T., has afforded ample discussion to casuists. It is now ruled that all such oaths, where there is no reservation, expressed or implied, in favor of the laws of God or man, are illicit and without force. So Solomon had long since decided ( 1 Kings 2:20-24; see Sanderson, De Juram. Oblig. Praelect. 3, 16). (See Oath).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

hē̇ - rō´di - as ( Ἡρωδιάς or Ἡρῳδιάς , Hērōdiás ): The woman who compassed the death of John the Baptist at Macherus (  Matthew 14:1-12; Mk 6:14-29; compare also  Luke 3:19 ,  Luke 3:20;  Luke 9:7-9 ). According to the Gospel records, Herodias had previously been married to Philip, but had deserted him for his brother Herod the tetrarch. For this Herod was reproved by John (compare  Leviticus 18:16;  Leviticus 20:21 ), and Herod, therefore, to please Herodias, bound him and cast him into prison. According to  Matthew 14:5 he would even then have put John to death, but "feared the multitude," which regarded John as a prophet. But   Mark 6:19 f relates it was Herodias who especially desired the death of John, but that she was withstood by Herod whose conscience was not altogether dead. This latter explanation is more in harmony with the sequel. At Herod's birthday feast, Herodias induced her daughter Salome, whose dancing had so charmed the tetrarch, to ask as her reward the head of John the Baptist on a charger. This was given her and she then brought it to her mother.

Herodias was daughter of Aristobulus, son of Herod the Great, by Mariamne, daughter of Hyrcanus. Her second husband (compare above) was Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea (circa 4-39 ad), son of Herod the Great by Malthace. Herod Antipus was thus the step-brother of Aristobulus, father of Herodias. Regarding the first husband of Herodias, to whom she bore Salome, some hold that the Gospel accounts are at variance with that of Josephus. In  Matthew 14:3;  Mark 6:17;  Luke 3:19 , he is called Philip the brother of Herod (Antipus). But in  Matthew 14:3 and   Luke 3:19 the name Philip is omitted by certain important manuscripts. According to Josephus, he was Herod, son of Herod the Great by Mariamne daughter of Simon the high priest, and was thus a step-brother of Herod Antipas (compare Josephus, Ant , Xviii , v, 4). It is suggested in explanation of the discrepancy (1) that Herod, son of Mariamne, bore a second name Philip, or (2) that there is confusion in the Gospels with Heroal-Philip, tetrarch of Trachonitis, who was the son of Herod the Great and Cleopatra, and who was in reality the husband of Salome, daughter of Herodias (compare also A. B. Bruce, The Expositor's Greek Testament ., I, 381; A. C. Headlam, article "Herod" in HDB , II, 359, 360). According to Josephus ( Ant. , VIII, vii, 2; Xviii , vii, 1) the ambition of Herodias proved the ruin of Herod Antipas. Being jealous of the power of Agrippa her brother, she induced Herod to demand of Caligula the title of king. This was refused through the machinations of Agrippa, and Herod was banished. But the pride of Herodias kept her still faithful to her husband in his misfortune.

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Herodias [[[Herodian Family]]]