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The Herods
As we jump into the narrative in Mark 6:14-29 we are reminded of what we may have otherwise been tempted to forget, that Jesus’ earthy ministry took place during politically and socially turbulent times, and was in some ways shaped by the surrounding political intrigue. For example, Jesus’ reluctance early in his ministry to have people talk of him in “kingly” terms was due to his understanding of Herod Antipas’ paranoia. If dying at the appointed time and place was the end goal of his work, then he did not wish to hasten the end before laying the foundation in his teaching and ministry for the future success of the kingdom.
Our section opens with word of Jesus and his ministry having gotten back to Herod, with rumors and speculations abounding as to just who this Jesus might be, and with Herod wondering if Jesus might be John the Baptist raised from the dead. We are reminded by the evangelist Mark that Herod had had John put to death, and immediately we are drawn into a short but fascinating story, full of imperial style court intrigue, explaining how John’s death had come about.
As you read this section you may get confused about this guy “Herod.” Aren’t there several Herods in the New Testament? Which is this one? And what about Rome and those procurators in Judaea? So who is the ruler? Is it Herod, or Pilate, or Festus?
I thought it would be helpful in a short newsletter article to try to bring you all up to speed on some of the geography and political history bearing upon not only decisions Jesus makes in his earthy ministry, but also popular conceptions of just who Jesus is. The politics of that period is very complex indeed. I don’t understand it all, and what I will present is a simplified version even of the simplified version that I do sort of understand.
We are all mostly familiar with Herod the Great who ruled as a King (by Rome’s permission) over Palestine from 37BC to 4 BC. This is the Herod visited by the magi from the east, the paranoid one who killed all babies under two in Bethlehem to take care of the rumored child/king. Though a deft politician (he supported Antony and Cleopatra against Octavian and managed to get Octavian’s blessing when Octavian won the decisive battle at Actium) and statesman, and though a very capable administrator, organizer, and builder (He rebuilt the temple), Herod was as ruthless as they come. He executed three of his sons and a wife whom he genuinely loved out of fear they were plotting against him. He was not well loved by his Jewish subjects due partly to his Edomite ethnic background, and due significantly to his purge of a Jewish line of historic leadership stock, but he tried to ingratiate himself to them through his various building projects and his marriage to Mariamne, who came from a more ethnically and politically pure Jewish family line, the line Herod had mostly eliminated one way or another.
When Herod died in 4BC, he left behind in his will a plan for dividing his kingdom between three of his four remaining sons. This plan was approved by Caesar Augustus (Octavian’s royal name). To understand how this was divided up, you need to have a map of Palestine in your mind’s eye. Picture the Dead Sea, the Jordan River running north from it, the Sea of Galilee. Just to the west (left) of the Dead Sea is Judaea, where lies Jerusalem. To the north of Judaea on the west side of the Jordan is Samaria, and north of that and west of the sea of Galilee is Galilee. On the east (left) side of the Jordan in present Jordan stretching almost all the way up to the sea of Galilee is an area called Perea. Then north and east of the sea of Galilee containing what is now the Golan Heights and southwestern Syria, lies what was then called Iturea, mostly a gentile region.
Herod’s son Archelaus got Judaea and Samaria. His son Antipas got Perea and Galilee. Antipas is also referred to simply as Herod or Herod Antipas. This is the Herod who beheaded John the Baptist and participated with Pilate in Jesus’ trial. Herod’s other son Philip , often called Herod the Tetrarch or Herod Philip II, received Iturea.
None of these three sons were given the rank of “King” by Rome, although Antipas coveted the title. Archelaus received the title of “ethnarch” and Antipas and Philip the lesser titles of “tetrarch.”
Archelaus was such a ruthless ruler who was in time removed altogether from power by Rome in 6AD. Thereafter, until the rise of Herod of Agrippa in 39ad, Judaea would be considered a third class Roman Province, governed by a procurator appointed by the emperor. Pontius Pilate is the most well known of these procurators, having that title from 26-36ad.
Antipas ruled Perea and Galilee and Galilee for forty years and was the most capable of the sons of Herod, engaging in many well known building projects (he built Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee in honor of the then emperor Tiberias) although he shared his father’s paranoia. He married the daughter of the King of Nabataea to his east. But upon visiting his brother in Jerusalem, a brother also named Philip, a rich Casper milk toast of a brother who had not inherited part of his father’s kingdom, he fell in love with his brother’s wife Herodius, who happened also to be he and his brother’s niece, daughter of one of his brothers who had been executed by his father. Antipas and Herodius connived and put away their respective spouses, and soon married each other. This is the marriage which John the Baptist quite properly denounced. The father of Antipas’s now forsaken wife who had been sent packing back to Nabatea also was not very happy about the insult to him and his kingdom, and he would get his revenge upon Antipas later.
The other Philip, Herod Philip II was given the region of Iturea above and to the east of Galilee. As Herod’s went, he was a pretty decent ruler. Eventually he married Salome, daughter of Herodius, daughter of his brother Philip (yes, same name, but different mother) step daughter of his brother Antipas, and apparently quite a dancer.
Back to Antipas... As John baptized along the Jordan, he naturally would enter into Antipas’s territory in Perea along the east bank. This would eventually give Herod Antipas opportunity to have him arrested. Antipas’s wife Herodius coveted her new position (she would spend a lifetime futilely trying to have the emperor declare her husband a king). To say the least she didn’t appreciate John’s denouncements of her marriage. She feared lest Antipas listen to John and put her away. She pushed her husband into getting rid of John, but would eventually succeed only through a great trick (this week’s Scripture).
Jesus also would minister largely in Herod’s territory, but in the 8-9 months of Jesus’ Galilean ministry so far in our study, we have reason to believe that Herod was staying in his Perean castle/court compound, and he did not hear of Jesus until after John was beheaded, after Jesus sent out the twelve, and after a spate of popular rumors developed regarding who Jesus might be. Yes, in his guilty paranoid conscience, Herod Antipas though Jesus might be John come back from the dead to haunt him.
This is where we pick up this week’s Scripture:
Mark 6:14-29 King Herod heard about this, for Jesus' name had become well known. Some were saying, "John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him." Others said, "He is Elijah." And still others claimed, "He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago." But when Herod heard this, he said, "John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!" For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, whom he had married. For John had been saying to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she was not able to, because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled ; yet he liked to listen to him. Finally the opportune time came. On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests. The king said to the girl, "Ask me for anything you want, and I'll give it to you." And he promised her with an oath, "Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom." She went out and said to her mother, "What shall I ask for?" "The head of John the Baptist," she answered. At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: "I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter." The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother. On hearing of this, John's disciples came and took his body and laid it in a tomb. |
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