Antipater, the father of Herod the Great, moved to power by political skill exercised in a tumultuous time. He continued to survive the political changes and increased his power until he was appointed by Caesar as the Governor of Judea. In that position, he appointed his oldest son, Phasael, governor of Jerusalem, and Herod, governor of Galilee. 

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Herod, though only 20, was up to the task. Shortly after his appointment, he captured Hezekiah, a revolutionary (or bandit, depending on your view) and executed him and his followers. (Hezekiah’s son, Judas, is mentioned in Acts 5:37.) Sextus Caesar, the Syrian governor was so impressed that he continued to favor Herod. 

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As the Jewish aristocracy saw the increasing power of Antipater and his sons, they began to press Hyrcanus—the high priest and figurehead king—to remove them from their offices. Their accusation was that Herod had executed Hezekiah and his men without a proper trial by the Sanhedrin. Eventually, in his typically indecisive way, Hyrcanus charged Herod with this as an abuse of power and called him before the Sanhedrin for trial. He did not appear alone, however, but came with his soldiers. None then dared accuse him and so the charges were dismissed.  

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Though freed by the court, Herod did not feel safe and fled to Rome, appealing to Julius Caesar for support. Unfortunately for him, Caesar was assassinated. Worse, seeing a weakening position for Hyrcanus, those of the Sanhedrin who opposed Herod killed Antipater, his father. Having lost Antipater, Hyrcanus brought Herod back for support, offering him his granddaughter, Mariamne, as a wife. Though the marriage would not occur until later, Herod showed his support for Hyrcanus by divorcing his existing wife and banished her and their son.

 

With the death of Caesar, and its ensuring power struggle, Marc Antony set up his base in the Eastern Provinces. Needing any support available in the area, he retained Hyrcanus as king, Phasael as Governor of Judea, and Herod as Governor of Galilee. In 40 B.C., during this power vacuum, Antigonus, Hyrcanus’ nephew, invaded Jerusalem with the help of the Parthians. He arrested Hyrcanus and castrated him, disqualifying him from ever again serving as the high priest. Phasael committed suicide, but Herod escaped and made his way to Rome, seeking Antony’s help.

 

As Herod’s good fortune seemed to occur, he arrived as Octavian and Antony agreed on a division of power. Herod approached Antony with an offer to repel the Parthians from Judea. Antony vouched for him with Octavian and the Senate. Thus, Herod was made King of Judea. In seven days, Herod went from refugee to king. 

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When he returned—at Acre in the north—he married Mariamne, the Hasmonean princess that was perhaps the only person he ever loved. After obliterating all resistance in Galilee, Antony gave Herod two additional legions for the siege of Jerusalem. Following an extremely brutal assault, the Hasmonean dynasty ended as Herod had Antigonus, the high priest and puppet king of the Parthians, beheaded. It was 37 B.C. when Herod assumed the throne. He would maintain it by brutal repression, the backing of Rome, and the support of the Hellenistic Jews of the land. 

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As the political power of Rome was solidifying into two opposing sides, Herod consolidated his hold on Judea-Samaria. He appointed Anael—rather than a descendent of the Hasmonean line—as the new high priest. Next, he reconstituted the power structure of the Sanhedrin. Remembering his trial and the death of his father, he executed and replaced 45 of the Sanhedrin’s current seventy members and appointed a new president. The new president was an unknown rabbi from Babylon. Most likely chosen because he held no power, he would ironically become one of the most famous rabbis venerated by Rabbinic Judaism. The disciples of this rabbi, Hillel, would form Rabbinic Judaism when it came into being after 70 A.D. 

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Intrigue in Herod’s house came early. Astrobulus III, the brother of Herod’s beloved wife, Mariamne, was popular with the people and promoted in Antony’s court by his mother. To prevent Astrobulus from leaving the country and gaining Roman support, he deposed Anael as High priest and installed Astrobulus. Moreover, Cleopatra VII supported the ambitions of Astrobulus in opposition to Herod. She held too much sway with Antony for Herod to directly challenge the young Hasmonean. Instead, he invited Astrobulus to Jericho, where the seventeen-year-old high priest died in a “swimming accident” of very suspicious conditions. 

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Alexandra, the mother of Mariamne and Astrobulus accused Herod of murder to Cleopatra, who accused him to Antony. Herod was summoned to Laodicea to face the Roman ruler of the eastern provinces. He managed, however, to satisfy Antony and return more powerful than before. When he had left, however, he had placed Mariamne in the care of Joseph, his sister’s husband with instructions to kill her if he failed to return. (His reasoning was that he loved her too much for anyone else to have her after his death.) His sister, Salome, who hated both her husband and Mariamne, accused them of an affair. Upon mere accusation, he had Joseph beheaded but couldn’t bring himself to kill his queen. 

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Herod’s fortune seemed to turn when Octavian—to become better known as Caesar Augustus—defeated Herod’s patron, Antony. Expecting to die, he went to Rome to seek clemency. He not only survived, but returned with Roman support. He was probably saved by his continuing opposition to the influence and power of Cleopatra. Again, potentially going to his death, Herod had imprisoned Mariamne under a death sentence if he did not return. This produced in her an unconcealed hatred of Herod which she expressed upon his return. Herod’s sister again accused Mariamne as plotting against Herod. Thus, she was brought to trial and executed. Having killed her, he seemed to never end his grief over her loss. 

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Now the “king of the Judeans” moved with an increased drive to eliminate anyone who might have the slightest chance of competing with him. Wives and children were not spared from his paranoia. To be designated his heir was—with rare exception—a death sentence. He ended his life mentally a madman and physically tortured. Josephus is unclear about the specific disease. It may have been in conjunction with a sexually transmitted disease or gangrene within his large intestines. 

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The date of Herod’s death is in dispute. The predominate date given is 4 B.C., though January, 1 B.C., is more likely. (The later date also removes some seeming inconsistencies in the Biblical record.) The events immediately preceding Herod’s death are as follows: Sensing Herod’s pending death, students of a Rabbinic school tore down the Roman eagle Herod had previously erected above the temple gate. They were captured and burned alive. On the night of their execution, a lunar eclipse occurred. Shortly thereafter, Herod died and his son, Archelaus, assumed the throne prior to Passover that year.

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The eclipse that is generally sited is a 40% eclipse that occurred on March 13, 4 B.C., twenty-nine days before Passover. The problem with this date is that twenty-nine days are not enough for the events that transpired between the eclipse and Passover. Basically, the events were as follows. Herod was very sick when he condemned the students. Shortly thereafter, he tried to find some relief at the baths of Jericho. That failing, he returned to Jerusalem and required the various national figures to report to him at the capital. Upon their arrival, he imprisoned them and decreed that they were to be killed upon his death, guaranteeing that the nation would not celebrate his death. (Fortunately, this order was not obeyed when he died.) 

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At some point permission from Rome was received to kill Antipater, a son Herod felt was treasonous, and the act was done. Herod would die five days later. Upon his death, his body was embalmed and born by an honor guard, one mile a day barefooted, for the twenty-five miles to the Herodium. At some time past Herod’s death and before Passover, Archelaus began his rule, assuming it would be approved by Rome. 

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A conservative calculation of the days for which history accounts gives us a needed period of about twice that available in the 4 B.C. window. If the eclipse that occurred when the students died was the one on January 10, 1 B.C., however, there is ample time for the events. Moreover, this fits the Biblical record that Jesus began his ministry when he was—to quote Luke—“about thirty”, and that John began his ministry in the fifteenth year of Tiberius (29 A.D.) If the 4 B.C. date were correct, Jesus would have been thirty-two or thirty-three when John began his ministry, which stretches Luke’s statement a bit. 

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