Herod the Great was the second son of the Idumean Antipater, and thus a descendant of the ancient Edomites, but he was also a Jew by both citizenship and religious profession. John Hyrcanus I had conquered the Idumeans in 125 BC and had forced them to accept the Jewish religion, including circumcision. Caesar made Antipater procurator of Judea in 47 BC. His son Herod (born c. 73 BC) was brought up at the court of the high priest and ruler, Hyrcanus II (63-40 BC), a descendant of a Jewish royal family known as the Hasmoneans, for whom his father was political adviser. When Antipater became procurator, he persuaded Caesar to appoint his son Herod as strategus (chief magistrate) of Galilee, and Phasael, another son, as strategus of Judea. Shortly afterward Sextus Caesar, the legate of Syria, also made Herod strategus of a region in southern Syria known as Coele-Syria. Herod shifted his political affiliation after Caesar’s death (44 BC), and gave his support to the party of Caesar’s murderers. This resulted in Herod’s confirmation in his office by G. Cassius, proconsul of Syria.
When Antony and Octavian defeated Cassius, Herod succeeded in gaining the favor of Antony. He and his brother Phasael were then appointed tetrarchs of their territories in Palestine, offices they held until the Parthians conquered all of Syria and Palestine (40 BC). Hyrcanus II and Phasael went into the Parthian camp to negotiate a peace but were treacherously imprisoned. Phasael, unable to bear the shame, committed suicide. Herod fled to Rome, where the Senate appointed him king over Judea, in opposition to Antigonus II Mattathias, a Hasmonean descendant, who had been made king in Judea with the support of the Parthians. Herod returned to Palestine and, with the help of Roman forces, defeated Antigonus and conquered Jerusalem the following year (37 BC). Immediately revealing that he would show no mercy to anyone who opposed him, he massacred a large number of nobles, among then 45 leaders who had supported Antigonus, and also put to death all the members of the Sanhedrin but one, for having resisted his ambitions on an earlier occasion.
Herod’s family life was full of tragedies, and stained with the blood of his closest relatives, including three of his own sons and one of his ten wives. His Idumean wife Doris gave birth to his oldest son, Antipater. His second wife was Mariamne, a granddaughter of the ruler-priest Hyrcanus II. Through his marriage with her, Herod connected his own house with that of the Hasmonean royal family, and thus attempted to legalize his kingship in the eyes of the Jews. He seems to have loved Mariamne, although she hated him. Mariamne bore him two sons, Aristobulus and Alexander. His other sons included Archelaus and Herod Antipas by Malthace, a Samaritan wife; Herod Philip II (who became tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis) by Cleopatra, a wife from Jerusalem; and Herod Philip I, or Philip of Rome by Mariamne II (the daughter of Simon of Jerusalem).
Since Herod felt that his Hasmonean relatives might seek to rule in his place, he killed many of them. A few months after installing Mariamne’s brother Aristobulus III as high priest in 35 BC, Herod murdered him by having him drowned in the palace pool at Jericho. In 30 BC Herod had the aged Hyrcanus II, grandfather of his wife Marimne, killed, and then, a year later, he even sentenced Mariamne to death because he suspected her of adultery. From that time on his suspicions gave him no rest. At first he designated Mariamne’s sons Aristobulus and Alexander as his heirs. However, when their older half-brother Antipater, the son of Doris, accused them of treason, Herod imprisoned and killed them (7 BC).
After killing the sons who had been his heirs, Herod named Antipater as his new successor, with Herod Philip I, the son of Mariamne II, as second in line of succession. Antipater, having successfully eliminated two of his competitors for the throne, accused his half-brothers Archelaus, son of Malthace, and Philip II, son of Cleopatra of Jerusalem, as well as his aunt Salome, Herod’s sister, of plotting against the life of the king. Discovering that the accusation was false, Herod appointed Antipas as his successor, and had Antipater put to death only a few days before he himself died.
After Antipater’s death, and shortly before his own, Herod again changed his will and now designated Archelaus, Antipas, and Philip II as heirs to the throne. Augustus honored the last will of Herod, giving Archelaus Judea (Matt. 2:22), Samaria, and Idumea, with the title ethnarch. Antipas became tetrarch over Galilee (Luke 3:1, 19) and Perea. And Philip II became tetrarch over the northeastern territories (v. 1). Herod Philip I, son of Mariamne II, remained a private citizen. Because of this, his wife Herodias (who was also his niece, being the daughter of his brother Aristobulus) left him and married his brother Antipas (Mark 6:17-18).
Herod was a great builder, and the founder of several magnificent cities constructed in Hellenistic style and splendor. The city of Jerusalem in particular received his attention. Beginning c. 20 BC he enlarged the temple mount, rebuilt the temple of Zerubbabel (which was in a dilapidated condition), and began to erect magnificent buildings in and around the temple, including the “barracks” of Antonia, better known as the Antonia Fortress. These structures were not completed until shortly before the outbreak of the Jewish-Roman war in AD 66 (cf. John 2:20). He also constructed a royal palace in Jerusalem, one tower of which is still partly visible in the lower section of what is referred to today as the “Tower of David.”
Although Herod was a Hellenist in heart and practice, and surrounded himself with Hellenistic counselors, he refrained from suppressing or openly defying the Jewish religion as Antiochus IV had done in the preceding century. The Jews hated him, however, because he was an Idumean and a friend of the Romans, and because of his scandalous private life. They resented his extreme cruelty and the imposition upon them of the heavy taxes necessitated by his extensive building program. The absence of open rebellion during his long reign resulted from his unwavering loyalty to the Romans, to his ruthlessness in suppressing all opposition, and to the establishment of the Pax Romana by Caesar Augustus.
Herod passed away in the thirty-fourth year of his reign at the age of 69 in 4/3 BC, most probably in the spring of 4 BC.