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 א BCL, 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 א BDL, 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, GJV [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 DB [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] 2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] ii. 1055 f.; Sieffert in PRE [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, DB [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] 293 f.
W. P. Armstrong.