TETRARCH . The transliteration of a Gr. word ( tetrarchçs ) whose literal meaning is ‘the ruler of a fourth part.’ As a title it lost its strict etymological force, and was used of ‘a petty prince,’ or ‘the ruler of a district.’ In the NT ‘Herod the tetrarch’ is Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great; he ruled over Galilee and Peræa ( Matthew 14:1 , Luke 3:1; Luke 3:19; Luke 9:7 , Acts 13:1 ), and is popularly styled ‘king’ ( Mark 6:14 ff., Matthew 14:9 ). Two other tetrarchs are mentioned in Luke 3:1; viz., Herod Philip, the brother of Antipas, who ruled over the Ituræan and Trachonitic territory; and Lysanias, who was Tetrarch of Abilene ‘in the fifteenth year of Tiberius’ (see Schürer, HJP [Note: JP History of the Jewish People.] i. ii., Revelation 1 ).
J. G. Tasker.