Understanding Herod's Family Tree

Bible is specific about these two Herods, during Jesus' life.

Click here for the entire family tree, and for Maps.

Herod the Great (Herod I) 


According to Bible:

Herod the Great ruled when Jesus was born. He was met by the Magi, or the wise men. He is the one who is supposed to have killed the children of Bethlehem, soon after Jesus was born.


According to Britannica Encyclopaedia:

Herod the Great and Herod I, was a Roman-appointed king of Judaea (37–4 BCE), who built many fortresses, aqueducts, theatres, and other public buildings and generally raised the prosperity of his land but who was the centre of political and family intrigues in his later years. The New Testament portrays him as a tyrant, into whose kingdom Jesus of Nazareth was born.


He has been described in many ways in history: as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis", "the evil genius of the Judean nation",  "prepared to commit any crime in order to gratify his unbounded ambition", and "the greatest builder in Jewish history".

He is known for his colossal building projects throughout Judea, including his expansion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem (Herod's Temple), the construction of the port at Caesarea Maritima, the fortress at Masada and Herodium.

Vital details of his life are recorded in the works of the 1st century CE Roman–Jewish historian Josephus.

Upon Herod's death, the Romans divided his kingdom among three of his sons—Archelaus became ethnarch of the tetrarchy of Judea, Herod Antipas became tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea, and Philip became tetrarch of territories east of the Jordan.


Herod Antipas


According to Bible:

Son of Herod the Great, who ruled Judah. Married his brother's wife, Herodias. John the Baptist had opposed this relationship. And after Herodias' daughter Salome danced on Herod's birthday, a delighted Herod tells Salome she can ask him for anything. And, she asks him, as a reward (prodded on, by her mother) the head of John the Baptist. Herod executes John the Baptist, and presents his head in a platter.

Much later, this Herod refuses to handle the trial of Jesus, and returns the trial back to the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate, who finally issues the order for Jesus' crucifixion.



According to Britannica Encyclopaedia:

Herod Antipas, (born 21 BC—died AD 39), son of Herod I the Great who became tetrarch of Galilee and ruled throughout Jesus of Nazareth’s ministry. In The Gospel According to Luke (13:32), Jesus is reported as having referred to him with contempt as “that fox.”

About 4 BC Herod Antipas inherited part of his father’s kingdom after the Roman emperor Augustus had adjusted his father’s will. He restored the damage caused in the period between his father’s death and the approval of the will, restoring two towns, one of which he renamed in honour of the Roman imperial family.

He divorced his Nabataean wife, the daughter of Aretas IV, king of the desert kingdom adjoining his own, to marry Herodias, formerly the wife of his half brother. The marriage offended his former father-in-law and alienated his Jewish subjects.

Antipas ruled Galilee and Perea as a client state of the Roman Empire.

He was responsible for building projects at Sepphoris and Betharamphtha, and more importantly, for the construction of his capital Tiberias on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Named in honor of his patron, Emperor Tiberius, the city later became a center of rabbinic learning.

Antipas divorced his first wife Phasaelis, the daughter of King Aretas IV of Nabatea, in favour of Herodias, who had formerly been married to his brother Herod Philip I.

According to the New Testament Gospels, it was John the Baptist's condemnation of this arrangement that led Antipas to have him arrested; John was subsequently put to death.

 In 39 AD Antipas was accused by his nephew Agrippa I of conspiracy against the new Roman emperor Caligula, who sent him into exile in Gaul. Accompanied there by Herodias, he died at an unknown date.

The Gospel of Luke states that Jesus was first brought before Pontius Pilate for trial, since Pilate was the governor of Roman Judea, which encompassed Jerusalem where Jesus was arrested. Pilate initially handed him over to Antipas, in whose territory Jesus had been most active, but Antipas sent him back to Pilate's court.

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