Herod Philip

Herodes Philippos (short Philippos or Philippus ; † 34 ) was from 4 BC. Chr. 34 n to his death. AD. Tetrarch (tetrarch) of Iturea , Golan and Trachonitis .

origin

Philip was a son of Herod the Great's Roman client king and his fifth wife Cleopatra from Jerusalem . The ethnarch Archelaos and the tetrarch Herodes Antipas , both sons from Herod's fourth marriage to the Samaritan Malthake , were his half-brothers and were brought up with him in Rome.

Herodes Philippos should not be confused with his half-brother of the same name, actually Herodes Boethos , from the seventh marriage of his father to the Jewess Mariamne (II.), Who was the first husband of Herodias and the father of Salome. This confusion is the evangelist Markus detectable (Mk 6, 17).

Marriage to Salome

Philip was married to his niece Salome , who later became the daughter of Herodias who was notorious for her involvement in the execution of John the Baptist . But their marriage remained childless.

Government as a tetrarch

When the inheritance was divided up after Herod's death in 4 BC The eldest son Archelaus (who was still alive after the executions and disinheritance of other sons) received most of the territory of the Herodian kingdom as ethnarch , while Antipas and Philip were assigned smaller domains. The northern regions open to the desert towards the east, which Herod Philip was allowed to rule as sovereign, were economically the least important. They brought in an annual tax income of 100 talents (while the territories of the ethnarch Archelaos were taxed with 600 talents).

After taking over the government (4 BC) Philip expanded the city ​​of Paneas , located at the sources of the Jordan , and named it Caesarea (Philippi) in honor of the Emperor Tiberius . He raised the town of Bethsaida , located on the Sea of Galilee , to the rank of city, provided it with inhabitants and resources, and named it Julias after Julia, the daughter of the Roman emperor Augustus .

After his death (34 AD), the tetrarchy of Philip was initially added to the province of Syria by the Roman emperor Tiberius . Later (37 AD) his relative Herod Agrippa I received the transfer of the territory from Emperor Caligula . His widow Salome married Aristobulus , son of Herod of Chalkis , a grandson of King Herod the Elder. Gr., Who later became King of Lesser Armenia (Armenia minor) and to whom she bore three sons.

reception

In his appreciation of the long reign of Philip, the Jewish historian Flavius ​​Josephus (Antiquities, XVIII 4.6) paints the image of the tetrarch as an unpretentious and self-contained man who took his responsibility seriously: “He was a mild ruler and a mild ruler for his subjects calm of heart, also spent his whole life in his own country. Whenever he went out of his house, he took only a select few with him and had the throne chair, from which he spoke righteously, carried over every way. If someone met him who wanted help and assistance, the armchair was immediately set up, and now he held an investigation, punished the guilty and acquitted the innocent accused. "After Josephus, Philippos died in Julias and was in the crypt that he had had already built during his lifetime, was buried with great pomp.

literature

• Linda-Marie Günther : Herod the Great. Darmstadt 2005.
• Gerhard Prause: Herod. The correction of a legend. Hamburg 1977.
• Fritz Rienecker, Gerhard Maier: Lexicon for the Bible. 8th edition. SCM R. Brockhaus, Witten 2010, ISBN 978-3-417-24678-0 , p. 1234.
• Julia Wilker: For Rome and Jerusalem. The Herodian dynasty in the 1st century AD. Verlag Antike, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-938032-12-1 , pp. 22, 24–28, 30 (see Philipp in the register).

Remarks

1. ↑ Thomas Johann Bauer: Who is who in the world of Jesus? Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2007, p. 63ff.
2. ↑ Flavius ​​Josephus: Jewish antiquities. Fourier, Wiesbaden undated