How did Herod the Great become King of the Jews?
Herod I, the Great, King of the Jews, and founder of the Herodian Kingdom of Judea, is a man with a reputation. A very evil reputation. A reputation that you are probably familiar with. He was an irreverent, pleasure-loving, power-hungry cutthroat, with self-preservation the only thing foremost in his mind. He left a smear of blood and cruelty on the pages of Jewish history.
His name is almost a byword for tyranny. He is mostly remembered for his unsuccessful attempt to stop the prophesized king of Israel in his baby tracks—the massacre of infants recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. But how did Herod become king? Was he of the Davidic line? What happened?
500 years before Herod, descendants of the Judahites, in the Kingdom of Judah who had been exiled to Babylon after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC began to return to Yehud, the Persian province where their ancestral lands were located. They became known as Jews (Yehudim), together with those who lived in the land—the descendants of those who had not been deported.
295 years before Herod, Alexander the Great conquered the Persians, and the Hellenization of the known world began. After his death, his generals split his empire amongst themselves, with the Ptolemy of Egypt getting Yehud, or Judea as the region is better known. The next 100 years or so, saw an increased and largely welcomed Hellenization of the Jewish religion, culminating in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures that featured so prominently in the lifetime of Jesus and early Christianity.
The Ptolemies of Egypt eventually lost Judea to the Seleucids of Syria, whose continuation of their predecessor’s tolerant policies in the region experienced a sharp U-turn under Antiochus IV. Why all this history? Well, you want to know how Herod became king, right? We are nearly there…
Or at least halfway there...
We are not exactly sure what caused the change in Seleucid policy under Antiochus IV. But his policy did change, and it led to the Maccabean revolt recorded in the Books of Maccabees. This rebellion, while claiming the lives of the first four Maccabean leaders—father and three sons, it did lead to the establishment of an independent Judean state under John Hyrcanus I, the son of the eldest of the Maccabean brothers. Hyrcanus I invaded Transjordan, in an attempt to bring all Jewish settlements under the rule of Jerusalem. In the process, he annexed parts of Edom, now Idumea and forced them to convert to Judaism or face expulsion. Thousands of Idumeans (Edomites) converted.
Among these Idumean converts was the family of a man known to history as Antipater I the Idumean. His family took advantage of the change in Idumean politics and provided support to the new overlords, the Hasmoneans (i.e., the Maccabees). Under King Alexander Jannaeus, son of Hyracnus I, he became the governor of Idumea.
After the death of Alexander and his successor, his wife Salome, civil war broke out among their sons Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II for the throne of Judea. Antipater backed Hyrcanus II, whom he convinced to continue his bid for the throne after he had initially backed out. Aristobulus II, in an effort to bolster his stance, sought the help of the Roman General Pompey the Great, an act that would later come to bite him when he accused Pompey’s envoy and brother-in-law, Scaurus, of extortion.
After initially coming on the scene in support of Aristobulus, Pompey, on behalf of the Roman Republic, set Hycarnus II on the Judean throne, as a client of Rome now, not an independent ruler. Hycarnus proved to be an ineffective client king, and Antipater was able to exploit and undermine his rule, gaining power and influence for himself in Roman circles. Eventually, civil war broke out between Caesar and Pompey, Antipater, having first supported Pompey, quickly corrected his mistake and threw in his lot with Caesar, even coming to Caesar’s rescue with an army, during the siege of Alexandria.
His friendship with the right Romans elevated him to Roman citizenship, freed him from Roman taxes, and eventually led to his being made the first Roman procurator of Judea. As procurator, he appears to be pretty effective at restoring calm and stability to Judea. Though they remained kings, or more accurately, Ethnarchs (leaders who were like, but not quite kings) and high priests of Judea, their continuing feuds weakened the Hasmoneans, leaving more and more influence to Antipater. Two of his sons would inherit that influence and finally put an end to the Hasmonean bickering — Phasael and Herod.
Yes, our Herod.
You see, while our Herod was born a Jew, he was of Idumean( and through his mother, Arab) heritage. While Antipater was procurator, he made Phasael governor of Jerusalem and Herod, governor of Galilee. Both brothers continued to maintain their father’s good relationship with Rome, and even the assassination of their father in 43 BC by one Malichus was unable to degrade their growing influence in both Rome and Judea. In 41 BC, Antigonus II, the second son of Aristobulus II, overthrew Hyrcanus II, his uncle, with help from the Parthians, in the last great act of bickering amongst the Hasmoneans.
He and his Parthian allies captured Hyrcanus II and Phasael, mutilating the former to prevent him from being qualified to ever serve as high priest again and driving the latter to suicide. Herod himself had fled, after Jerusalem fell to the Parthians, and went to Rome, seeking their aid to restore Hyrcanus II to the throne. At Rome, and to his surprise, he was appointed King of Judea by the Roman Senate on the recommendation of Mark Anthony (yes, that Mark Anthony) and was given a large army to take his new kingdom. Herod waged war against Antigonus II for three years, during which he married Mariamne I, granddaughter of Hyrcanus II and Antigonus’s niece, to bolster his claim, ditching his own wife Doris and her son Antipater in the process. He was not a man to let a little thing as a marriage get in the way of the elevation of the Herodian dynasty now, eh? (He would eventually execute her and their sons).
Eventually, the armies of Herod prevailed over the forces of Antigonus II and Judea was his, under Rome, of course. Upon his victory, he captured Antigonus and sent him to Antioch, where the former High Priest and last Hasmonean King was executed by the Romans.
Thus Herod became Herod I the Great, Herod the Builder, King of the Jews (officially King of Judea), in name and deed.
