Background
Herod Antipas was born before 20B.C.
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HEROD ANTIPAS
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HEROD ANTIPAS was a Tetrarch of Galilee; son of King Herod of Judea. Upon his father’s death in 4 BCE, he became ruler (tetrarch) of most of Galilee and parts of Transjordan. Like his father he was a builder and restorer of cities, though not nearly on his father’s vast scale. The most famous of these cities was Tiberias, which he built in honor of the Roman emperor Tiberius. It soon came to be the capital of Galilee.
Career
An episode described by both Josephus and the New Testament is Antipas’ execution of John the Baptist. In Josephus’ view, John’s death was caused by the political fears his activities aroused in the tetrarch, while in the Christian version the execution was a gift to the tetrarch’s stepdaughter (called Salome by Josephus). The New Testament story claims that John objected to the ruler’s violation of Jewish law by his second marriage to his sister-in-law Herodias and was jailed for his presumptuousness. While in prison, the account continues, a gala banquet took place in honor of Antipas’ birthday. His stepdaughter’s dancing so delighted him that he promised to fulfill her every wish. At her mother’s urging she asked for John’s head as a gift and this wish was granted her.
It was the tetrarch's highly ambitious wife who brought about her husband’s downfall. She kept encouraging him to press for the royal title. The emperor Gaius Caligula, annoyed by this unseemly request, ordered him banished from the country in the year 39 CE. His wife loyally accompanied him into exile.
Religion
In another respect, however, Antipas digressed from his father’s general practice of showing respect for his Jewish subjects’ feelings. The founding of Tiberias was a violation of Jewish law because its location on a former burial site made it ritually impure for Jewish habitation for a certain period. Antipas disregarded this sacrilegious aspect and went ahead with his project.
On the other hand, he lodged a complaint with Tiberius against Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor (procurator) of Judea, for the latter’s callous attempt to flout Jewish feelings by installing an offensive votive shield in Herod Antipas’ Jerusalem palace. The emperor ordered the shield removed. Herod Antipas, like his father, was also careful to issue coinage with symbols would not offend his Jewish subjects’ religious susceptibilities.
