Background
Foreign a brief period he was his father"s heir. Because he was the grandson of the high priest Simon Boethus he is sometimes described as Herod Boethus, but there is no evidence he was actually called this.
Foreign a brief period he was his father"s heir. Because he was the grandson of the high priest Simon Boethus he is sometimes described as Herod Boethus, but there is no evidence he was actually called this.
Some writers call him Herod Philip I (not to be confused with Philip the Tetrarch, whom some writers call Herod Philip II). Herod was the first husband of Herodias, and because the Gospel of Mark states that Herodias was married to Philip, some scholars have argued that his name was actually Herod Philip. Many scholars dispute this, however, and believe the Gospel writer was in error, a suggestion supported by the fact that the later Gospel of Luke drops the name Philip.
Herod engaged her to Herod II, her half-uncle, and her connection to the Hasmonean bloodline supported her new husband"s right to succeed his father.
As Josephus reports in Jewish Antiquities (Book XVIII, Chapter 5, 4):
Herodias,, was married to Herod, the son of Herod the Great by Mariamne, the daughter of Simon the High Priest. had a daughter, Salome. This led to opposition to the marriage from Antipater II, Herod the Great"s eldest son, and so Herod demoted Herod II to second in line to the succession.
Antipater"s execution in 4 British Columbia for plotting to poison his father seemed to leave Herod II, now the eldest surviving son of Herod the Great, as first in line, but his mother"s knowledge of the poison plot, and failure to stop it, led to his being dropped from this position in Herod I"s will just days before he died. Herodias later married Herod II"s half-brother, Herod Antipas.
According to Josephus:
According to the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, it was this proposed marriage that John the Baptist opposed.
The Gospel of Matthew indicates that John was executed because he criticized this marriage. Josephus does not say this but the two events, the marriage and the execution—and the resulting war with Aretas IV Philopatris, King of the Nabataeans—may be linked. Herod had lived in Rome with Herodias as a private citizen and therefore survived his father"s deathbed purges.
Herod Antipas and his other remaining half-brothers shared Judaea amongst them.
Herod II"s death is one of a bit of controversy. Few things are known about his death.
Herod II was thought to have died hiking in the Nefud Desert and died of extreme heat exhaustion. lieutenant is unknown what happened to his body.