Herod Archelaus (23 BC – c. 18 AD) was
the ethnarch of Samaria, Judea, and Edom from 4 BC to
6 AD. He was the son of Herod the Great and Malthace,
the brother of Herod Antipas, and the half-brother of
Herod Philip I.
Archelaus received the kingdom of Judea by the last
will of his father, though a previous will had
bequeathed it to his brother Antipas. He was
proclaimed king by the army, but declined to assume
the title until he had submitted his claims to Caesar
Augustus in Rome.
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Before setting out, he quelled with the
utmost cruelty a sedition of the Pharisees, slaying
nearly three thousand of them. In Rome he was opposed
by Antipas and by many of the Jews, who feared his
cruelty; but in 4 BC Augustus allotted to him the
greater part of the kingdom (Samaria, Judea, and
Idumea) with the title of ethnarch until 6 AD when
Judaea was brought under direct Roman rule (see Census
of Quirinius).
He married Glaphyra, the widow of his brother
Alexander, though his wife and her second husband,
Juba, king of Mauretania, were alive. This violation
of the Mosaic law along with Archelaus' continued
cruelty roused the ire of the Jews, who complained to
Augustus. Archelaus was deposed in the year 6 and
banished to Vienne in Gaul; Samaria, Judea, and Idumea
became the Roman province of Iudaea.
In the Bible, Archelaus is mentioned in the Gospel of
Matthew. According to Matthew 2:13-23, Joseph, Mary
and Jesus fled to Egypt to avoid the Massacre of the
Innocents. When Herod the Great died, Joseph was told
by an angel in a dream to return to Israel (presumably
to Bethlehem). However, upon hearing that Archelaus
had succeeded his father as ruler of Judaea he "was
afraid to go thither" (Matthew 2:22), and was again
notified in a dream to go to Galilee. This is
Matthew's explanation of why Jesus was born in
Bethlehem in Judaea but grew up in Nazareth.
The beginning and conclusion of Christ's Parable of
the minas in the Gospel of Luke may refer to
Archelaus's journey to Rome, in that Jesus' parables
and preaching often made use of events familiar to the
people as examples for bringing his spiritual lessons
to life:
"A nobleman went into a far country to receive for
himself a kingdom and then return…But his citizens
hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, 'We
do not want this man to reign over us.'… 'But as for
these enemies of mine,' [said the nobleman] 'who did
not want me to reign over them, bring them here and
slaughter them before me.'" (Luke 19:12, 14, 27 ESV) |
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