II. THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF PALESTINE, B.C. 4-A.D. 70.
1. The Kingdom of Herod the Great included all the provinces indicated upon the map, and described above. This organization came to an end B.C. 4, when Herod died.
2. The Tetrarchy, B.C. 4-A.D. 41. The word means "a government of four," and points to the division of the kingdom after Herod's death, when Archelaus was made tetrarch of Judæa and Samaria; Antipas (called in the New Testament "Herod the tetrarch"), of Galilee and Peræa; and Philip, of the fifth province, east of the Sea of Tiberias. The fourth tetrarch was Lysanias, who ruled over the small district of Abilene, between Mount Hermon and Damascus, a separate dominion from that of Herod. In A.D. 6 Archelaus was deposed, and Judæa and Samaria were annexed directly to the empire, and governed by a series of procurators, of whom Pontius Pilate was the sixth. This was the political arrangement of Palestine during the ministry of Jesus, of which a map is given.
3. The Kingdom of Herod Agrippa, A.D. 41-44. Herod Agrippa was a grandson of Herod the Great, and an intimate friend of the emperor Caligula, from whom he received the title of king, and all the dominions of Herod the Great, with Abilene added; so that he reigned over more territory than any Jewish king after Solomon. He was the "Herod the king" who slew the apostle James, imprisoned Peter, and died by the judgment of God at Cæsarea. (Acts 12.)
4. The Two Provinces, A.D. 44-70. On the death of Herod Agrippa, his son, Herod Agrippa II., was a youth of 17. The emperor Claudius gave him only the tetrarchies formerly held by Philip and Lysanias, "the fifth province" of Palestine, and Abilene. Over these he reigned until the final extinction of the Jewish state by Titus, A.D. 70, when he retired to a private station at Rome. This was the "King Agrippa" before whom the apostle Paul bore testimony. (Acts 25, 26.) During his reign, Judæa, Samaria, Galilee and Peræa formed the province of Judæa, under Roman procurators, having their headquarters at Cæsarea. When the last rebellion of the Jews had been quelled by the destruction of Jerusalem, the entire country was annexed to the province of Syria, and the history of Judæa ended.
