18. The name Herod will be found applied to no less than five different rulers in New Testament times. Their dates of office enable us frequently to determine the dates of events referred to in the Scriptures.
The following facts are all that are necessary to distinguish the Herods. Herod the Great had five wives, but the descendants of only four are referred to in the New Testament, as follows:
Herod the Great, Matt. 2:1. He was made king by Julius Cæsar, B. C. 37, and died B. C. 4, that is, before the common era, but really in the first year of Christ.
He had two sons by Malthace, a Samaritan, namely, Herod Antipas and Archelaus. The latter succeeded him after some delay, but, although called king by the people, was only tetrarch, with the promise conditionally made that he should be king. He was deposed through complaint of his atrocious cruelty,and banished to Vienna, now called Lyons, where he died.[161]
The names of the other members of this family of Herods may be seen in the following table.
HEROD married:
MARIAMNE, granddaughter of Hyrcanus.
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└─ ARISTOBULUS—Married his niece, Berenice, daughter of Salome, Herod’s sister. Slain by his father, B. C. 6.
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