King Herod the Great's first wife was named Doris. He married her before his rise to power, but divorced and banished her around 37 BCE to marry the Hasmonean princess Mariamne I. Doris had one son with him, his firstborn, Antipater.
Herod Antipas or Herod Philip
Herod Antipas's first wife was Phasaelis (sometimes spelled Phasa'el). She was a princess of the Nabatean Kingdom and the daughter of King Aretas IV.
Antipas divorced her to marry his half-brother's wife, Herodias, an event famously condemned by John the Baptist in the New Testament. Upon learning of the affair, Phasaelis fled to her father in Nabatea, which subsequently led Aretas to wage war against and defeat Antipa
Following the Hasmonean conquest and forced conversion of Idumea in the late 2nd century BC, Idumean families had to strictly adopt Second Temple Judaism. For Idumean women entering elite Judean society, this meant moving away from traditional Hellenistic and Edomite lifestyles to manage households governed by highly rigorous purity, dietary, and marital laws.
Because women were the primary managers of the home, the heavy logistical burden of maintaining these observances fell squarely on them. [1]
Idumean women had to completely overhaul their food preparation, as Judean dietary laws (Kashrut) dictated what could be brought into the home: [1, 3, 4]
The Food Ban: They could no longer cook or consume pork, camel, shellfish, or any predatory birds common to the region. [5]
Separation of Meat and Dairy: They had to maintain separate utensils, pots, and storage for meat and dairy products, ensuring the two never mixed during preparation or cooking. [1, 3]
Ritual Slaughter Inspection: They could only buy meat from animals slaughtered via Shechita (ritual slaughter) and had to ensure the blood was fully drained, as consuming animal blood was strictly forbidden. [2, 6]
In Second Temple Judean society, ritual purity (Taharah) was a paramount cultural fixation. Idumean women had to adapt to the highly restrictive laws of Niddah (menstrual purity): [7, 8, 9, 10]
Marital Separation: During her menstrual cycle, a woman was considered ritually impure. She and her husband could not engage in sexual intimacy, share a bed, or pass objects directly to one another. [8, 10, 11]
The Quarantine of Objects: Anything a menstruating woman sat on, slept on, or touched could become ritually contaminated. In elite households like the Herodians, this meant meticulous tracking of household objects. [12, 13]
The Mikveh Ritual: To exit the state of impurity, the woman had to count "seven clean days" after her cycle ended and then undergo complete immersion in a Mikveh (a ritual bath of natural, living water). [10, 11]
The weekly Sabbath required intense preparation from the matriarch of the house:
Ceasing Labor: Women had to finish all cooking, cleaning, and spinning before sunset on Friday evening, as no fire could be lit or work performed on the Sabbath.
Sabbath Loaves: Women were responsible for the baking of bread and taking the "Challah" portion—a tithe of the dough set aside for the Temple priests.
Judean societal expectations for women—especially those of high status—revolved around Tzniut (modesty) and strict marital fidelity: [14, 15]
Public Decorum: While elite Herodian women frequently interacted with Roman elites, traditional Judean law pressured women to dress modestly, cover their hair after marriage, and refrain from drawing public attention. [14, 15, 16]
Forbidden Marriages: Judean law strictly prohibited marriages deemed incestuous or unlawful by the Torah. For example, when Herod’s granddaughter Herodias divorced her living husband to marry his brother, Herod Antipas, it caused an absolute religious scandal because Judean law viewed it as incest. [17]
This intense friction between strict Jewish religious expectations and the cosmopolitan, Roman-aligned lifestyles of the Herodian court created a constant cultural war. If you want to see how this played out politically, we can look at the life of Mariamne the Hasmonean, the Jewish princess Herod married to gain religious legitimacy, or explore how the Pharisees and Sadducees reacted to the Idumean rulers.
Herod Antipas (4 BCE – 39 CE) was the Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, famously known for his involvement in the executions of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth. He belonged to the Herodian dynasty, which ruled Judea as a client state of the Roman Empire.
A clear breakdown of his lineage is organized below:
Parents
Father: Herod the Great, the founder of the Herodian dynasty and King of Judea.
Mother: Malthace, a Samaritan woman.
Full Siblings
Herod Archelaus:Ethnarch of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea
Olympias: Married her cousin, Joseph. [3]
Notable Half-Siblings
Philip the Tetrarch (Herod Philip II): Ruled the territories of Iturea and Trachonitis.
Aristobulus IV: Father of Herod Agrippa I and grandfather of Herod Agrippa II.
Antipater: Herod the Great's eldest son, who was executed for plotting to poison his father. [3, 4]
Marriages
First Wife: Phasaelis of Nabataea, daughter of King Aretas IV of Nabataea. Antipas divorced her to marry Herodias.
Second Wife: Herodias, his niece and former wife of his half-brother Herod Philip I. Their scandalous marriage was famously condemned by John the Baptist.
Notable Children / Stepchildren
Salome: Daughter of Herodias and Herod Philip I. She married her great-uncle Philip the Tetrarch.
Note: Antipas and Herodias are not recorded as having any children together who survived into adulthood. [5]
This second marriage caused massive outrage. According to the New Testament, the prophet John the Baptist strongly condemned the union as immoral. In retaliation, Herodias manipulated her husband into imprisoning John and eventually having him beheaded. [1, 2]
The Downfall: Exile to Lugdunum Convenarum
Later, Herodias's brother, Agrippa I, was granted the title of King by Emperor Caligula. Consumed by jealousy, Herodias urged her husband Antipas to go to Rome and ask the Emperor for the same royal title. [1, 2]
This plan backfired spectacularly. Agrippa accused Antipas of plotting against Rome and hoarding weapons. Caligula believed the accusations and stripped Antipas of his power and wealth in 39 CE. [1, 2]
The Exile: Emperor Caligula sent Antipas into exile at Lugdunum.
A Choice of Loyalty: Because Herodias was the Emperor's friend (the sister of King Agrippa), Caligula offered her the chance to keep her wealth and stay at home. However, she showed great loyalty and chose to share her husband's punishment, going with him into exile. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
What and Where is Lugdunum Convenarum?
Lugdunum Convenarum was a wealthy and important Roman city located in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains, in the historical region of Gaul. [1, 2, 3, 4]
The Location: It is located in present-day southern France, known today as Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges. [1]
The City: It was a bustling Roman capital that featured grand public baths, a large theatre holding up to 5,000 people, and a rich historical legacy. [1, 2]
Historical Mystery: While some ancient historians debated if the couple was exiled to this Pyrenees town or to the larger city of Lugdunum (modern Lyon), many historians and encyclopedias agree that the rugged, distant Lugdunum Convenarum was their final destination. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Would you like to know more about:
The differences between the Biblical accounts and historical records of Herodias?
What you can see at the ruins of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges today?
More about Roman exiles in the ancient world
This second marriage caused massive outrage. According to the New Testament, the prophet John the Baptist strongly condemned the union as immoral. In retaliation, Herodias manipulated her husband into imprisoning John and eventually having him beheaded. [1, 2]
The Downfall: Exile to Lugdunum Convenarum
Later, Herodias's brother, Agrippa I, was granted the title of King by Emperor Caligula. Consumed by jealousy, Herodias urged her husband Antipas to go to Rome and ask the Emperor for the same royal title. [1, 2]
This plan backfired spectacularly. Agrippa accused Antipas of plotting against Rome and hoarding weapons. Caligula believed the accusations and stripped Antipas of his power and wealth in 39 CE. [1, 2]
The Exile: Emperor Caligula sent Antipas into exile at Lugdunum.
A Choice of Loyalty: Because Herodias was the Emperor's friend (the sister of King Agrippa), Caligula offered her the chance to keep her wealth and stay at home. However, she showed great loyalty and chose to share her husband's punishment, going with him into exile. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
What and Where is Lugdunum Convenarum?
Lugdunum Convenarum was a wealthy and important Roman city located in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains, in the historical region of Gaul. [1, 2, 3, 4]
The Location: It is located in present-day southern France, known today as Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges. [1]
The City: It was a bustling Roman capital that featured grand public baths, a large theatre holding up to 5,000 people, and a rich historical legacy. [1, 2]
Historical Mystery: While some ancient historians debated if the couple was exiled to this Pyrenees town or to the larger city of Lugdunum (modern Lyon), many historians and encyclopedias agree that the rugged, distant Lugdunum Convenarum was their final destination. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Would you like to know more about:
The differences between the Biblical accounts and historical records of Herodias?
What you can see at the ruins of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges today?
More about Roman exiles in the ancient world
According to the New Testament, Salome was the daughter of Herodias. During a birthday banquet for King Herod Antipas, Salome performed a dance that so delighted the king that he swore to give her anything she wanted, up to half of his kingdom. Prompted by her mother, Salome demanded the head of the prophet John the Baptist on a platter. Because he had made a public oath, Herod reluctantly ordered the execution, and the head was given to Salome, who took it to her mother. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Historical Facts
While the Bible does not name her directly, the ancient historian Flavius Josephus identifies her as Salome. Historically, she lived a far less dramatic life than her artistic legacy suggests: [1, 2, 3]
First Marriage: She married Philip the Tetrarch, who was the ruler of Ituraea and Trachonitis.
Second Marriage: After Philip died, she married Aristobulus of Chalcis
Aristobulus IV (31–7 BC) was a prince of Judea from the Herodian dynasty, and was married to his cousin, Berenice, daughter of Costobarus and Salome I. He was the son of Herod the Great and his second wife, Mariamne I, one of the last of the Hasmoneans, and was thus a descendant of the Hasmonean Dynasty.
Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, France
Basilique Paléochrétienne
The Judean religious factions reacted to the converted Idumean rulers with a volatile mix of bitter theological resentment, forced political compliance, and absolute geopolitical revolt. Because the Idumeans were viewed as foreign "half-Jews" who colluded with the Roman Empire, their rule triggered severe instability among the core religious groups of Second Temple Judaism. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
The four major Jewish factions each formed vastly different, highly strategic relationships with the Idumean (Herodian) dynasty: [6, 7]
The Pharisees—the popular teachers of the Oral Law who held the loyalty of the common people—deeply despised the Idumean rulers. [1, 9, 10, 11, 12]
The Legitimacy Crisis: The Pharisees strictly followed Deuteronomy 17:15, which forbade a foreigner from ruling Israel. They viewed Herod the Great and his sons as illegitimate usurpers and mockingly referred to Herod in rabbinic memory as the "Hasmonean slave". [1, 13, 14]
Passive Compliance: When Herod took the throne, he executed dozens of Pharisaic leaders who opposed him. Recognizing they could not defeat his Roman-backed army, the remaining Pharisees adopted a policy of political passivity, choosing to focus on religious education rather than actively plotting to overthrow the king. [15, 16]
The Loyalty Oath Exemption: Herod demanded an oath of allegiance from all his subjects. When 6,000 Pharisees refused on religious grounds, Herod fined them heavily but refrained from executing them en masse to avoid a total populist uprising.
The Sadducees were the wealthy, aristocratic priestly class who controlled the Jerusalem Temple. They initially fought bitterly against the Idumeans to protect the old Jewish Hasmonean dynasty. [1, 10, 19, 20, 21]
Systematic Purge: Upon taking power, Herod systematically purged the Sadducean Sanhedrin (ruling council), executing 45 of its wealthiest members and seizing their property to fund his budget. [1, 22, 23]
Neutralizing the High Priesthood: Traditionally, the High Priest ruled for life. Herod completely abolished this law, turning the High Priesthood into a puppet political office. He imported compliant diaspora Jewish priests from Babylon and Alexandria to run the Temple, effectively breaking the hereditary power of the local Sadducean elite. Over time, surviving Sadducees were forced to cooperate with the Herodians to maintain their economic privileges. [1, 24, 25, 26, 27]
The Essenes were a strict, apocalyptic monastic group who believed the Jerusalem Temple establishment had become completely corrupted. Surprisingly, they enjoyed a remarkably positive relationship with Herod the Great. [10, 28, 29, 30, 31]
The Prophecy of Menahem: The ancient historian Josephus records that an Essene holy man named Menahem met Herod when Herod was just a schoolboy and prophesied that he would one day rule Judea. [28, 32]
Royal Protection: Because of this prophecy, Herod held the Essenes in high esteem throughout his reign. He legally exempted the entire Essene sect from taking his mandatory oath of loyalty, allowing them to live peacefully in their communal settlements (such as Qumran) without royal harassment. [31, 33, 34]
The Zealots (and their radical offshoot, the Sicarii) emerged directly out of a fierce, militant refusal to accept Idumean or Roman authority. [2, 35, 36]
Holy War Mentality: The Zealots believed that paying taxes to Rome or acknowledging a non-Davidic, Idumean puppet king was an act of treason against God. [1, 2, 37]
Guerrilla Warfare: They engaged in direct guerrilla warfare against Herodian forces, launching assassinations and raids. The friction between the Zealots and the Herodian rulers steadily destabilized the region, culminating in the Great Jewish Revolt of 66 AD. [2, 38, 39, 40, 41]
It is highly fascinating how these complex internal rivalries completely altered the socio-political climate of the New Testament era. Given how deeply intertwined religion and politics were at this time, we could explore the Herodian temple guards who policed these factions, or look closer at the "Herodians" mentioned in the Christian Gospels as a specific political alliance. [9, 42, 43, 44]
Would you like to examine who the 'Herodians' were in the Gospels and why they teamed up with the Pharisees against Jesus?