Real Bible People: the Family of Antipas

Power and the Princess

Herodias and Antipas with Salomé

The Family of Herod Antipas

The family members of Herod that we meet in the Bible are King Herod Antipater (whose nickname was Antipas), his wife Queen Herodias, and her daughter Princess Salomé. Both Antipas  and Herodias are divorced and in their second marriage.

King Herod Antipater, Ruler of Galilee and Perea

Herod Antipater, King of Galilee and Perea

Herod Antipater was a son of Herod the Great. He had been married to Princess Phasaelis, the daughter of Aretas the Fourth, king of the Arabic country of Nabatea, which abutted Perea on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. This was a typical political marriage of the times, designed to solidify relations between two neighboring countries. However, on a trip to Rome Antipas met the ravishing Herodias, and the two of them fell together into a lifelong relationship.

Antipas returned to Palestine and divorced Phasaelis, which gained him her father King Aretas as an enemy. Later, Aretas and Antipas had a border dispute which was leading toward war, and Antipas was obliged to appeal to Rome for military assistance. This did not go over well with the Romans, and contributed to Antipas' later fall from power and retirement to Gaul with his wife Herodias.

Word came to the ears of Antipas about a raggedy prophet in the wilderness who was decrying Herod's marriage to Herodias, which was against Jewish law. Antipas was superstitious, and was disturbed as to what this prophet meant to him and to the future of his kingdom. He eventually acquired the arrest of this "John the Baptist," and threw him into the dungeon of his palace fortress at Machaerus in Perea. There the king would go down to listen to the Baptist and wonder what his words meant.

After the death of the Baptist, Antipas began hearing about another prophet in Galilee, Jesus of Nazareth,  and some were telling him that this was the Baptist, risen from  the dead. He wondered at this and wanted to see and question Jesus, but he took no action to arrest the man, perhaps because his arrest of the prophet John did not produce a good result. It was rumored that Herod wanted to kill Jesus, but this was unlikely, in part due to Herod's superstitious nature.

When Jesus did get arrested by the high priests in Jerusalem, Antipas was in town with his security detail and questioned Jesus at length, hoping to see  him perform some miraculous sign. But Antipas got nothing out of Jesus, and his security detail treated him with contempt and mocked him.

Queen Herodias

Herodias, Wife and Queen of Herod Antipas 

Herodias was the  grand-daughter of Herod the Great and thus a descendant of the Hasmonean dynasty of the latter kings of Israel. On suspicion of rebellion, Herod the Great executed her father and cared for his orphaned sons and daughter. Herod the Great arranged Herodias' first marriage to his son Herod II, who was briefly his heir but never attained a throne.

Sent to Rome to be educated, Herodias met the visiting Herod Antipas and took up with him. Here was a for-real king who could secure her future as queen over Galilee and Perea. Antipas brought her back to Palestine as his queen, but Herodias heard about a wild prophet down by the Jordan who was decrying her illegal marriage to Antipas. If this prophet's complaint were to gain traction, she would be thrown down from her throne.

There is little doubt that Herodias encouraged her husband to arrest John the Baptist and throw him in the dungeon. In fact, it was well known that Herodias wanted the Baptist dead. Her husband would have none of that, though, and visited the prophet in his jail cell.

But one day opportunity arose: Antipas was throwing a great party for his birthday, and all the noblemen of the land were invited. Herodias sent in her daughter to dance for the nobles, who by this time were well-sotted with wine. Her beauty and her dancing were the  light of the party. Then it was that her husband made a rash promise to the child. With an oath, he said, "Anything you ask, I will give to you, up to half my kingdom."

The child didn't know what to ask for, so she went to her mother for advice. Herodias told her to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. In this way Herodias's throne would be secure, and her daughter's future would be enhanced. Antipas was appalled, but he was trapped by his oath and his audience of partying nobles. The deed was done, and the dance entered into history.

Princess Salomé

Princess Salomé, Daughter of Herodias

At the time of the dance of Salomé, she was only 14 years old, a fact that seems to have been missed by all the Bible commentators I have consulted. But Salomé was born around AD 14, and the Baptist died toward the end of AD 28, so this would have been but a child in our eyes.

However, in the culture of the day Salomé would have been of prime marrying age. Following Jewish practice, she would be entering into a year-long betrothal phase at this age. Her mother, who had been a princess of the court of Herod the Great, had been adept in acquiring for herself a queenly crown. Now she was arranging for her daughter to follow her example. Her husband's birthday party would have been filled with nobles, princes, and kings, and it was time for Salomé to show her stuff.

Within a couple of years, Salomé ascended to the throne of Trachonitis and Iturea, seated beside her new husband Herod Philip, king of the northeastern reaches near the Sea of Galilee. But Herod Philip died within a few years. Yet her fame and her beauty still held sway, for shortly she married Aristobulus king of Chalcis, a few miles farther to the north.

The legend of Salomé and her dance became much greater than that of the princess herself. Plays and operas have been written about her, and she has become the original femme fatale. The dance of this child has been transformed into the Dance of the Seven Veils in music and ballet, while the real person, the 14-year-old girl, has been largely forgotten.

Ancient Coin with Likeness of Herod Antipater

Real Bible People: The Family of Alpheus

The Family Ministries of Jesus

The Descendants of Alpheus: a Broken Family Healed

The disciples  of Jesus came from varied backgrounds.

Technical note:

Identifications of the relatives of Alpheus are varied and contentious among Bible scholars, and the explanations used for their relationships to one another are often complex. I use the plain teaching of scripture as I see it and I use this for the family relationships in my book series JOHN! (available at rolinbruno.com). Given these relationships, I present here the implications of these relationships for real people who really lived in the first century AD.

Matthew 'Levi,' estranged member of the Alpheus family

Living members of the Alpheus family included a son named Matthew, a wife named Mary and her two sons Joses and "little" James, and a son of "little" James named Judas Thaddeus. As an extra bonus, I'll also include Matthew's co-worker Chuza and Chuza's wife Joanna.

Father Alpheus

Alpheus is a variant spelling of Alphaeus, which I use for its simplicity. Alpheus himself does not appear in the Bible text, and has undoubtedly passed away before the Gospel stories begin. He was a Levite, which means that at scheduled times he had duties to perform in the temple at Jerusalem, such as assisting at services or singing in the choir.

He was most likely a man of means, who owned a large house within striking distance of Jerusalem so that he could perform his duties when scheduled. A possible place for his house may have been at the town of Ephraim, located in the Old Testament territory which became the Samaria of Jesus' time. Ephraim, 20 miles from Jerusalem, was one of the cities where Jesus took refuge, out of the reach of the murderous priests and Sadducees. If Alpheus' home was there it would have been a comfortable respite for Jesus and his disciples.

Matthew "Levi," one of the Twelve

When we meet Matthew in the gospel text, he is living 80 miles away from Jerusalem, collecting taxes for King Herod Antipas in Capernaum. This was a lucrative position which would have made him quite wealthy. Such positions could be given out as patronage from the King, or they could be purchased for substantial sums of money. As a lowly Levitical servant of the temple, becoming a friend of the king was unlikely. So where would Matthew get the fortune required to buy a tax collector's job?

The most likely occasion would have been the death of his father Alpheus. If Matthew was the oldest he could demand his portion of his father's inheritance even if it meant selling family holdings. (He could also have demanded this before his father's death, which would have meant even more severe resentment from the rest of the family.)

As a wealthy Jew he would most certainly have had a spacious home, a wife, and children. In the first century, these were three of the  four marks of wealth, rather than money held by bankers. The fourth mark of wealth was the ownership of tracts of agricultural land, such as were held by Nicodemus, the wealthiest man in Jerusalem. But Matthew's wealth came not from agriculture but tax collection from farmers, fishers, and other artisans. Because of Matthew's estrangement from the rest of his family, his children would not know their cousin Judas Thaddeus son of Little James and grandson of Alpheus.

Being a tax collector was a scandal for a Jew, to wring money out of the peasantry and give it to the overlords working for the hated Romans. It was even more of a scandal for a Levite, who should be responsible for collecting the temple tax for the priests rather than serving Rome. This was how he got his nickname: the contemptuous phrase "Levi the tax collector." Matthew would prosper in Capernaum, but the rest of his family would have nothing to do  with him.

But ALONG COMES JESUS! Matthew is the last of the Twelve to be called into the service of Jesus. He leaves his tax collector booth and throws a big party for Jesus, for the "sinners" following Jesus, and for the other "sinners" that worked for Herod. Matthew's two brothers James and Joses would have welcomed him back into the family joyously. This scene and this story would later become part of the tale that Jesus tells about the Prodigal Son.

Wife Mary, mother of James and Joses

Only two men are mentioned as sons of the wife of Alpheus, and Matthew is not one of them. They may have refused to acknowledge him, or more likely, he is the son of Alpheus by a previous wife. This Mary, although elderly, is one of the prosperous women who helped Jesus in his ministry, and she was present at the crucifixion with her sons Joses and 'little' James.

Joses, disciple of Jesus

Joses is a diminutive of Joseph, and this served as the name for the younger son of Mary of Alpheus. He was a disciple of Jesus, but was not chosen as one of the Twelve. Little else is known about him.

"Little" James, one of the Twelve

When James the son of Alpheus was inducted into the Twelve, there was already among them James the son of Zebedee, one of the seven earliest disciples. Since the son of Zebedee was a muscular fisherman, and the son of Alpheus was a lightweight helper at the temple, they acquired the nicknames of Big James and Little James. The church later called them James the Great, and James the Less.

Judas Thaddeus son of James, one of the Twelve

The listing of this young man in the same paragraph with  "little" James makes it likely that this is the son of little James and grandson of Alpheus. Here we have a father-son team among the 12 apostles! At one place in the Gospels, this disciple is identified as "Judas, not Iscariot."

Chuza the Syrian

This man is little noticed by Bible Scholars, but he was a fellow employee of Herod Antipas along with Matthew the tax collector. Chuza was the "steward" of Herod, placed in charge of King Herod's personal land holdings (Luke 8:3). As a non-Jew working for Rome's assigned king of Galilee, he would receive the cold shoulder from the Jews of the Land. But as a potential invitee to Matthew's party of conciliation  with Jesus, he could have become a believer. It is unlikely that he left his employment with Herod, for that would probably have elicited a comment from one of the Gospel writers.

Joanna the Wife of Chuza

In Luke 8:3, Joanna is highlighted by Luke as one of the disciples of Jesus who followed him and supported him in his ministry. Along with Susanna, Mary the Magdalene, and the un-named wife of Peter, these four women would have formed a cohesive group and become close friends, for men of that day were not in the habit of talking with women to whom they were not related. Luke notes that there were "many" women followers of Jesus, and at the end they included Mary, the matriarch of the Alpheus family.

NEXT WEEK:

Next week we will take a look at the family of Herod Antipas, who was neither a friend of Jesus, nor an enemy--but he was intensely interested in Jesus, and had a most interesting family.

Real Bible People: The Family of "Jonas"

The Family Ministries of Jesus

"Jonas" and Sons: an Extended Family

Simon Peter and Andrew: Active Fishermen

Technical Note on the Name "Jonas," father of Peter and Andrew

In the Gospel of John chapter 21, at verses 15, 16, and 17, the King James Version refers to Simon Peter's father as "Jonas." His actual name is "John" and the "s" on the end of the name comes from the possessive form of the name in Greek  (Yohannes). At another place (John 1:42) the KJV calls this same man "Jona." Almost all modern translations use "John" instead of "Jonas" for this  man. Still, I have found the "Jonas" form useful to help differentiate this particular John from all the other John's in the New Testament.

The "Jonas" Extended Family: A Fishing Legacy

Jesus calls Peter and Andrew into a New Occupation

Besides father "Jonas," this family included son Simon Peter, Simon Peter's un-named wife, her un-named mother, and Peter's brother Andrew. They were spread out variously between Bethsaida and Capernaum.

Father "Jonas"

There is little doubt that "Jonas" the father of Simon Peter and Andrew lived in Bethsaida, on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee in the Jewish fishing village of Bethsaida. Whether the mother of his boys was still alive is unknown but certainly possible. Jonas does not seem to be active in the offshore fishing business during the ministry of Jesus. The boat that Peter and Andrew used for fishing and for transportation seems  to be available at any time it is needed at Capernaum and elsewhere, but it probably belonged to Jonas. Even though Jonas was retired from offshore fishing, he may have remained active in the wholesale fishing industry, preparing fish for market by drying, smoking, and salting the product.

Elder Son Simon Peter:

When we meet Simon in the Bible, he has recently become a married man, but yet has no children. He has moved from his ancestral home in Bethsaida to Capernaum, on the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee in the province of Galilee under Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great. He has taken the 27-foot family boat with him, and is working with the Zebedee family in a consortium of wholesale fishermen. His brother Andrew works with him in this endeavor, and he employs at least two hired hands to help operate the fishing boat.

When Jesus meets Simon, he gives him a new Aramaic name Kephas, which sounds like the Hebrew word Keph, meaning stone or rock (John 1:42). Later, when Peter identifies Jesus in Greek as the Christos (anointed one of God), Jesus gives him his name again, this time speaking in Greek. Jesus says, "You are Petros (Peter), and on this petra (stone or rock), I will build my called-out assembly (Matthew 16:18a). In the apostle Paul's writings, Paul often refers to Peter as Kephas.

Peter was often impulsive and outspoken, and has been identified by the western church as the leader of the apostles. After the resurrection, Peter became a powerful speaker. According to Clement of Alexandria (AD 276) he had children. He ended his life as overseer of the "called-out assembly" of Christ in Rome, where he was crucified head-down.

Younger Son Andrew:

Andrew was a fisherman, like his father and older brother. He was born in Bethsaida, but after Peter's marriage slept in Capernaum during fishing season with his brother's new family. We first meet Andrew down by the Jordan river when he and his friend John (younger brother of James) are calling themselves disciples of John the Baptist.

Like his friend, Andrew is likely to have been a teenager when he met Jesus. He and his friend were the first two disciples to follow Jesus, after leaving the Baptist. These two, along with their older brothers Peter and James, were the "inner circle" of the twelve apostles, taken by Jesus into situations where the other apostles were not invited.

Wife of Simon Peter:

There are extant traditions about the name of Peter's wife, but they do not agree with one another. When we meet her in the Bible, through mention of her mother, she is living in Capernaum with her husband Simon Peter. She probably travelled with Peter as one of the many female disciples who were following Jesus. Tradition has it that she later travelled with Peter through the Roman empire, and was martyred, possibly at Rome.

Mother-in-law of Simon Peter:

Although most Bible commentary assumes that Peter is the owner of the house he resides in at Capernaum, it is more likely that his widowed mother-in-law is the actual owner. She likely had no sons to claim ownership at their father's death, so it remained the house of his widow, to be inherited later by her only daughter. Jesus ministered to her by healing her fever and raising her from her bed, after which she went on to serve and feed Jesus and his band.

The house must have been quite large, for it served as residence for a great number of Jesus' disciples, or at least twelve of them. The mother-in-law must have married well to have such a grand house, and probably had financial means to support herself and to support Jesus' ministry, as many other women did. As a prosperous widow, she likely had at least one female servant to assist her with housekeeping.

Next Week:

The Scattered Family of Alpheus

Real Bible People: The Family of Zebedee

The Family Ministries of Jesus

Zebedee and His Sons: A Working Family

Jesus calls James and John

Three Families that Supported Jesus

Within the circle of disciples around Jesus, more than half of the twelve apostles came from just three different families. These families were 1) Zebedee the professional fisherman with his wife Salome and his two sons, John and "Big"  James;  2) Jonah the retired fisherman, his two sons Andrew and Peter, Peter's wife, and his wife's mother; and 3: Mary wife of Alpheus and her two sons Joses and "Little" James, plus Matthew son of Alpheus and his family. These middle-class working households no doubt included a few bondservants, as well as hired help for their businesses and perhaps for their homes.

Two Families that Opposed Jesus

The principal people that were against Jesus were inter-related among themselves also. These families were 1) King Herod Antipas, his second wife Herodias, and Herodias' daughter Salomé; and 2) Annas the senior high priest, his five sons who were also high priests, his son-in-law Caiaphas the designated high priest during the ministry of Jesus, and numerous related Sadducees and their extended families.

Here we'll begin to take a look at these five families and attempt to reconstruct their personal lives as real people, building on what we know of the named people and the times within  which they lived. For this post, we'll take a look at Zebedee.

The Zebedee Family:  Commercial Fishing in Bethsaida

Jesus Calls the Two Sons of Zebedee

Zebedee was the apparent leader, or major partner, of a fishing consortium that plied the waters of the Sea of Galilee. His boat was probably of a type widely used on the lake: 27 feet long by 7.5 feet wide, almost flat-bottomed to allow fishing in shallow waters, and requiring a crew of five to properly handle it with its four rowing positions, mast, sail, and rudder.

To staff the boat he had his grown son James and his almost-grown son John, plus two servants. These were likely bondservants, in a covenant relationship with Zebedee, who was committed to feeding and housing them in exchange for willing work on their part. Among the rich upper classes bondservants could be bought and sold as needed or desired, but among the working class these covenants were often lifelong alliances, with the servants treated as if they were extended family. Zebedee's wife may have also had a household servant. Such a servant was often a young woman from a poor family who had little likelihood of finding a husband for her.

The family home was in the small Jewish fishing community of  Bethsaida on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was located in the Roman Province of Trachonitis under Herod Philip, a son of  Herod the Great. Very near to Bethsaida, Herod Philip was building a Greek-inspired city, named Julias in honor of the emperor of Rome. It was to include a stadium for equestrian events, and Herod Philip hoped to populate it with Greek-speaking people who would be faithful to Rome.

Father Zebedee:

Zebedee was head of the family and active in the fishing business. His name is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name Zebadiah, and means "Yahweh has bestowed." Jesus called his two sons "Sons of Thunder," which could possibly have been in reference to Zebedee's character, or his loud voice. He respected Jesus as (at least) a man of God and a prophet, allowing his sons to leave his fishing business to follow Jesus. This would have reduced the family income, as he would have had to hire more crew during the fishing season to handle his boat. Because of his sons' association with Jesus, he used his boat on occasion as a passenger vehicle to ferry Jesus' many followers back and forth across the Sea of Galilee.

Mother Salome:

Zebedee's wife was protective and sometimes manipulative with her two sons. Salome is the feminine form of the name Solomon, with a connotation of wisdom and power. Its root meaning in Hebrew is Shalom, or peace. One might say this is an early feminist name denoting power, peace, and wisdom. Salome believed that Jesus was the Messiah and future king. She persuaded her two sons to ask Jesus that they might sit at his right and his left when he "came into his kingdom" (Matthew 20:20). She accompanied Jesus during his last trip to Judea and was present at the crucifixion. Another woman named Salome (or Salomé) was in the family of Herod Antipas, and will be dealt with in a later post.

Elder Son James:

Among Jesus' 12 apostles were two men named James, so this James son of Zebedee became known as "Big James" (or James the Great) to differentiate him from "Little James" (or James the Less). In English he is called "James," but in Spanish, German, French, and the original Greek he is named Jacob, after the founder of the twelve tribes of Israel. This was one of the most popular names at the time, and there are four others named Jacob in the Greek New Testament.

James' first meeting with Jesus is not recorded, but he may have been one of Jesus' first disciples, along with his brother John and four others who met Jesus at the Jordan River. He and John and Andrew and Peter became the "inner circle" of disciples around Jesus. He may have had a boisterous character, for he and his brother asked Jesus if they should call down fire on a Samaritan village which had rejected them (Luke 9:54). This may have been the occasion which brought Jesus to calling them "Sons of Thunder." James was the first of the Twelve to be martyred, when a later Herod had James "killed with the sword." Perhaps James' fiery preaching brought this about, or perhaps even an ill-advised swordfight. His many experiences with Jesus should have brought him close to realizing that Jesus was "real God."

Younger Son John:

John's name in Greek stems from the Hebrew name Johannes. He shares this name with John the Baptist, John (or Jonas) the father of Peter and Andrew, John Mark, and John the relative of Annas the high priest. The name means "Yahweh is gracious." He was a close friend of Andrew, the younger brother of Simon Peter. He and Andrew were the first two disciples to meet Jesus. His boisterousness could perhaps be attributed to the influence of his older brother, for in his later life and in his writings we do not see that character trait.

John is recognized as the youngest of the twelve disciples by every Bible scholar willing to hazard a guess. (The only possible rival might be Judas Thaddeus, grandson of Alpheus.) Among teachers with a following of disciples, it was a tradition that the youngest disciple (or else the newest disciple) would take up the duty of attending to the personal needs of the teacher. He would be the closest to the teacher, leaving his side only to attend to his needs. We can see an example of this with the incident of the woman at the well. All the disciples (except John) had gone into town to buy food, leaving John as the only witness to the astounding conversation between Jesus and this Samaritan woman.

John may have been as young as 13 or 14 when he and his friend Andrew met Jesus, too old for the Bible writers to call him a "child." We meet these two when they were down at the Jordan River calling themselves disciples of John the Baptist. He was out of place there, for he should have been up at the Sea of Galilee working for his father. Something must have happened to bring these two youngsters to follow this man in the wilderness who was shouting, "Repent! Repent, for the Kingdom of God is near!"

As the disciples of Jesus followed him, they did not understand who he truly was. "Who is this guy, who can command the sea to be calm?" The crucifixion left them scattered and confused, but they gathered in an upper room to see what might happen next. The falling down of the Holy Spirit and the preaching of Simon Peter renewed their hope and woke up their conviction that they had been following the Son of God.

In later life, after 30 years of contemplation, John wrote a book whose first chapter is the greatest writing in the realm of Christendom. John came to realize and preach that Jesus is the voice of God--the Logos--at whose command the heavens and the earth were created. This was the real God, and they had been walking with him, talking with him, and eating with  him. John captured his essence and preached his commandment of love in his Gospel and his letters. Sent into exile on the island of Patmos, he was given a vision that he wrote about in the book of Revelation.

Near the end of his life, he became the overseer of the church in Ephesus. The young men would come and carry his aged body to church each week, while he loudly called out, "Love one another! Love one another!" Finally one of the young men asked him, "Teacher, why do you keep shouting that?" John replied, "For if you love one another, it will be enough."

Next Week:

Next week we will look at another family--the family of Jonas (John), who was the father of Simon Peter and Andrew.