Antipas

An'tipas

(Α᾿ντίπας, for Α᾿ντίπατρος, Antipater; comp. Josephus, Ant. 14, 1, 3), the name of three men.

1. A son of Herod the Great by Malthace, a Samaritan (Joseph. Ant. 17, 1, 3; War, 1, 28, 4). He inherited of his father's dominions only Galilee and Peraea (B.C. 5), as tetrarch (q.v.), with a yearly income of 200 talents (Joseph. Ant. 17, 8, 1; 11, 4); Jesus was thus within his territorial jurisdiction (Lu 23:7). He first married the daughter of the Arabian king Aretas, but afterward became enamored with Herodias, his half- brother Philip's wife, and contracted a clandestine marriage with her, on which account the Arabian princess indignantly returned to her father (Joseph. Ant. 18, 5 1). Herodias inveigled her new husband into the execution of John the Baptist (Mt 14:4). His former father-in-law, Aretas, not long afterward (according to Josephus about one year before the death of Tiberius, i.e. A.D. 36) declared war against him, on pretense of a dispute about boundaries, but probably in reality to avenge the insult to his daughter, and entirely routed his army (Joseph. Ant. 18, 5, 1), but was obliged to desist from farther steps by the intervention of the Romans. Antipas visited Rome on the accession of Caligula, although fond of ease, at the instance of his vain and ambitious wife, in order to secure the same royal title (which is derisively ascribed to him in Mr 6:14) that his nephew Herod Agrippa had just acquired (Joseph. Ant. 18, 7, 1); but upon the accusation of the latter he was dethroned by the emperor (A.D. 39; see Ideler, Chronol. 2, 309 sq.; comp. Joseph. Ant. 18, 6, 11; 7, 2), and, together with Herodias, who would not desert him in his misfortune, banished to Lyons in Gaul (Joseph. Ant. 18, 2), not to Vienna (Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 1, 11), but died in Spain (Joseph. War, 2, 9, 6), whither he eventually removed. (See Koch, De anno natali J. C. per numnu et fata Antipoe demonstrato, Helmst. 1721; comp. Zorn, Biblioth. Antiq. 1, 1021.) Although Josephus relates no great series of infamous acts on the part of Antipas, it is yet very evident that he was a frivolous prince (comp. Mr 8:15; Lu 13:32), abandoned to the pleasures of life (comp. Joseph. Ant. 18, 4, 5), destitute of firmness of character (comp. Lu 23:11), aware of his faults (Lu 9:7 sq.), yet not disinclined to arbitrary acts (Lu 13:35), whom Luke (3, 19) charges with many crimes (πονηρά); as likewise Jewish tradition. paints in the most disadvantageous light (Noble, Hist. Idum. p. 251 sq.). SEE HEROD.

2. A person "of royal lineage" in Jerusalem, and city treasurer, the first man seized by the assassins during the last war with the Romans,:and soon after butchered in prison (Josephus, War, 4, 3, 4 and 5).

3. A "faithful martyr," mentioned in Revelations 2:13. A.D. ante 100. He is said to have been one of our Savior's first disciples, and a bishop of Pergamus, and to have been put to death in a tumult there by the priests of AEsculapius, who had a celebrated temple in that city (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 4, 5). Tradition relates that he was burned in a brazen bull under Domitian (Acta Sanctcrum, 2, 3, 4). His day in the Greek calendar is April 11 (Menol. Gr. 3, 51).