Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Matthew 14:1

ἐν ἐκείνῳ τῷ καιρῷ. During the missionary journey of the Twelve. See Mark loc. cit.

Ἡρώδης. Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and Peræa. He was a son of Herod the Great, and Malthakè, a Samaritan, who was also the mother of Archelaus and Olympias. He was thus of Gentile origin, and his early associations were Gentile, for he was brought up at Rome with his brother Archelaus. He married first a daughter of Aretas, king of Arabia, and afterwards, while his first wife was still living, he married Herodias, wife of his half-brother Philip,—who was living in a private station, and must not be confused with Philip the tetrarch of Ituræa. Cruel, scheming, irresolute, and wicked, he was a type of the worst of tyrants. He intrigued to have the title of tetrarch changed for the higher title of king; very much as Charles the Bold of Burgundy endeavoured to change his dukedom into a kingdom. In pursuance of this scheme Antipas went to Rome ‘to receive for himself a kingdom and return’ (Luke 19:12). He was however foiled in this attempt by the arts of his nephew Agrippa, and was eventually banished to Lyons, being accused of confederacy with Sejanus, and of an intention to revolt. Herodias was his worst enemy: she advised the two most fatal errors of his reign: the execution of John Baptist, which brought him into enmity with the Jews, and the attempt to gain the royal title, the result of which was his fall and banishment. But there is a touch of nobility in the determination she took to share her husband’s exile as she had shared his days of prosperity. For Herod’s design against our Lord, see Luke 13:31; and for the part which he took in the Passion, see Luke 23:6-12.

τετράρχης. Literally, the ruler of a fourth part or district into which a province was divided, ἕκαστα (ἔθνη) διελόντες είς τέσσαρας μερίδας τετραρχίαν ἑκάστην ἐκάλεσεν (Strabo xii. p. 850). Afterwards the name was extended to denote generally a petty king, (‘tetrarchiæ regnorum instar,’ Plin. H. N. Matthew 14:16) the ruler of a provincial district. Deiotarus, whose cause Cicero supported, was tetrarch of Galatia. He is called king by Appian, just as Herod Antipas is called king, Matthew 14:9, and Mark 6:14.

The relation of these principalities to the Roman Empire resembled that of the feudal dependencies to the Suzerain in mediæval times, or that of the Indian native states to the British Crown—political independence and the liberty of raising troops, imposing taxes, maintaining courts of justice, only conditional on the payment of tribute into the imperial exchequer.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Matthew 14:1

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