Antipas as Tetrarch

Josephus

Jewish Antiquities 18.36–38

93–94

Now Herod the tetrarch, who was in great favor with Tiberius, built a city and called it Tiberias. He built it in the best part of Galilee, at the lake of Gennesareth, which is near a village called Emmaus, where there are warm baths. Foreigners came and moved into the city. A large number of the inhabitants were Galileans, and many were forced by Herod to move there from his territory. Some of them were magistrates. He also admitted poor people who came from all over to live there. Some of them were not quite free men, and he acted as benefactor to them and freed them in great numbers, but he encouraged them not to leave the city by building them very good houses at his own expense and by giving them land as well. For he knew that it was a transgression of the ancient Jewish laws to make that place a habitation, since many tombs had to be removed to make room for the city Tiberias, and our laws state that inhabitants of such a place are unclean for seven days.

Translated by William Whiston, adapted byAaron Samuels.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.

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One of the major events of Herod Antipas’ reign as tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea was the founding of the Galilean city of Tiberias, named for Augustus’ successor, Tiberius, in 17 CE. Josephus writes that because the city was built on a graveyard, it was considered a source of impurity by Jews, and Antipas had to encourage people to live there by giving them houses and land. Antipas is also known for the execution of John the Baptist (see Communal Identities), attested in both the Gospels and the histories of Josephus.

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Creator Bio

Josephus

37–100

Flavius Josephus was born into a prominent Jewish priestly family and served as a general stationed in the Galilee during the First Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE). He was captured by the Romans and eventually integrated into the Flavian imperial aristocracy, who commissioned him to compose chronicles of the Jewish–Roman war and the history of the Jews. Josephus’ works, all written in Greek, include The Jewish War, Jewish Antiquities, Against Apion, and his autobiography, Life of Josephus. These writings provide important insights into the Judaisms of the Second Temple period and include one of the few surviving accounts of the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE.

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