What Is Herod in the Bible?
Person
In the Gospels there are several rulers named Herod. They belong to the same family, but they are not the same man.
It can mean
- Herod the Great: the king when Jesus was born (Mt 2, 1; Lc 1, 5).
- Herod Antipas, his son: ruled Galilee; put John the Baptist in prison (Lc 3, 19-20).
- Herod Agrippa I, his grandson: had James, the brother of John, killed (Hch 12, 1-2).
Where it appears in the Bible
Matthew 2:1; Luke 3:19-20
What the Bible says
Matthew 2:1
When Jesus therefore was born in Bethlehem of Juda, in the days of king Herod, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem.
Luke 3:19-20
19But Herod the tetrarch, when he was reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done; 20He added this also above all, and shut up John in prison.
Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.
Source: NABRE notes on Lc 1, 5, Lc 3, 1 and Hch 12, 1-2; Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “Herod”