Philip Herod (FILIPPO ERODE) - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. V, p. 796

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

PHILIP HEROD. — Son of Herod the Great and Mariamne II, husband of Herodias. He is called only F. in Mk. 6:17, whereas Flavius Josephus (Antiq. Iud., XVIII, 5, 1, 4; Bell. Iud., I, 28, 2) calls him only Herod; it is more than likely that he had both names, something customary in the Herodian family. Nor is this contradicted by the fact that he had another brother named F. (that is, the tetrarch) and another named Herod (the full brother of the tetrarch F.), since his other two brothers Antipas and Antipater likewise had the identical name (Antipas is the same name as Antipater). In Herod the Great’s first will he had been designated as heir in the event that Antipater should predecease him. He lived privately Herodias (v.), when he offered hospitality to his brother Antipas. After his wife’s departure, nothing more was heard of him.

BIBL.: G. B. Winer, Bibl. Reakvinterbuch, I, p. 250; Fr. W. Madden, Coins of the Jews, London 1903, pp. 122–128; G. F. Hill, Catalogue of the Greek coins of Palestine, London 1914, p. 228; U. Holzmeister, Historia aetatis Novi Testamenti, 2nd ed., Rome 1938, pp. 72–73. Giuseppe Ricciotti

FILIPPO ERODE. — Tetrarch, son of Herod the Great and Cleopatra of Jerusalem. He was designated tetrarch in his father’s will. The regions of his tetrarchy were: 1) Ituraea (Lc. 3, 1; Josephus does not use this name; the inhabitants of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon were called Ituraeans); 2) Trachonitis (the name by which Josephus designates the whole of Philip’s territories); 3) Gaulanitis (the region near the Sea of Tiberias); 4) Batanea, that is, Bashan; 5) Auranitis, that is, the present-day region of Hawrān. In substance, his tetrarchy extended from the mountains of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon south-eastward, below Damascus, as far as the mountainous highlands of Hawrān, including the regions situated east of the Sea of Tiberias, the least Judaized areas of the region.

He was a good ruler (Flavius Josephus, Antiq. Iud., XVIII, 4, 6). He rebuilt Bethsaida east of the Sea of Tiberias and called it Julia, and built his tomb there. He enlarged the city of Paneion, where his father had already enlarged a temple in honor of Augustus, and called it Caesarea, later called Caesarea Philippi to distinguish it from the other city built by Herod the Great (cf. Mt. 16, 13). In advanced age he married Salome, daughter of Herodias and of her brother of the same name, F. E., who was approximately thirty years younger than he (Antiq. Iud., XVIII, 5, 4). He was the first of the Herodian princes to mint coins bearing the effigy of Augustus and Tiberius.

He died in the twentieth year of Tiberius, after thirty-seven years of rule, that is, between A.D. 33 and 34. His territory was annexed to the province of Syria, but shortly afterward it was given by Caligula to King Herod Agrippa I.

BIBL.: U. Holzmeister, Historia aetatis Novi Testamenti, 2ª ed., Roma 1938, pp. 77-80; G. Ricciotti, Storia d'Israele, 3ª ed., II, Torino 1947, § 368. Giuseppe Ricciotti