Herod Before the Sanhedrin

When Caesar had settled the affairs of Syria, he sailed away. As soon as Antipater had escorted Caesar out of Syria, he went back to Judea. At once he raised again the wall that Pompey had pulled down, and went through the country quelling the unrest there, threatening the people and at the same time advising them to keep quiet. Those who sided with Hyrcanus, he said, would live in calm and enjoy their own possessions undisturbed; but if they gave themselves to hopes of revolution and looked for gain from it, they would find in him a master instead of a protector, in Hyrcanus a tyrant instead of a king, and in the Romans and Caesar bitter enemies instead of rulers; for they would never stand for the removal of the man they themselves had set up. With these words he brought order to the country. [a]

Seeing that Hyrcanus was slow and sluggish, Antipater appointed Phasael, the eldest of his sons, governor of Jerusalem and the country around it, and entrusted Galilee to Herod, the next, who was very young; he was only fifteen years old. But his youth did him no harm. The young man had a noble spirit, and he soon found a chance to show his quality. He caught Hezekiah, a robber chief who was raiding the neighboring parts of Syria with a large band, seized him and put him to death, together with many of the robbers who were with him. The Syrians loved him greatly for this deed, for he had cleared their country of the robber band they longed to be rid of. They sang his praises in their villages and cities for it, as the man who had given them peace and the safe enjoyment of their possessions. Through this he also became known to Sextus Caesar, a kinsman of the great Caesar, who was governing Syria. Herod’s deeds filled his brother Phasael with jealousy. Stirred by Herod’s good name, he was ambitious not to fall short of the same renown, and he made the people of Jerusalem more and more well disposed toward him. He held the city in his own hands, yet he neither handled its affairs tactlessly nor behaved insolently in his authority. All this brought Antipater royal deference from the nation, and such honors as a man might receive if he were lord of all. Yet with all this splendor he did not, as so often happens, fall away in the least from his goodwill and loyalty toward Hyrcanus. [b]

But the men in authority among the Jews, seeing Antipater and his sons growing so great in the nation’s goodwill and in the revenue they drew from Judea and from Hyrcanus’s own wealth, became hostile to him. For Antipater had made friends with the Roman generals, and when he had persuaded Hyrcanus to send them money, he took it himself and appropriated the gift, sending it as his own and not as given by Hyrcanus. Hyrcanus heard of this and did not care. But the chief men of the Jews were afraid, because they saw that Herod was violent and bold and hungry for tyranny. So they came to Hyrcanus and now accused Antipater openly. “How long,” they said, “will you keep quiet about what is going on? Do you not see that Antipater and his sons have girded on the government, while you hear only the name of king? Do not let this escape you, and do not think yourself out of danger while you are so careless of yourself and your kingdom. Antipater and his sons are not your stewards now — do not deceive yourself by thinking so — but are openly acknowledged as masters. For Herod his son has killed Hezekiah and many with him, breaking our law, which forbids putting anyone to death, even a wicked man, unless he has first been condemned to it by the sanhedrin. And he dared to do it without receiving authority from you.” [e]

When Hyrcanus heard this, he was persuaded. The mothers of the men Herod had killed inflamed his anger still more; for day after day they stood in the temple, pleading with the king and the people that Herod should answer in the sanhedrin for what he had done. Moved by them, Hyrcanus summoned Herod to stand trial on the charges against him. Herod came. But his father had advised him to come in not as a private man but with protection and a bodyguard, and first to secure affairs in Galilee as he thought best for himself. So he arranged matters, and came to the trial with a band large enough for the road, so as neither to frighten Hyrcanus by arriving with too large a force nor to come naked and unguarded. Sextus, the governor of Syria, meanwhile wrote urging Hyrcanus to acquit Herod of the charge, and added threats if he did not listen. Sextus’s letter gave Hyrcanus a pretext for letting Herod go without his suffering anything from the sanhedrin, for he loved him like a son. But when Herod stood in the sanhedrin with his troop around him, he struck them all with fear. None of those who had accused him before he came dared to accuse him any longer. There was silence, and no one knew what to do. As matters stood so, one man, Sameas by name, a righteous man and for that reason above fear, stood up and said, “Fellow members of the council, and you, O king, I myself do not know of anyone ever summoned to trial before you who stood here like this, nor do I suppose you can name one. Everyone, whoever he may be, who comes before this sanhedrin to be judged stands humbly, in the posture of a man afraid and hoping for your pity, with his hair left uncut and wearing black clothes. But this fine Herod, accused of murder and summoned on such a charge, stands here wrapped in purple, his head adorned with his hair carefully arranged, and soldiers around him, so that if we condemn him by the law he may kill us and save himself by overpowering justice. Yet I would not blame Herod for this, if he cares more for his own advantage than for the law. I blame you, and the king, for giving him such license. But know that God is great, and this man, whom you now wish to release for Hyrcanus’s sake, will one day punish both you and the king himself.” He was not wrong in anything he said. For when Herod took over the kingdom, he killed all the members of the sanhedrin, and Hyrcanus himself, except Sameas. Him he held in great honor, for his righteousness, and because later, when the city was besieged by Herod and Sosius, he advised the people to let Herod in, telling them that because of their sins they could not escape him. Of these things we will speak in their proper place. [h]

When Hyrcanus saw that the members of the sanhedrin were set on putting Herod to death, he put off the trial to another day, and sent secretly to Herod advising him to flee the city, since that way he would escape the danger. So Herod withdrew to Damascus, as though fleeing from the king. When he had been with Sextus Caesar and made his own position secure, he resolved that if he were summoned to the sanhedrin for trial again, he would not obey. The members of the sanhedrin were indignant, and tried to show Hyrcanus that all this was aimed at him. He was not blind to it, but through cowardice and folly he could do nothing. Then Sextus made Herod general of Coele-Syria — he sold him the post for money — and Hyrcanus was afraid that Herod would march against him. His fear was not long in coming true. Herod came, leading an army against him, angry over the trial and at having been summoned to give an account of himself in the sanhedrin. But his father Antipater and his brother met him and kept him from attacking Jerusalem. They calmed his fury and urged him to do nothing in deed, but to frighten them with threats only, and to go no further against the man who had raised him to his present rank. They asked him, angry as he was at being called to trial, to remember also his acquittal and to be grateful for it, and not to dwell on the harsher side while being ungrateful for his deliverance. He should consider that if the Deity decides the turns of war, injustice weighs more than an army; and so he should not count on victory at all, if he was about to make war on his king and close companion, who had done him many kindnesses and nothing harsh, and who, in what Herod complained of, had given only a suspicion and shadow of harshness, and that through bad advisers, not of his own doing. Herod was persuaded, thinking it enough for his hopes to have shown his strength to the nation. Such was the state of affairs in Judea. [k]