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THE HERODIANS

A miraculous healing performed on a sabbath day aroused the anger of the Jews against . The joined forces “with the Herodians” (μετὰ τῶν Ἡρῳδιανῶν) to fi nd a way to destroy him, but Jesus withdrew with his disciples in the direction of the sea (Mk. 3:6).1 This happened in Galilee, perhaps at Capernaum. But in too, his enemies sent “some of the Pharisees and the Herodians” (τινας τῶν Φαρισαίων καὶ τῶν Ἡρῳδιανῶν) to Jesus to entrap him with the celebrated question: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” (Mk. 12:13ff.).2 In these two Gospel pericopae,3 Jesus’ adversaries are the Pharisees and the Herodians. The former group is suffi ciently well known, but who are these Ἡρωδιανοί?

I

In his commentary on Matt. 22:16, St collects the various explanations of the term “Herodians” which had been proposed by the ancient exegetes. Mittunt igitur Pharisaei discipulos suos cum Herodianis, id est militibus Herodis, seu quos illudentes Pharisaei quia Romanis tributa solve- bant, Herodianos vocabant et non divino cultui deditos. Quidam Latinorum ridicule Herodianos putant, qui Herodem Christum esse credebant, quod nusquam omnino legimus.4 The opinion which St Jerome indignantly rebuts is not in fact found in any father of the church.5 But he himself reproduces in another text6

1 In the parallels (Matt. 12:14 and Lk. 6:11), the Herodians are not mentioned. 2 Matt 22:15ff. essentially agrees with Mark. According to Matthew, it is the Pharisees who send their disciples “with the Herodians” (μετὰ τῶν Ἡρῳδιανῶν) to Jesus. Lk. 20:20ff. does not mention the Herodians. 3 The warning at Mk. 8:15, “Beware of the leaven of Herod,” has nothing to do with the “Herodians.” 4 Jerome, PL 26, 162. 5 It is cited only by late compilers such as Theophylact (PG 123, 521), Catenae ad Mk. 12:3. 6 Jerome, Contra Luciferian. 23 (PL 23, 178): taceo de Iudaismi haereticis qui ante adventum Christi legem traditam dissiparunt . . . Dosithaeus . . . Sadducaei . . . Pharisaei a Judaeis divisi . . . quod Herodiani Herodem regem suscipere pro Christo. This passage is copied from Ps.-Tertullian, Adversus omnes haereses. See the following note.

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the information about the Jewish sect of the “Herodians” which he has borrowed from Ps.-Tertullian’s treatise Against all the Heresies. This latter text mentions in passing “the Herodians who have declared Herod to be the Messiah.”7 In his Panarion, Epiphanius too reckons the same false teaching as the “twentieth” heresy.8 And somewhat later, in his discussion of the Jewish heresies, Philastrius of Brescia identifi es the Messiah of the sect of the “Herodians” with I.9 We thus fi nd ourselves confronted by two Jewish groups in the days of Jesus Christ, both known as “Herodians.” Before we can attempt to identify the “Herodians” of the Gospels, we must fi rst take account of the character of the “Herodians” of the anti-heretical treatises. Let us begin by noting that the sect of the “Herodians” is mentioned only in the three treatises cited above, and that all the later writers who mention this depraved opinion depend directly or indirectly on them.10 As late as the twelfth century, the Treasure of the Faith of Nicetas Acominates condemns this doctrine. But apart from the three authors mentioned here, no other ancient writer against heresies, from Justin and Hegesippus to Pacian and Isidore of Seville, is acquainted with the “Herodians” or their teaching, and no ancient exegete mentions them.11

7 Ps.-Tertullian, Adv. omn. haer. 1: taceo . . . Iudaismi haereticos. Dositheum inquam Samaritanum, qui primus ausus est prophetas quasi non in spiritu sancto locutos repudiare, taceo Sadducaeos, qui ex huius erroris radice surgentes ausi sunt ad hanc haeresim etiam resurrectionem carnis negare, praetermitto Pharisaeos, qui additamenta quaedam legis adstruendo a Iudaeis divisi sunt, unde etiam hoc accipere ipsum quod habent nomen digni fuerunt, cum his etiam Herodianos, qui Christum Herodem esse dixerunt. 8 Cf. n. 42 below. Epiphanius composed this work between 375 and 377 (K. Holl ad p. 153, 1 of his edition of the Panarion). 9 Philastrius, Haeres. 28 (PL 12, 1138): Herodiani sunt ab Herode rege Iudaeorum ita appel- lati. Isti resurrectionem confi tentur, legem et prophetas accipiunt, Herodem autem regem Iudaeorum percussum ab angelo ipsum ut Christum sperantes exspectant. Philastrius’ work was composed between 385 and 391 (M. Schanz and G. Krüger, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur IV, §960), and probably after 388 (A. von Harnack, Marcion, 1924, p. 381 n. 1). For the “Herodians” in the Byzantine formula used by those renouncing Judaism, cf. J. Juster, Les Juifs dans l’Empire Romain I, 1914, p. 117, n. **. 10 The passages about the “Herodians” which I know in the literary compilations are the following: Scholion on Persius, Satir. 5.180, ed. O. John and F. Leo, 4th edn. 1910, p. 54: Herodis ergo diem natalem Herodiani observant aut etiam sabbata; John Damascene, PG 94, 689; Ps.-Jerome, Indiculus de haeresibus 9 (in F. Oehler, Corpus haeresiol. I, p. 281). 11 Justin, Dial. 80 (cf. A. von Harnack, in TU 39/1, pp. 58ff.); Hegesippus, apud Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 4.22,7; Hippolytus, Philos. 9.18,2–29,4; Apostolic Constitutions 6.6–8; Ps.-Clement, Recognitions 1.54 (cf. H. Waitz, ZNW, 1929, p. 264); Ephrem (in Schmidtke, TU 37/1, p. 200); Pacian, Epist. ad Sympron. 1 (PL 13, 1053); Isidore, Etymol. 8.4. Likewise, we fi nd nothing about the Herodians in the Arabic account by Al-Qirsani of the Jewish sects (cf. L. Nemoy in HUCA 7 [1930]), nor in the oriental authors (cf. F. Haase, Altchristliche Kirchengeschichte nach orientalischen Quellen, 1925, pp.

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