TETRARCH OF ITURAEA AND TRACHONITIS, UNDER ROME · NEW TESTAMENT

Philip the tetrarch. Named once, in Luke's dating of John's preaching.

RULEDi

Not given c. 4 BC – AD 34 (dates vary)

SEAT

Not stated

HOUSE

Herod's family 6th of 17 in Rome

SCRIPTURE SAYS

“In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar", when John began to preach, Philip, Herod's brother…”

PROPHETS

None named

ROME: 17 RULERS HEROD THE GREAT → PORCIUS FESTUS

THE HERODS

Which Herod this is

SUCCESSION

Before and after

WHAT SCRIPTURE SAYS

What Scripture says of him

  • "In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar", when John began to preach, Philip, Herod's brother, was "tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis". Luke 3:1–3
  • From the textThis is the only verse that names him. Scripture records no word or deed of his, and no meeting with Jesus. Luke 3:1

THE KINGDOM

The places Scripture names

Rome. Only places Scripture names are shown, each where the Atlas puts it.

EVENTS

Wars, works and turning points

UNDATED IN SCRIPTURE

THE NATION

What the nation did

  • Scholars' viewSchürer (1890) reports that Philip's coins carry the heads of Augustus and Tiberius and a temple, which he takes to be Herod's temple of Augustus at Paneas, the first likeness of an emperor on the coins of a Jewish prince; he explains it by a population mainly not Jewish.[9]

ON THE WORLD STAGE

The powers of the day

ROME

Tiberius · Augustus

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE · SCHÜRER, 1890

Luke's "Ituraea"

OUTSIDE THE BIBLE · SCHÜRER, 1890

Caesarea Philippi and Bethsaida

DATES DIFFER

When was it?

SCRIPTURE'S NUMBERS

No years given

None. Luke names him in the fifteenth year of Tiberius (Luke 3:1).

SCHÜRER (1890)

c. 4 BC – AD 34[9]

Tetrarch from 4 BC; died in the winter of AD 33/34, in the twentieth year of Tiberius.

August AD 28 to August AD 29

Schürer (1890)

Schürer (1890) reckons Luke's fifteenth year as running from August AD 28 to August AD 29, and so dates John's first preaching then. Luke 3:1 [15]

From late AD 25

W. M. Ramsay (1898)

Counted from the year when Tiberius first shared authority over the provinces with Augustus; Ramsay finds Luke's statements of time then consistent. Luke 3:1 [35]

IN SCRIPTURE

Every passage

CHAPTERS · 1

Luke 3

PASSAGES · 1

Luke 3:1

WHAT SCRIPTURE DOES NOT SAY

  • Only Luke 3:1 names him; Scripture records no word or deed of his.
  • Scripture does not say that Philip built Caesarea Philippi.
  • The "Philip" whose wife Herodias had been (Mark 6:17) is, on most views, a different man.
  • Scripture does not say whether its Bethsaida is the town Philip renamed Julias.

IDENTIFICATIONS THIS PAGE RELIES ON

  • Luke names "his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis", the brother of Herod the tetrarch of Galilee. Luke 3:1

SOURCES

Where this page comes from

  • A. B. Bruce, The Expositor's Greek Testament: Luke (1897), note on Luke 19:12–27 (read on Bible Hub).
  • A. C. McGiffert, Notes to Eusebius, Church History (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 1) (1890), book 2, chapter 10, notes 7 and 8, pp. 111–112.
  • C. J. Ellicott (ed.), A Bible Commentary for English Readers (c. 1878–1884), note on Acts 26:28 (read on Bible Hub).
  • C. J. Ellicott (ed.), A Bible Commentary for English Readers (c. 1878–1884), note on Luke 19:12 (read on Bible Hub).
  • E. Schürer, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, Division I, vol. 1 (tr. J. Macpherson) (1890), §14, p. 393 and note 3 (Herod made king by the Senate).
  • E. Schürer, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, Division I, vol. 1 (tr. J. Macpherson) (1890), §15, pp. 400–401 (heading 'Herod the Great, B.C. 37–4'; sources).
  • E. Schürer, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, Division I, vol. 1 (tr. J. Macpherson) (1890), §15, pp. 409–410 and note 12 (the temple begun in B.C. 20–19).
  • E. Schürer, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, Division I, vol. 1 (tr. J. Macpherson) (1890), §15, pp. 463–466 and note 165 (the last will, death and date).
  • E. Schürer, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, Division I, vol. 2 (tr. J. Macpherson) (1890), §17a, pp. 10–16 (Philip, B.C. 4 – A.D. 34).
  • E. Schürer, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, Division I, vol. 2 (tr. J. Macpherson) (1890), Excursus I, pp. 131–133 (the census and Herod's lifetime).
  • E. Schürer, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, Division I, vol. 2 (tr. J. Macpherson) (1890), §18, pp. 150–165 and notes (Herod Agrippa I, A.D. 37, 40, 41–44).
  • E. Schürer, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, Division I, vol. 2 (tr. J. Macpherson) (1890), §17b, pp. 17–20 (Antipas: title, territory, cities).
  • E. Schürer, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, Division I, vol. 2 (tr. J. Macpherson) (1890), §19 Supplement, pp. 191–206 and notes (Agrippa II, A.D. 50–100).
  • E. Schürer, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, Division I, vol. 2 (tr. J. Macpherson) (1890), §17b, pp. 21–28 and notes (Herodias; John the Baptist).
  • E. Schürer, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, Division I, vol. 2 (tr. J. Macpherson) (1890), §17b, pp. 29–32 (Jesus and Antipas; the chronology).
  • E. Schürer, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, Division I, vol. 2 (tr. J. Macpherson) (1890), §17b, pp. 32–38 and notes (Aretas; banishment).
  • E. Schürer, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, Division I, vol. 2 (tr. J. Macpherson) (1890), Appendix II, pp. 356–358 (Aretas IV, B.C. 9 – A.D. 40).
  • E. Schürer, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, Division I, vol. 2 (tr. J. Macpherson) (1890), §17c, pp. 38–42 and notes (Archelaus, B.C. 4 – A.D. 6).
  • Eusebius, tr. A. C. McGiffert, Church History (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 1) (1890), 2.10.1–10, pp. 111–112.
  • F. W. Farrar, The Gospel according to St Luke (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) (1880), note on Luke 19:12 (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. A. W. Meyer, Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the Acts of the Apostles (English translation) (1877–1879), note on Acts 23:35 (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. A. W. Meyer, Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the Acts of the Apostles (English translation) (1877–1879), note on Acts 26:28 (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. A. W. Meyer, Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the Gospels of Mark and Luke (English translation) (1880), note on Luke 19:12–13 (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. A. W. Meyer, Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the Gospels of Mark and Luke (English translation) (1880), note on Mark 6:14 (read on Bible Hub).
  • H. D. M. Spence and J. S. Exell (eds.), The Pulpit Commentary (quoting F. W. Farrar, The Life of Christ, 1874) (1880–1897), note on Matt 2:16 (read on Bible Hub).
  • J. A. Bengel, Gnomon of the New Testament (Latin 1742; English translation) (1742), note on Acts 26:28 (read on Bible Hub).
  • J. R. Lumby, The Acts of the Apostles (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) (1882), note on Acts 26:28 (read on Bible Hub).
  • John Gill, An Exposition of the New Testament (1746–1748), note on Acts 26:28 (read on Bible Hub).
  • John Gill, An Exposition of the New Testament (1746–1748), note on Matt 2:16 (read on Bible Hub).
  • M. R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887), note on Acts 23:35 (read on Bible Hub).
  • Macrobius (Latin text, ed. L. von Jan), Saturnalia (1852), 2.4.11 (our translation of the Latin).
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1683–1685), note on Acts 23:35 (read on Bible Hub).
  • R. Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and D. Brown, A Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Whole Bible (1871), note on Acts 26:28 (read on Bible Hub).
  • Suetonius, tr. J. C. Rolfe, The Lives of the Caesars: Titus (1914), Titus 7.1–2.
  • W. M. Ramsay, Was Christ Born at Bethlehem? (1898), pp. 201, 219–221, 245.

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