Philip the Tetrarch

Biblical Record

Philip was a son of Herod the Great. After his father's death the kingdom was divided into three parts, and Philip received the territory northeast of the Sea of Galilee. His title, tetrarch, denotes a regional ruler to whom Rome entrusted a portion of a kingdom. The only passage in Scripture that names him directly is Luke 3:1. In dating the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist, this verse records that Philip was "tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis."

Elsewhere in the biblical text he appears only in the name of the city he founded. He rebuilt Paneas (Banias) at the foot of Mount Hermon and named it Caesarea in honor of the Roman emperor. To distinguish it from Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast, the city was called "Philip's Caesarea," that is, Caesarea Philippi. It was in this region that Peter confessed Jesus as the Christ (Matthew 16:13–20; Mark 8:27–30). The first-century Jewish historian Josephus reports that Philip developed Bethsaida into a city and named it Julias.

Significance in the Bible

Luke lists Philip alongside the emperor Tiberius, Pontius Pilate, and Herod Antipas. In doing so, he situates the gospel events at a specific point in history. The area around Caesarea Philippi, where Jesus stayed after leaving Galilee, belonged to Philip's territory. For this reason, some interpreters note that it lay outside the jurisdiction of Antipas. Scholars, however, differ on the exact location of Bethsaida.

Interpretations and Issues

• Is he the same person as Herodias's first husband? Matthew 14:3 and Mark 6:17 record that Herod Antipas took Herodias, "his brother Philip's wife," as his own wife. Josephus, however, calls Herodias's first husband "Herod," another half-brother, and reports that Philip the Tetrarch married Salome, the daughter of Herodias. Many scholars therefore regard the two as different individuals and commonly refer to Herodias's first husband as "Herod Philip." Some hold that this man also bore the name Philip, while others see a discrepancy between the Gospels and Josephus. For further details, see the article Herodias and Salome.
• Distinction from other Philips: He is a different person from Philip, one of the twelve disciples, and from Philip the evangelist in the book of Acts; they merely share the same name.
• Accounts outside the Bible: The assessment that he ruled with moderation and the account that, after he died childless, his territory was annexed by Rome and later transferred to Agrippa I both come from Josephus. They do not appear in the biblical text. His death is generally dated to the mid-30s AD.

In the Korean Church

Denominations differ little in their interpretation of this figure, and sermons that focus on him are rare. He is mentioned chiefly when preachers explain the place name Caesarea Philippi in passages on Peter's confession of faith. He is also introduced in expositions of the death of John the Baptist, in order to distinguish him from Herodias's first husband. Because many Holy Land pilgrimage itineraries to Israel include a visit to the ruins of Caesarea Philippi (Banias), his name is sometimes mentioned there as the founder of the city.