HERODIANS (he- ro'di-anz), (Gr. 'lliudotavol, hay-ro-dee-an-oy'), a class of Jews that existed in the time of Jesus Christ, whether of a political or religious description it is not easy, for want of materials, to determine.
The p.assages of the New Testament which re fer to them are the following (Mark iii :6; xii 23; Matt. xxii :16; Luke xx :20). The particulars are these : The ecclesiastical authorities of Judma having failed to entrap Jesus by demanding the authority by which he did his wonderful works, especially as seen in his expurgation of the tem ple; and being incensed in consequence of the parable spoken against them, namely, 'A certain man planted a vineyard,' etc., held a council against him, and associating with themselves the Herodians, sent an embassy to our Lord with the express but covert design of ensnaring him in his speech, that thus they might compass his destruc tion. The question they put to him was one of the most difficult—'Is it lawful to pay tribute to Cmsar?' The way in which Jesus extricated him self from the difficulty and discomfited his ene mies is well known.
Do these circumstances afford any light as to what was the precise character of the Herodians? Whatever decision on this point may be arrived at, the general import of the transaction is very clear, and of a character highly honorable to Jesus. That his enemies were actuated by bad faith, and came with false pretenses, might also be safely inferred. Luke, however, makes an ex press statement to this effect, saying (xx :i8-2o), 'they sought to lay hands on him; and they feared the people; and they watched him, and sent forth spies which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him unto the power and au thority of the governor.' The aim, then, was to embroil our Lord with the Romans. For this purpose the question put •had been cunningly chosen. These appear to have been the several feelings whose toils were around Jesus—the hatred of the priests, the favor of the people towards himself, and their aversion to the dominion of the Romans, their half faith in him as the Messiah, which would probably be converted into the vex ation and rage of disappointment, should he ap prove the payment of tribute to Rome; another element of difficulty had in the actual case been deliberately provided—the presence of the He rodians. Altogether the scene was most perplex ing, the trial most perilous. But what additional
difficulty did the Herodians bring? Herod An tipas was now tetrarch of Galilee and Perma, which was the only inheritance he received from his father Herod the Great. As tetrarch of Galilee he was specially the ruler of Jesus, whose home was in that province. The Herodians then 'nay have been subjects of Herod, Galilmans, whose evidence the priests were wishful to pro cure, because theirs would he the evidence of fel low-countrymen, and of special force with Antipas as being that of his own immediate subjects (Luke xxiii :7).
Herod's relations with Rome were in an unsafe condition. He was a weak prince, given to ease and luxury, and his wife's ambition conspired with his own desires to make him strive to obtain from the Emperor Caligula the title of king. For this purpose he took a journey to Rome, and was banished to Lyons in Gaul.
The Herodians may have been favorers of his pretensions: .if so, they would be partial hearers, and eager witnesses against Jesus before the Ro man tribunal. It would be a great service to the Romans to be the means of enabling them to get rid of one who aspired to be king of the Jews. It would.equally gratify their own lord, should the Herodians give effectual aid in putting a period to the mysterious yet formidable claims of a rival claimant of the crown.
We do not see that the two characters here ascribed to the Herodians are incompatible; and if they were a Galilman political party who were eager to procure from Rome the honor of royalty for Herod (Mark vi :4, the name of king is merely as of courtesy), they were chosen as asso ciates by the Sanhedrim with especial propriety.
The deputation were to 'feign themselves just nien,' that is, men whose sympathies were entirely Jewish, and, as such, anti-heathen : they were to intimate their dislike of paying tribute, as being an acknowledgment of a foreign yoke; and by flattering Jesus, as one who loved truth, feared no man, and would say what he thought, they meant to inveigle him into a condemnatio.n of the practice. In order to carry these base and hypo critical designs into effect, the Herodians were ap propriately associated with the Pharisees; for as the latter were the recognized conservators of Judaism, so the former were friends of the ag grandizement of a native as against a foreign prince. J. R. B.