# Herod’s death leaves a divided succession

Between the Testaments · Draft · BSB

Content revision: 6151684c985e4a9d · No editorial review date recorded

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Date: c. 4 BC · Herod’s death and succession. The conventional 4 BC date is used cautiously. This stop overlaps the opening Gospel narratives.

After Herod dies, competing claims go before Augustus. Josephus describes a settlement that gives Archelaus part of the kingdom as ethnarch and assigns other territories to Antipas and Philip.

Herod’s death is commonly placed in 4 BC, though the chronology is debated. His sons are not interchangeable with their father or with later kings named Herod. Matthew’s opening story begins before this stop; the next era returns to that earlier setting rather than placing Jesus’s birth after Herod’s death.

## Historical sources and canon context

Historical background. The sources below open externally; they are separate from the app’s bundled Bible text. Related Bible passages provide comparison or later context.

[Josephus, Antiquities 17.8.1; 11.4](https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/ant-17.html)

Describes the death, reign lengths and Roman settlement of the succession. Written in the first century AD, looking back on these events.

## Primary Scripture

No primary biblical passage is assigned to this historical-background event. Consult its external sources.

## Related Scripture

These Bible readings are connected by theme or later setting; they are not direct accounts of this historical stop.

[Matthew 2:19–23 · teaching](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%202%3A19%E2%80%9323&version=BSB)

Matthew names Herod’s death and Archelaus’s rule in the return-from-Egypt account; this does not independently establish a BC year.

[Luke 3:1–2 · teaching](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%203%3A1%E2%80%932&version=BSB)

Luke later distinguishes Antipas and Philip within a different political setting.

## Location evidence

Jerusalem and Judea show the community affected; Rome shows imperial arbitration. No exact death chamber, burial route or partition boundaries are drawn.

Event map marker: Identified site; \[longitude, latitude\] = \[35.234167, 31.776667\]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.

Jerusalem: Identified site. Coordinates \[longitude, latitude\]: \[35.234167, 31.776667\]. Classification source: editorial.

[OpenBible.info: Jerusalem (CC BY 4.0)](https://www.openbible.info/geo/ancient/a15257a/jerusalem)

Rome: Identified site. Coordinates \[longitude, latitude\]: \[12.4852, 41.8922\]. Classification source: editorial.

[OpenBible.info: Rome (CC BY 4.0)](https://www.openbible.info/geo/ancient/afc8e7a/rome)

Judea: Approximate region. Coordinates \[longitude, latitude\]: \[35.05, 31.65\]. Classification source: editorial.

Illustrative regional extent: \[\[34.65,31.25\],\[35.5,32\]\]; not a measured confidence interval.

[IAA: historical timeline; extent is an editorial illustration](https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/learn-about-the-scrolls/historical-timeline?locale=en_US)

[OpenBible.info: Jerusalem (CC BY 4.0)](https://www.openbible.info/geo/ancient/a15257a/jerusalem)

## For the class

How can distinguishing the different rulers named Herod help us read the Gospels carefully?

## Interpretation and reuse

Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.

Record source: editorial (content/authored/between-testaments.json)

Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.

Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.

Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm

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