Antipater The Idumaean - Personal Details

Personal Details

Though historians understand that Antipater’s family converted to Judaism in the second century BCE, different stories had circulated in the wake of his sons coming to power. They demonstrate the stiff tensions that existed between the Jewish people and the powerful Idumaeans who appear at this time. One such came from Nicolaus of Damascus, the court historian for Herod, who wrote that Herod’s ancestors were among the historical elite in Jerusalem who had been taken by King Nebuchadnezzar into Babylonian captivity in the sixth century BCE.

This account serves two purposes; when the Persian King Cyrus sent the captives in Babylon back to Judea, it is likely that some chose to settle elsewhere. A legitimate dispersion such as this would shroud the fact that Herod’s ancestry is undocumented in the meticulous records of returned Jewish families. Claiming a heritage among the Jews from as early as the Babylonian captivity provides credibility for a pro-Roman and Hellenized Herod as a King over the Jews, for they were highly contemptuous of him. Josephus explains this rendering by critiquing its author: Nicolaus needed and wrote to please Herod and would do so at the cost of truthfulness.

Instead Josephus explains that Antipater's family converted to Judaism during the forced conversions by the Sadducee-influenced Hasmonean leader John Hyrcanus. Hyrcanus threatened that any Idumeaan who wished to maintain their land would need to be circumcised and enter into the traditions of the Jews. Forcible conversion was not recognized by the dominant Pharisaic tradition, so even though Antipater and Herod the Great may have considered themselves of the Jewish faith, they were not considered Jewish by the observant and nationalist Jews of Judea. This influential family was resented for their Edomite ancestry, their Hellenistic incursions upon Jewish tradition, and their collusion with the Roman invaders.

Antipater married Cypros, a Nabataean noblewoman, which helped endear the Nabateans to him more. Their marriage helped bring about a close friendship between him and the King of the Arabia, Aretas, of whom Cypros is a relation. The two men had such a relationship that Antipater entrusted his children to his friend when he went to war with the Hasmonean Aristobulus II. They had four sons: Phasael, Herod, Joseph, and Pheroras, and a daughter, Salome, one of several Salomes among the Herodians. Antipater also had a brother named Phalion, who was killed in battle against Aristobulus at Papyron.

Before he became involved in the dynastic struggle of the Jewish brothers, Antipater served as a governor of Idumea under King Alexander Jannaeus and Queen Salome Alexandra, the parents of the feuding heirs. Josephus writes that he was a man of great authority among the Idumeans, both wealthy and born into a dignified family. Indeed it is clear in the various forms of assistance that Antipater provides to both Hyrcanus II, brother of Aristobulus, and the Romans, that he possessed great resources, and brilliant military and political capabilities.