Illustration created for this project.
Philip the Tetrarch
A son of Herod the Great, tetrarch of the regions north-east of Galilee, who rebuilt Caesarea Philippi.
What we know — and how we know it
Bible — stated in scripture (with verse) · 1
Archaeology — physical evidence · 1
Ancient writers — non-biblical testimony · 1
Family & lineage
Life, role & deeds
Scan by NYPL — Public domain (via Wikimedia Commons)
Ancient writersJosephus describes Philip as a mild and just ruler who rebuilt Paneas as Caesarea Philippi and the fishing village of Bethsaida as a town named Julias, and who governed his northern tetrarchy for 37 years until his death in AD 34.
Josephus, Antiquities 18.4.6 (§106–108) — mild and just rule, 37-year tetrarchy, death in AD 34; refoundations of Paneas as Caesarea Philippi and Bethsaida as Julias at Antiquities 18.2.1 (§28); cf. Luke 3:1
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ArchaeologyPhilip was the first Jewish ruler to strike coins bearing the portrait of the Roman emperor and the image of a temple — a break with Jewish custom that his surviving coinage from Caesarea Philippi still attests.
Bronze coins of Philip the Tetrarch (Paneas / Caesarea Philippi mint) bearing the portrait of Augustus or Tiberius and a tetrastyle temple facade (the Augusteum at Panias); catalogued in Y. Meshorer, Ancient Jewish Coinage, Vol. II: Herod the Great through Bar Cochba (Dix Hills, NY: Amphora, 1982), and A Treasury of Jewish Coins (Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi / Nyack: Amphora, 2001)
Where in scripture
LukeNow in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,
Luke 3:1 — Tetrarch of Ituraea
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, a public-domain translation.