institution · I0053
Beit Hordos בית הורדוס
The Idumean house of Herod, client rulers under Rome: Herod's kingdom, then the divided tetrarchies of his sons, briefly reunited under his grandson Agrippa I, ending with Agrippa II, who died childless around the turn of the second century. It rebuilt the Temple in splendor and watched Rome burn it. Its rulers carry reign-roles here; the dynasty's legitimacy was contested from the start — the Bavli calls Herod a slave of the Hasmonean house.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- בית הורדוס
- Also known as
- Herodian dynasty, House of Herod
- Era
- second-temple
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3724–3860 AM (Herod's conquest of Jerusalem to the death of Agrippa II)
- Academic
- 37 BCE – c. 100 CE
- Duration
- ≈136 years
- Precision
- approximate
III. Where
- Places
- Jerusalem
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Herod was a slave of the house of the Chashmonaim" who seized the kingship — the Bavli's account of the dynasty's origin, told with the killing of the sages and of the last Hasmonean claimants.
The Bavli's narrative differs in detail from Josephus, for whom Herod is the son of the Idumean minister Antipater; both agree he was no Hasmonean.
|
rabbinic | ★★★★☆ | |
| "Whoever has not seen Herod's building has never seen a beautiful building in his life" — the Bavli on the rebuilt Temple, the dynasty's great public work. | rabbinic | ★★★★★ | |
| Josephus documents the house throughout: Herod made king by the Roman senate (40 BCE), the kingdom divided among his sons by Augustus, reunited under Agrippa I (41–44 CE), and Agrippa II ruling northern territories with custody of the Temple until his death without heirs. | external | ★★★★☆ | |
| The AM band is schematic: 37 BCE and c. 100 CE mapped onto the atlas timeline at AM ≈ 3760 − BCE / 3760 + CE; the end point follows the disputed date of Agrippa II's death (c. 92–100 CE). | reconstruction | ★★☆☆☆ |