All corrections
Wikipedia September 7, 2026 at 12:48 AM

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_the_Great

3 corrections found

1
Claim
According to Josephus, Herod was a descendant of Eleazar Maccabeus (Auran) of the Hasmoneans, making him half-Jewish.
Correction

Josephus does not describe Herod as descended from Eleazar Maccabeus. In Josephus, Herod’s paternal line is Idumaean/Edomite, and Josephus explicitly rejects Nicholas of Damascus’s alternative claim of Babylonian-Jewish ancestry.

Full reasoning

This sentence misstates Josephus.

In Antiquities 14, Josephus introduces Herod’s father Antipater as "an Idumean" and says Nicholas of Damascus claimed descent from Jews who came from Babylon "but that assertion ... was to gratify Herod"—i.e., Josephus does not endorse that alternative genealogy. Josephus then continues by tracing Antipater through his father Antipas, an Idumaean notable.

A standard reference work summarizing Josephus makes the same point explicitly: "Josephus states that Antipater I belonged to a distinguished Edomite family" and says Nicholas of Damascus’s Jewish-descent claim "is denied by Josephus."

So the article’s wording is incorrect in two ways:

  1. It attributes to Josephus a genealogy from Eleazar Maccabeus / the Hasmoneans that Josephus does not give.
  2. It says this made Herod "half-Jewish," whereas Josephus’ own presentation is that Herod’s paternal family was Idumaean/Edomite and that claims of Jewish ancestry were later apologetic claims, not Josephus’ accepted genealogy.
3 sources
  • Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 14, section 8

    "But there was a certain friend of Hyrcanus, an Idumean, called Antipater... It is true that Nicolaus of Damascus says, that Antipater was of the stock of the principal Jews who came out of Babylon into Judea; but that assertion of his was to gratify Herod..."

  • Antipater II or Antipas | Encyclopedia.com

    "Josephus states that Antipater I belonged to a distinguished Edomite family... The statement of the historian, Nicholas of Damascus, that the family was descended from Jews who had returned from the Babylonian Exile is denied by Josephus."

  • Herod - Encyclopedia of The Bible - Bible Gateway

    "The first of the Herodian dynasty was Antipater... Josephus considered him an Idumean by race... Antipater married a woman named Cypros, of an illustrious Arabian... by whom he had four sons: Phasael, Herod, Joseph, Pheroras, and a daughter, Salome."

2
Claim
At Rhodes in 31 BCE, Herod, through his ability to keep Judea open to Rome as a link to the wealth of Syria and Egypt, and ability to defend the frontier, convinced Octavian that he would be loyal to him.
Correction

Herod’s audience with Octavian at Rhodes is generally dated to spring 30 BCE, after the 31 BCE battle of Actium—not to 31 BCE itself.

Full reasoning

The year in this sentence is off by one.

Reference works and chronologies place Herod’s trip to Rhodes after Actium, in 30 BCE. The Encyclopedia of the Bible dates it to "spring, 30 b.c." Likewise, Attalus’ year-by-year ancient chronology lists "Herodes meets Octavianus in Rhodes" under 30 B.C.

So while the meeting at Rhodes did happen, dating it to 31 BCE is incorrect; the encounter is placed in 30 BCE.

3 sources
3
Claim
Salome I was also given a small toparchy in the Gaza region.
Correction

Josephus does not place Salome’s bequest simply in the Gaza region. He says she received Jamnia, Ashdod/Azotus, and Phasaelis—and Phasaelis was in the Jordan Valley north of Jericho.

Full reasoning

This compresses Salome’s inheritance into the wrong geography.

Josephus says that Salome received Jamnia, Ashdod/Azotus, and Phasaelis. That already shows the territory was not just a single small holding "in the Gaza region." More importantly, Phasaelis was a Herodian estate in the Jordan Valley north of Jericho, far from Gaza.

So the statement is geographically inaccurate: Salome’s holdings were a set of towns/estates including one in the Jordan Valley, not merely a toparchy "in the Gaza region."

3 sources
Model: OPENAI_GPT_5 Prompt: v1.16.0