The Apostolic Age · AD 4–70 · External witness
Herod Archelaus
23 BC – c. AD 18 (deposed AD 6) · Ethnarch of Judaea, Samaria and Idumaea (4 BC – AD 6) · Jerusalem → exile in Gaul
External witness
Who Herod Archelaus was
Son of Herod the Great, and the reason the Holy Family settled in Galilee rather than Judaea. Matthew says plainly that Joseph, returning from Egypt, **“heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod”** and was afraid to go there — so he turned aside into Galilee and to Nazareth. He is named once, and the whole point of the naming is that he was worse than the alternative.
He ruled as ethnarch, never king, for ten years. Josephus records that he opened his reign by killing some three thousand in the Temple courts at Passover, and that a joint embassy of Jews and Samaritans eventually brought Augustus to depose and banish him.
**His deposition in AD 6 is the hinge of the census problem.** It is the moment Judaea passed to direct Roman administration, and Josephus dates Quirinius’s legateship and assessment to exactly that transition. Anyone weighing Luke 2:2 is weighing the ten years between Herod’s death and this man’s removal.
**He is a different man from Archelaus of Carrhae**, the fourth-century bishop this archive also holds — a distinction worth stating, since a search for the name finds the wrong one first.
Also listed in non-christian witnesses.
Common questions
When did Herod Archelaus live?
Herod Archelaus is dated 23 BC – c. AD 18 (deposed AD 6) in the archive, which places Herod Archelaus in the Apostolic Age (AD 4–70). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.
Which early sources mention Herod Archelaus?
Herod Archelaus is named in 2 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Matthew and Flavius Josephus. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was Herod Archelaus from?
The archive associates Herod Archelaus with Jerusalem, exile in Gaul. The sources record more than one location, so the places are listed in the order the record moves through them.
Who were Herod Archelaus’ contemporaries?
The archive links Herod Archelaus to 5 other figures, including Herod the Great, Herod Antipas, Quirinius (Cyrenius) and Caesar Augustus. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.
Scripture record
Primary-source mentions (2)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Matthew 2:22–23
c. AD 1But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee: and he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth.Matthew · read ↗
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews XVII–XVIII
c. AD 94[Josephus records the accession, the killing in the Temple courts at Passover at the outset of the reign, the embassies to Augustus, and the deposition and banishment to Vienne in Gaul in the tenth year — AD 6. He then places Quirinius’s arrival in Syria and the assessment of Judaea at that same transition, which is why this reign’s end is the hinge of the difficulty at Luke 2:2.]Flavius Josephus · Antiquities XVII.ix–xiii, XVIII.i · source text
Josephus, *Antiquities of the Jews* — held in this library. English: William Whiston (1737), public domain.
Connected in the archive
People
Place
Places served
The one place the sources put Herod Archelaus.