Greek word · G2266

Ἡρωδιάς

hērōdias

Herodias

A personal name, the feminine form of 'Herod'. It was carried by women of the Herodian royal family. The best-known bearer is Herodias, granddaughter of Herod the Great. She first married her uncle Herod (called 'Philip' in Mark 6:17) and later left him to marry another uncle, Herod Antipas.

Appears 6 times in 6 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

Ἡρῳδιάς (Rec. Ἡρω-), -άδος, ἡ

Herodias, granddaughter of Herod the Great: Matthew 14:3, 6, Mark 6:17, 19 6:22, Luke 3:19.†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Mark 6:22

Range of meaning

A personal name, the feminine form of 'Herod'. It was carried by women of the Herodian royal family. The best-known bearer is Herodias, granddaughter of Herod the Great. She first married her uncle Herod (called 'Philip' in Mark 6:17) and later left him to marry another uncle, Herod Antipas.

Against the English

Most English versions say 'the daughter of Herodias' (KJV, BSB, NIV, ESV), or more pointedly 'the daughter of Herodias herself' (WEB, older NASB). Versions that follow the oldest manuscripts closely have 'his daughter Herodias' (NRSV), and NLT explains it as 'his daughter, also named Herodias.' Popular retellings call her Salome, a name Mark never uses.

How it drifted

The name Salome comes from Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian. He says Herodias's daughter by her first husband was named Salome (Antiquities 18.136). Readers merged that with the Gospel story, and art and drama fixed the name in place.

Used elsewhere in the period

Josephus, Antiquities 18.109–119 (Antipas's marriage to Herodias and the killing of John) and 18.136–137 (Herodias's daughter Salome, who married Philip the tetrarch). Manuscripts: ‘αὐτοῦ Ἡρῳδιάδος’ in Sinaiticus (א), Vaticanus (B), Bezae (D), L, Δ, 565; ‘αὐτῆς τῆς Ἡρῳδιάδος’ in A, C, Θ, f13 and the Byzantine majority; ‘τῆς Ἡρῳδιάδος’ in f1. Metzger's Textual Commentary says the committee printed αὐτοῦ while admitting the difficulty.

Similar words

Where it appears

Matthew · 2

  1. Matthew 14:3 Ἡρῳδιάδα Herodias

    Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife,

    Here: Herodias, granddaughter of Herod the Great. That made her a niece of Antipas and of her first husband. Her name is the feminine form of 'Herod'.

  2. Matthew 14:6 Ἡρῳδιάδος of Herodias

    On Herod’s birthday, however, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod

    Here: 'Of Herodias.' Tying the girl to her mother rather than to Herod points back to the illegal marriage John had condemned (14:3–4) and forward to the mother's prompting (14:8).

Mark · 3

  1. Mark 6:17 Ἡρῳδιάδα Herodias

    For Herod himself had ordered that John be arrested and bound and imprisoned, on account of his brother Philip’s wife Herodias, whom Herod had married.

  2. Mark 6:19 Ἡρῳδιὰς Herodias

    So Herodias held a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she had been unable,

  3. Mark 6:22 Ἡρῳδιάδος Herodias

    When the daughter of Herodias came and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests, and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.”

    Here: With αὐτοῦ this reads as the girl's own name: 'his daughter Herodias.' With the later reading it names her mother: 'the daughter of Herodias.' Mark never calls her Salome.

Luke · 1

  1. Luke 3:19 Ἡρῳδιάδος Herodias

    But when he rebuked Herod the tetrarch regarding his brother’s wife Herodias and all the evils he had done,

    Here: Granddaughter of Herod the Great. She was the niece of both her first husband and Antipas. She left her first husband, who was still alive, to marry Antipas.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.