Person New Testament
Archelaus
Archelaus, son of Herod the Great, Ethnarch over Judea, causing Joseph to fear returning there with Mary and the child Jesus. Mentioned once in Scripture, at Matthew 2:22.
Why it matters. Son of Herod the Great, Ethnarch of Judea
- Primary passages
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-30 by the FaithGraph team
About Archelaus
Archelaus was the son of Herod the Great, who ruled as king over Judea at the time of Jesus' birth. After Herod's death, his kingdom was divided among his sons, with Archelaus receiving the rule over Judea, Samaria, and Idumea. However, Archelaus' reign was marked by cruelty and tyranny, leading to his eventual banishment by the Roman emperor.
In the context of Jesus' early life, Archelaus is mentioned in Mat.2.22. After the visit of the magi and the family's flight to Egypt, Joseph was warned in a dream not to return to Judea because Archelaus was ruling there in place of his father Herod. Fearing for the child's safety, Joseph instead took Mary and Jesus to the region of Galilee, settling in Nazareth. This decision, guided by divine intervention, led to the fulfillment of the prophecy that the Messiah would be called a Nazarene.
Description from STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, lightly reformatted. This is background reference material, not Scripture and not a FaithGraph editorial claim.
Connections
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Family
Family links from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0). Where the dataset marks an identification as uncertain, the mark is kept. Matthew and Luke give different genealogies for Jesus; see the Lineage page, which never merges them.
- Parents
- Herod the Great
- Siblings
- Herod AntipasPhilipPhilip
Appears in Scripture
Named in 1 verse across 1 book. Occurrence data from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0); references only, no translation text.
Matthew (1 verse)