Lives of Scripture

Archelaus was the son of Herod the Great, named in his father's will to succeed him, though Rome only ever confirmed him as ethnarch of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea rather than granting the full title of king his father had held. Matthew's Gospel names him just once: after Joseph brought Mary and the child Jesus back from Egypt following Herod's death, "he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there; and being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee" (Matthew 2:22). Joseph's fear was well founded -- ancient historians record that Archelaus began his rule with a massacre in the Jerusalem temple and governed so brutally that Rome deposed and exiled him within a decade, a reputation Matthew's original readers would likely have recognized. Guided again by a dream, Joseph settled instead in Nazareth of Galilee, a move Matthew notes fulfilled the prophetic expectation that the Messiah would be called a Nazarene (2:23). Archelaus takes no direct action toward Jesus in the text; his significance is entirely as the danger Joseph's family had to route around. His brief, ominous appearance marks one more way that from infancy, Jesus's path unfolded under the shadow of hostile political power -- and one more way God's providence steered the holy family safely through it.