Founder of the Herodian Dynasty

Antipater I the Idumaean was the founder of the Herodian dynasty and father of Herod the Great. According to Josephus, he was the son of Antipas and had formerly held that name. A native of Idumaea (a region southeast of Judah in which the Edomites settled during the classical period) Antipater became a powerful official under the later Hasmonean kings and subsequently became a client of Roman General Pompey when Pompey conquered Judah in the name of the Roman Republic.

Though historians understand that Antipater's family had converted to Judaism in the second century BC, different stories circulated in the wake of his sons coming to power. They demonstrate the tensions that existed between the Jewish people and the powerful Edomites who appear at this time. Nicolaus of Damascus, the court historian for Herod the Great, wrote that Herod's ancestors were among the historical elite in Jerusalem who had been taken by King Nebuchadnezzar into Babylonian captivity in the sixth century BC. This account serves two purposes; when the Persian King Cyrus sent the captives in Babylon back to Judea, it is likely that some chose to settle elsewhere. A legitimate dispersion such as this would shroud the fact that Herod's ancestry is undocumented in the meticulous records of returned Jewish families. Claiming a heritage among the Jews from as early as the Babylonian captivity provides credibility for a pro-Roman and Hellenized Herod as a king over the Jews, for they were highly contemptuous of him. Josephus explains this rendering by critiquing its author: Nicolaus wrote to please Herod and would do so at the cost of truthfulness.

Instead Josephus explains that Antipater's family converted to Judaism during the forced conversions by the Sadducee-influenced Hasmonean leader John Hyrcanus. Hyrcanus threatened that any Idumaean who wished to maintain their land would need to be circumcised and enter into the traditions of the Jews. Josephus acknowledges Herod as being "by birth a Jew" and Antipater as being "of the same people" with the Jews. Nevertheless, this influential family came to be resented by many Jews for their Edomite ancestry, a fact used by the Hasmoneans and their supporters against them. As such, in a polemic against Herod to discredit him in the eyes of the Romans as unfit to become king of the Jews, Antigonus the Hasmonean is quoted by Josephus as referring to Herod as "no more than a private man, and an Idumean, i.e. a half Jew".

Early Church Fathers often portray Herod polemically, and as such, their accounts of his familial origin reflected poetic license in place of historical accuracy. According to Sextus Julius Africanus, Antipater's father was named Herod, not Antipas, Epiphanius of Salamis furthered this claim by writing Antipas was the name of this Herod's father. Neither of these genealogies are accepted by scholars. Per Africanus, Antipater was a hierodule of Apollo at a temple in Ashkelon where his father served as priest. To explain Antipater's Idumaean character, Africanus claims Antipater was kidnapped by the Idumeans, and following his father's failure to pay ransom, he was taken down to Idumaea proper where he was raised in the teachings of Judaism.

Antipater married Cypros, a Nabataean noblewoman, which helped endear the Nabateans to him. Their marriage helped bring about a close friendship between him and King Aretas to whom Cypros was related. The two men had such a relationship that Antipater entrusted his children to his friend when he went to war with the Hasmonean Aristobulus II. They had four sons: Phasael, Herod, Joseph, and Pheroras, and a daughter, Salome, one of several Salomes among the Herodians. Antipater also had a brother named Phalion, who was killed in battle against Aristobulus at Papyron.

Antipater served as a governor of Idumea under King Alexander Jannaeus and Queen Salome Alexandra, the parents of the feuding heirs. Josephus writes that he was a man of great authority among the Idumeans, both wealthy and born into a dignified family. Indeed, it is clear in the various forms of assistance that Antipater provides to both Hyrcanus II, brother of Aristobulus, and the Romans, that he possessed great resources and brilliant military and political capabilities.