Tetrarch
A title meaning "ruler of a fourth part."
Sometimes is translated "king." Four members of the Herod family named in the New
Testament were Roman tetrarchs (Acts 12:1-2). Herod the Great (Matthew 2) was tetrarch before
he was king according to the Jewish historian Josephus; his son Herod Antipas called
"Herod the Tetrarch" (Matthew 14:1, Acts 13:1); Herod Philip, the brother of Antipas (Mark 6:17);
and Lysanius, tetrarch of Abilene (Luke 3:1). A tetrarch's privileges and power were
royal, but inferior to those of a real king or emperor.
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