Les conséquences politiques de la contestation prophétique d’Hérode Antipas par Jean le Baptiseur

Abstract

The synoptic gospels mention John the Baptizer’s criticism of the tetrarch Antipas regarding his marriage to his sister-in-law Herodias. The killing of John on the order of Antipas shows that the latter took very seriously this contestation related to him. This decision is guided by two main factors. First, a comparison of John with other popular first-century bce prophets identified by Flavius Josephus reveals that the eschatological character of his deed, inspired by the national tradition and whose impact on the local population was far from negligible, was inevitably to come up against the philhellenism of Antipas. Then, the tetrarch could not risk that John’s challenge would destabilize public order in his land when he was charged by Rome to ensure peace, as his father Herod before him, on the eastern border, at a moment when relations with the Parthians and Nabataeans were strained.