Phasa'el

Phasaelis also Phaisael and Pasi` el (1st-century) was a princess of Nabatea, daughter of king Aretas IV Philopatris and wife of Herod Antipas.

Life

Phasaelis was born to the king of the Nabateans Aretas IV Philopatris and his first wife and co-ruler ,Chuldu, (possibly a daughter[1] of Aretes IV predecessor Obodas III.) Inscriptions on a limestone block near Wadi Musa in Jordan indicates that Phasaelis was the fourth child, but the eldest of the couples daughters.[2]

There has been coins found with the profile of her father Aretas IV on the obverse and inscribed on the reverse with Phasaelis name[3] which could indicate her birth to be 3-5 BC.

Her siblings were ; Malichus, Obodas, Rabbel, Shu`dat and Hagera.[2]

Drachma with Phasaelis parents Aretas IV and Huldu

She was married in 7 or 6 BC going by the tentative dating of the coins with her name on it, Phasaelis would have been around 11–12 years old[3][4]) when she was married to prince Herod Antipas, whose own paternal grandmother, Cypros had been a Nabatean princess. There is a high likelihood that the marriage had been if not arranged by the emperor Augustus[5] then at least heavily influenced by his political policy, as he wanted the vassals of the Roman empire to keep the peace between their kingdoms through intermarriage. This had been the case of Herod Antipas paternal aunt Salome I.[6] The marriage thus ensured there would be no attacks of the eastern border territory of Perea by the Nabateans.

Phasaelis and Herod Antipas were married for over 20 years, but there were no recorded children of this marriage ,and neither did Herod Antipas take any other wives, nor can any children of Herod Antipas himself be attested for with any certainty.

Some researchers has put forth a theory of the existence of daughter of Herod Antipas and his first wife who would have been named Herodias II Salome[7][4] as an attempt to reconcile some dating inconsistencies and explain why Salome, Herod Antipas stepdaughter is sometimes referred to as his daughter.

In 23 AD Herod Antipas was visiting his half-brother Herod II who was at the time living in Rome as a private citizen. During his stay he became enamored with his brothers wife Herodias. Herodias subsequently divorced Herod II under the Roman law.

The exact marriage date of Herod Antipas and Herodias is unknown but in 26 AD Phasaelis found out about the relationship and discovered Herod Antipas intention to divorce her.

The texts uses the terms divorce and repudiation interchangeably, but according to the Talmudic law a husband could repudiate his wife and they were no longer married(with the option of later accepting her as his wife again) ,but a wife could only ask for divorce and it was to the husband if he would allow it a divorce to go through.[8] The Herodian dynasty however were heavily influenced by Roman law and culture , and so Herod Antipas might have been planning to divorce Phasaelis according to the Roman customs.

Phasaelis then used the pretext of wanting to go to the palace of Macaherus situated by the Dead Sea.[9][10] Phasaelis then fled across the border to her father whom she told that her husband intended to divorce her in order to marry Herodias.[11] This caused a personal grievance between her former spouse and her father. Aretas IV invaded with his armies and defeated his former son-in law in battle in 36 AD.

After this date there is no mention of Phasaelis and the rest of her life remains unknown.

See Also

List of biblical figures identified in extra-biblical sources

In Media

Elbridge Streeter Brooks wrote a historical romance A Son of Issachar-A Romance of the Days of Messias (1890) where Herods repudiated wife appears as a character named "Princess Amina"

Phasaelis appears a supporting character in The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd

Phaselis appears briefly as a non-speaking character in the tv movie Mary Magdalene (2000) ,played by an uncredited actress.

References

  1. ↑ Sánchez, Francisco del Río (2015-12-04). Nabatu. The Nabataeans through their inscriptions. Edicions Universitat Barcelona. p. 88. ISBN 978-84-475-3748-8.
  2. 1 2 Alpass, Peter (2013-06-13). The Religious Life of Nabataea. BRILL. p. 92. ISBN 978-90-04-21623-5.
  3. 1 2 Hayajneh, Hani (2024-01-15). Cultural Heritage: At the Intersection of the Humanities and the Sciences. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 292. ISBN 978-3-643-91252-7.
  4. 1 2 Kokkinos, Nikos (1998). The Herodian Dynasty: Origins, Role in Society and Eclipse. Sheffield Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-85075-690-3.
  5. ↑ Tomasino, Anthony J. (2011-05-13). The World of Jesus. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 65. ISBN 978-1-60899-137-2.
  6. ↑ Freedman, David Noel (2019-02-28). Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4674-6046-0.
  7. ↑ Neginsky, Rosina (2014-10-16). Salome: The Image of a Woman Who Never Was; Salome. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-4438-6962-1.
  8. ↑ Bo, Federico Dal (2023-11-17). Judaism, Philosophy, and Psychoanalysis in Heidegger's Ontology: Harrowing the Heath. Springer Nature. pp. 98–99. ISBN 978-3-031-44056-4.
  9. ↑ Lewin, Thomas (1865). Fasti Sacri: Or a Key to the Chronology of the New Testament. Longmans, Green & Company. p. 186.
  10. ↑ Josephus, Flavius (1988). The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged. Hendrickson Publishers. ISBN 978-1-56563-780-1.
  11. ↑ Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 18.4.6, 18.5.1, and 18.5.4
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