Antipas

Antipas is the name of two figures in the New Testament. Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great by his Samaritan wife Malthace, ruled as tetrarch of Galilee and Perea from 4 B.C. to A.D. 39. He is best known for ordering the beheading of John the Baptist at the request of his stepdaughter following John's condemnation of Antipas's marriage to his brother Philip's wife Herodias (Matt. 14:1–12). Jesus referred to him as “that fox” (Luke 13:32), and it was Antipas to whom Pilate sent Jesus for examination during the Passion, an episode Luke alone records (Luke 23:7–12).

The second Antipas is described in Revelation 2:13 as a faithful martyr at Pergamum, “my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.” Church tradition holds that he was roasted to death in a bronze bull during the reign of Domitian, though this cannot be verified from contemporary sources. His mention as a martyr at Pergamum, the seat of emperor worship in Asia Minor, illustrates the cost of Christian faithfulness in the face of Roman imperial religion.