ARISTOBULUS
Aristobulus and Salome,NO KNOWN DATE Bronze.
ΒΑCΙΛΕΩC ΑΡΙCΤΟ- ΒΟΥΛΟΥ, (King Aristobulus)
rev. ΒΑΙCΙΛΙCCΗC CΑΛΩΜΗC, (Queen Salome)
(Imhoof, Por- trätköpfe, Pl. VI. 21 and 22).
name: Aristobulus Julius Agrippa
born: ?
died: ?
mother: Miriam
father: Herod the Great
siblings: Alexander, Antipas, Archelaeus, Philip
offspring: Marcus, Berenice
The role of Marcus' father in the narrative is perhaps the most interesting of all. While his mother Salome took on "otherworldly" significance, Aristobulus made his impression on little Mark through being an absentee father. According to the underlying premise of the Gospel of Me, Mark develops his doctrine of "God the Father" owing to Aristobulus abandoning him at a young age. This is turned around as a great blessing through a consistent pattern of logic. It is better not only to be weak rather than strong, poor rather than rich, ugly rather than beautiful etc. Best of all is to divorce yourself from your earthly father owing to the opening it leaves for the Father in heaven to adopt you in his place.
PROOF THAT MARK'S FATHER WAS ARISTOBULUS
There are essentially three lines of proof which work to secure this understanding - the rabbinic and Coptic religious traditions and the testimony of Josephus. The Seder HaDoros identifies Aristobulus as the father of Marcus Agrippa. Similarly the Coptic tradition says that Aristobulous was the father of Mark. The surviving texts of Josephus only says that Agrippa was the father of Agrippa without even giving us so much of a glimmer of what the first names of "Agrippa I" and "Agrippa II."
It is very clear that the surviving texts of Josephus were "corrected" when they passed through the hands of European Christians. The idea is first taken up in the fifteenth century by the influential Jewish rabbi Abarnabel (who happens to be one of the leading proponents of Agrippa as the messiah of Daniel 9:24 - 27). Whether or not the two are directly related the fact is that at its most basic the idea that two "Agrippas" existed as influential father and son figures in Palestine cannot be doubted. The real question must be why it is that all surviving traditions which refer to either figure necessarily identify them by means other than their first names.
Interestingly an inscription found in Athens (OGIS 428 = IG II/III) speaks of "Iulius Agrippa" as the father of Berenice but his first name has been effaced. Similar finds are identified elsewhere. It is quite curious that every single known reference to the father and son "Agrippa pair" almost inevitably avoid refering to them by their actual names. Instead they choose the ambiguous method of calling both of them by their shared last names - even when the two are mentioned side by side.
All of this brings us to the topic of adulteration in Josephus. The surviving texts make it appear as if Aristobulus and Alexander the two eldest sons of Herod the Great were killed by their father before the dawn of the Common Era. If this were true then Marcus Agrippa's father could not be named Aristobulus; we would have to accept the existence of yet another Herodian brother to that of Aristbulus, Alexander, Archelaus, Antipas and Philip - something which is perfectly ridiculous.
The fact is that it is all too clear that Christian editor of Josephus has deliberately transposed the original chronology of Herod's assassination of Aristobulus and Alexander; it is the accompanying context of Aretas the Arabian king's invasion of Syria which is the key here. When the reader looks closely in our surviving texts of Josephus we now have two "Herods" living in two different ages with two different Arabian kings named Aretas who engage in the same war at the time "Herod" killed the two Herodian brothers.
What I am suggesting of course is that the Herodian king Aristobulus was deliberately erased from history. There can be no doubt that he existed; the question is why did the Christian editor go to such lengths to distance father Agrippa from son Agrippa - Aristobulus from Marcus. The Coptic and rabbinic traditions openly recognize the relationship. Yet we have by no means exhausted the other schools of thought which confirm the historical reality here. Both the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions acknowledge "father" and "son" if you investigate deeply enough.
THE BEGINNING OF THE STORY OF ARISTOBULUS
Let us make sure we understand what the Copts believe. Mark was also called John. John is the beloved disciple who stood under the cross at the Passion. He is openly called "son of Zebedee" and son of Mary Salome in the gospels. Nevertheless when they speak of Mark's parents in their literature, they are called "Aristobulus" and "Mary." Perhaps the oldest example comes from Severus who tells the story of the "little Mark" converting his father to Christianity:
In the time of the dispensation of the merciful Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, when he appointed for himself disciples to follow him, there were two brothers ... [t]he name of the elder of them was Aristobulus, and the name of the other was Barnabas ... they had great possessions. And they understood the Law of Moses excellently well, and knew by heart many of the books of the Old Testament. But great troubles came upon them ... when they were robbed of all their wealth ... [s]o on account of the loss of their property, and the trials which had befallen them, they fled ... Now Aristobulus had a son named John. And after they had taken up their abode in the province of Palestine, near the city of Jerusalem, the child John grew and increased in stature by the grace of the Holy Ghost ... [a]nd on a certain day, Aristobulus took his son Mark to the Jordan, and while they were walking there a lion and a lioness met them. And when Aristobulus saw them approaching him, and perceived the violence of their rage, he said to his son Mark : My son, seest thou the fury of this lion which is coming to destroy us? Escape now, and save thyself, my son, and leave them to devour me, according to the will of God Almighty. But the disciple of Christ, the holy Mark, answered and said to his father : Fear not, my father, Christ in whom I believe will deliver us from all danger. And when the lions approached them, Mark, the disciple of the Lord Christ, shouted against them with a loud voice, and said : The Lord Jesus Christ, son of the Living God, commands that you be rent asunder, and that your kind be cut off from these mountains, and that there be no more offspring to you here for ever. Then the lion and the lioness burst asunder in the midst at that moment, and perished straightway; and their young were destroyed. And when Aristobulus, the father of Mark, saw this great miracle which was manifested by his son, through the power of the invincible Lord Jesus Christ, he said to his son : I am thy father who begat thee, Mark, my son; but to day thou art my father, and my saviour and deliverer. And now, my dear son, I and my brother pray thee to make us servants of the Lord Jesus Christ whom thou preachest. Then the father of holy Mark and his uncle began to learn the doctrines of Christ from that day. And Mary, the mother of Mark, was the sister of Barnabas, the disciple of the apostles.
Of course one doesn't have to be a detective to see something very strange about the story. Mark's father Aristobulus was the elder brother of Barnabas and Mark's mother is said to be the sister of Barnabas. The only possibility here is that Mark's parents were related, if not brother and sister.
All of this wouldn't be strange enough save for the fact that we know quite certainly that the Herodian clan tended to indulge in incest. Mark married his sister Berenice, Salome married Philip and as we demonstrated at the beginning of this article she also married Aristobulus. The point then is that it is already becoming highly likely that the Coptic Mark and his parents Aristobulus and Salome were all Herods - at least owing to the fact that most men in antiquity didn't marry their sisters.
STATEMENTS MADE BY THE HEAD OF THE COPTIC CHURCH TODAY
Perhaps the greatest proof that Aristobulus the father of Marcus was a Herod (and one which demonstrates that Josephus' text is corrupt) is found in something the present Pope of the Coptic Church HH Shenouda III wrote a book called Mark the Evangelist. Here the Coptic Pope he draws on many traditions which otherwise would be unknown to outsiders of the faith. He explicitly says on p 13 of that work that:
Josephus, in his book, mentioned that he [i.e. Marcus] was the cousin of Philo.
This seems like one of those silly beliefs you come across in traditions which survived from antiquity until you notice that he attaches a footnote which makes reference to Josephus Ant. 18 :8 :1 and 19 :5 : 1.
Those are odd references when you actually look at the once again. The first reads:
Philo, the principal of the Jewish embassage, a man eminent on all accounts, brother to Alexander the alabarch. [Ant. 18:8:1]
The second reads:
[Alexander] had been imprisoned by Caius, whose son [Marcus] married Bernice, the daughter of Agrippa. [Anti. 19:5:1]
This is of course interesting because we know from Juvenal (but curiously Josephus never mentions it) that Marcus Agrippa was married to his sister Berenice. Why doesn't the surviving texts of Josephus acknowledge a most interesting fact about Agrippa? Once again it must be owing to a later editor whose motives are imperfectly understood even today.
Now you have a strange situation where the Coptic tradition adamantly affirms Aristobulus as the father of Marcus but that he was also:
(a) the Marcus who married Berenice
(b) his uncle was Philo
In other words, I think that the Pope is trying to square things that his tradition has held for two thousand years with things it has (more or less) recently discovered in Josephus.
Marcus can't both be the son of Alexander and Aristobulus. Since the Copts emphasize that he is "Mark the son of Aristobulus" the reality must be that:
(a) Marcus Agrippa married his sister Berenice and he is the "Herod" who went to rule in Chalcis with her
(b) his uncle was Philo because his fater Aristobulus was brother of Alexander who was also the brother of Philo
Josephus' surviving texts never explain Berenice married "Marcus" first but then suddenly moves with "Herod" to rule over Chalcis. The answer must be that the two people are one and the same person and that they were taking over from the rule of their parents Aristobulus and Salome (see above).
ARISTOBULUS IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC AND GREEK ORTHOOX TRADITIONS
At first glance there isn't much to say about the Catholic tradition's understanding about a first century Palestinian saint named Aristobulus who was one of the seventy. Catholics accept that this is the same "Arisobulus" mentioned in the Roman Epistle of the Apostle which reads:
Peace to those who are of Aristobulus. Peace to Herodion, my relative.
The second part of this passage has long recognized to connect the apostle to the house of Herod as Eisenman writes:
Indeed the original Aramaic here may well have read "peace to those who are of Aristobulus. Peace to my Herodian relative" or something to that effect.
The understanding that the Catholic or Orthodox "St. Aristobulus" might be connected with Herod also is appreciated when we look to the surviving legends attached to this figure. The Catholic Book of Saints begins by hinting that St. Aristobulus "is possibly mentioned by St. Paul and is identified with Zebedee, the father of Sts. James and John." This is quite odd of course because one would think that only "Zebedee" could be the father of John, the beloved disciple. However when we look for feast days for this "Zebedee" figure we find none whatsoever.
Of course the immediate significance of connecting "Aristobulus" the father of Mark to "Zebedee" the father of John is obvious when we see that all traditions accept in some form that "Mark" was "John." Now at last we can connect John's mother Salome with Mark's mother of the same name also. Yet the Greek Orthodox tradition goes one step further when we read:
Saint Aristibule holds a special place in the history of the 'Celtic' (read, Insular) Churches, ie the Church in Britain. The story goes that there was a merchant named Zebedee, who was cousin to Herod the Great and so also had a public Greek name which ran in that family: Aristobulus .
What is so interesting about this connection again - beyond the confirmation of the persistent rumor that Aristobulus is really Zebedee is the particular idea of him being a "cousin" of Herod. The word in the Peshitta text of Rom 16:1 is that of a Herodian akhyny which not only means "relative" but specifically "cousin" also.
The Greek Orthodox tradition says that this St. Aristobulus spent time in Alexandria and aside from being the father of John:
became a believer as well, and was amongst the 72 Apostles sent out by Christ. After the crucifixion, his familial connections and being a known follower of Christ led to his arrest by Herod, and him being sent in chains to Rome - where he was the first Christian in that city. He helped build that local church from the ground up
The point now is that it is obvious that we are uncovering a parallel universe where Aristobulus is the father of one historical figure called "Mark" or "John" whose mother was Salome.
