PHILIP.  [Greek Philippos = "fond of horses"].
    (1) Philip, the Husband of Herodias.—A son of Herod the Great by the most celebrated of his wives, Mariamne (Josephus, Antiq. XVIII. v. 4; Wars, I. xxviii. 4).  At one time he was placed after Antipater in succession to the throne (Antiq. XVII. iii. 2; Wars, I. xxix. 2).  He married Herodias, but Herod Antipas, his brother (having the same father, but not the same mother), made guilty approaches to Herodias, who, abandoning her proper husband, went off with her paramour, and lived with him as his wife (Antiq. XVIII. v. 1).  When Mariamne was disgraced, her son Herod (Philip) was struck out of the succession to the throne (Wars, I. xxxii. 7).  Josephus calls him simply "Herod."  The New Testament denominates him "Philip" (Matt. xiv. 3; Mark vi. 17; Luke iii. 19).
     (2) Philip, the Tetrarch.—Another son of Herod the Great.  The mother in this case was Cleopatra of Jerusalem.  He was brought up at Rome (Joseph. Antiq. XVII. i. 3; Wars, I. xxviii. 4).  He advocated the claims of Archelaus to succeed their common father, and was himself appointed by Augustus Cæsar over "Batanea, Trachonitis, Auranitis, and certain parts of Zeno's house about Jamnia" (Wars, II. vi. 1-3; cf. also Antiq. XVII. xi. 4).  He is the Philip described by St. Luke as "tetrarch of the region of Ituræa and Trachonitis" in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Cæsar when John the Baptist began his public life (Luke iii. 1).  He married Salome, the daughter of Herod the tetrarch by Herodias (Antiq. XVIII. v. 4).  He built (or enlarged) a city called Paneas, at the source of the Jordan.  He named it Cæsarea.  It is the Cæsarea-Philippi of Scripture.  He also raised the village of Bethsaida to the dignity of a city, and fortifying Sepphoris, made it the capital of Galilee (Antiq. XVIII. ii. 1; Wars, II. ix. 1).  He reigned thirty-seven years (from B.C. 4 to A.D. 34), dying in the twentieth year of Tiberius Cæsar.  Josephus gives Philip an excellent character (Antiq. XVIII. iv. 6).  Coins of his have been found inscribed with his title, Tetrarkhos.
     (3) Philip the Apostle.—One of the apostles of our Lord, mentioned just before Bartholomew in Matt. x. 3; Mark iii. 18; Luke vi. 14; but in Acts i. 13 having the two separated by the name of Thomas.  Philip was a native of Bethsaida, and when called by Jesus, lost no time in informing his friend Nathanael (who was probably Bartholomew under another name) that he had found Him of whom Moses and the prophets wrote (John i. 43-48).  When our Lord was about to perform the miracle of feeding the five thousand, He, with the design of proving Philip, put the question, "Whence are we to buy bread that these may eat?"  To which Philip replied, "Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one may take a little" (John vi. 6, 7).  When, on the day of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, certain Greeks desired to see Jesus, they applied to Philip, who put them in communication with the great Being they wished to behold (xii. 20-23).  Soon afterwards he applied to Jesus to show him the Father (xiv. 8-12).  He is named after the resurrection as one of the apostles who met in the upper chamber (Acts i. 13).  This is the last authentic notice we have of him; ecclesiastical traditions regarding his future life being confused and contradictory.
     (4) Philip the Evangelist.—He was one of the seven men chosen to look after the interests of the widows and the poor generally in the Church at Jerusalem, and is mentioned next in order to the martyr Stephen (Acts vi. 5).  If this had been all, he would not have been called, as he is in Acts xxi. 8, an evangelist.  Immediately after the death of Stephen, Philip visited Samaria, preached the Gospel, wrought miracles, and made many converts.  Among them was Simon the sorcerer, popularly known as Simon Magus (Acts viii. 5-25).  Afterwards, by direction of an angel, he went along the road from Jerusalem to Gaza, on which, after a time, he met, preached to, and baptised the Ethiopian eunuch (26-39).  He afterwards visited Azotus (Ashdod), and then went on preaching till he reached Cæsarea (40).  He was still in that city when Paul passed through it on his last journey to Jerusalem; and the fact is noted that Philip had four virgin daughters who had the gift of prophecy (xxi. 8, 9). (The Sunday School Teacher's Bible Manual, Hunter, 1894)