THE HERODIANS — supporters or clients of the Herodian dynasty; the ending is Latin (-ianus), the formation the same as 'Caesariani', a great man's party. ⚠ They are named only three times in the New Testament, all in a plot: with the Pharisees against Jesus after the withered hand (Mark 3:6), and again in the trap about the tribute coin (Mark 12:13; Matthew 22:16). Nobody explains who they were and no ancient source describes them as a sect, so what can be said is structural: they are the political interest of a client king, and the Pharisees are religious purists, and the two have nothing in common except this. ⚠ Mark makes the plot to kill him form six verses into a chapter, out of a coalition that should not exist. → first discussed at Mark 3:6