Matthew 22:16. They sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians.
These Herodians were rather a political than a religious party. They were Jews who attached themselves to the political fortunes of the Herodian family, hoping thereby to promote the interests of the Jewish people. They were not very strict in observing the requirements of the Jewish ritual; and, although in this respect they were the opposite of the Pharisees, they easily united with that powerful body in efforts to ruin Jesus, as appears from this verse in connection with the fifteenth. See also Mark 3:6; 12:13. Some suppose, from comparing Matthew 16:6 with Mark 8:15, that the Herodians were all Sadducees; that they belonged to what is knowns the Baethusian branch of that body.