Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas
The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.
Herod the Great
Rome's king of Judea from 37 to 4 BC: an Idumean, a great builder, and a ruler who killed anyone he saw as a threat, his own family included.
The old dictator built beautiful palaces and had his own sons killed. Herod the Great ruled the Jews as king by Rome's appointment. He rebuilt the temple on a grand scale and built fortresses and whole cities. He was also known for murdering rivals, a wife and several sons. When he died, his kingdom was split among his sons.
Herod ruled from 37 to 4 BC as Rome's appointee. He built the temple, Caesarea, Masada, the fortress of Herodium and pagan temples abroad. He had been Mark Antony's friend. When Octavian won, Herod promised Caesar the same loyalty, then named cities and built temples in his honor. He was an Idumean. Josephus says the Hasmonean ruler Hyrcanus had forced the Idumeans to be circumcised and keep Jewish law, and reports that a rival called Herod "an Idumean, i.e. a half Jew." Bailey sums him up as an Arab by race, Jewish by religion, Greek by culture and Roman in politics. Josephus records the drowning of the young high priest Aristobulus in a pool at Jericho, which archaeology shows was very shallow. He also records the execution of Herod's wife Mariamne, two sons strangled at Sebaste, and his son Antipater killed five days before Herod's own death. Near death Herod shut the leading men of the nation in the hippodrome at Jericho with orders to kill them, so that he would have "the honor of a memorable mourning at his funeral." They were released instead. He had filled the council with his supporters (Keener). When young disciples of religious teachers pulled down the golden eagle he had set on the temple, he had them executed. After 4 BC the kingdom was divided among Archelaus, Antipas and Philip, and Rome banished Archelaus to Gaul in AD 6.
An analogy: a strongman installed by a superpower who builds the nation's grandest monuments and keeps a list of enemies. His people admire the buildings and fear the knock on the door.
Herod's record makes the killing of Bethlehem's boys in Matthew 2:16 fit what was known of him, and explains why foreign visitors asking for a newborn king were a threat. His family ruled after him under the same name, so a reader must ask which Herod a passage means: his son Antipas in Mark 6:14, or his grandson Agrippa in Acts 12:1.
Not a native son of the nation he ruled. A strongman is usually one of his own people. Herod was an Idumean from a people forced into Judaism, and a rival mocked him as a half Jew. The Gospels and Acts also give the family name to several rulers, so each passage must be read for which one it means.
Three points. Was he Jewish? The CSB Study Bible says he was not a Jew; Wright says not even fully Jewish; Bailey calls him Jewish in religion; Josephus records both the forced conversion of the Idumeans and the insult half Jew. When did he die? Keener, the ESV Study Bible and the CSB Study Bible say 4 BC, and Carson, Moo and Morris call late March or early April of 4 BC almost certain; Heiser, following Ernest Martin and others, argues for 1 BC. Did the massacre happen? No source outside Matthew mentions it; the CSB Study Bible notes that sceptics deny it and answers that it fits Herod's documented conduct, as do Keener and Bailey.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-2-13-23\/","n":"Matthew 2:13-23, Refugees in Egypt, home to Nazareth","s":"Joseph takes the family to Egypt by night. Herod kills the boys of Bethlehem, and after his death the family settles in Nazareth to stay clear of his son Archelaus.","r":"Matthew 2:13-23"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-19-11-27\/","n":"Luke 19:11-27, The nobleman who went to receive a kingdom","s":"Because people think the kingdom is about to appear, Jesus tells of a nobleman who travels to a far country to be made king while citizens who hate him send a delegation after him, and of the servants who trade with his money.","r":"Luke 19:11-27"}
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Matthew 2:1 and 2:22
- CSB Study Bible, notes on Matthew 2:1, 2:16 and 2:19
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 2:1, 2:3, 2:4, 2:16, 2:22 and 14:1
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Matthew 2:3, 2:4-6 and 2:22
- Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, ch. 4, Herod's Atrocities, Simeon and Anna
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 13.9.1, 14.15.2, 15.3.3, 15.7.4, 16.11.7, 17.6.5, 17.7.1, 17.8.1-2 and 17.13.2, trans. William Whiston
- N. T. Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part One, comment on Matthew 1:1-17
- Michael S. Heiser, Reversing Hermon, ch. 4, The Sin of the Watchers and the Birth of Jesus
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Acts 12:1
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, article Herod the Great
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 1, The Synoptic Gospels, section Gospel Chronology, Jesus' Birth
