4 BC - Herod dies

In the year Jesus was born, Herod the Great—always insecure about his position—ordered the slaughter of all the infants two years old and below of Bethlehem.¹ He would soon follow them, though along a far more painful path out of this earthly life. Meanwhile Joseph, forewarned by an angel, had taken Mary and Jesus and escaped to Egypt.

Herod the King

Born in 73 BC, Herod had ruled Judea as "King of the Jews" since 37 BC. As a ruler he had done extremely well. His personal life, however, was a disaster. In a blaze of jealousy, fanned by his sister Salome, he had Mariamme, the wife he loved deeply, killed, and then went nearly mad. And with so many wives and, therefore, sons vying for power and privileges, he was always on the lookout for plots against his throne. His sons did not make it easy for him not to. Three years previously Antipater, Herod's first-born son, had poisoned his father's mind against two of his half-brothers, and Herod had put them to death. Just a few days before he died, Herod, now convinced that Antipater was plotting against him, had his eldest son put to death. Even the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus would remark that it was safer to be Herod's pig than to be his son.

Herod's Last Days

Herod's last will left his kingdom divided among three of his sons. Judea, the most important part of his kingdom went to Archelaus. Galilee and Perea (in southern Transjordan) went to Antipas, Herod's youngest son, while the territories north and east of the Sea of Galilee ("Iturea and Traconitis" Lk 3:1) to Philip.² Additionally, Herod bequeathed to his sister Salome the cities of Azotus, Jamnia, Phasaelis, a castle in Ashkelon, and half a million shekels. In confirming them to their inheritance, however, Augustus would not confer on them the royal titles of their father. Archelaus was named Ethnarch, 'Ruler of the People'; Philip and Antipas came away with only the minor title of Tetrach, 'Ruler of the Fourth'.

The cause of Herod's death remains a puzzle. Here is Josephus' account of his illness just before he died:

The fever that he had was a light one and did not so much indicate symptoms of inflammation to the touch as it produced internal damage. He also had a terrible desire to scratch himself because of this, for it was impossible not to seek relief. There was also an ulceration of the bowels and intestinal pains that were particularly terrible, and a moist, transparent suppuration of the feet. And he suffered similarly from an abdominal ailment, as well as from a gangrene of his privy parts that produced worms. His breathing was marked by extreme tensions, and it was very unpleasant because of the disagreeable exhalation of his breath and his constant gasping. He also had convulsions in every limb that took on unendurable severity.³

Herod sought relief at the spa at Callirrhoe on the east shores of the Dead Sea, but relief did not come; death did, soon after he returned to his palace in Jericho. By now his condition had become so severe he attempted suicide but failed. Josephus reports that during these last days of his life and seeing that death was near, he hatched one last plot to accompany his demise:

The notable Jews were commanded to come to him from all parts of the entire nation—and there were many of them since the whole nation had been called upon, and they had all obeyed his decree, for death awaited everyone who disregarded his written order—and the king, who was furious with all alike, both the innocent and those who werre considered guilty, had them all shut up in the hippodome. He then sent for his sister Salome and her husband Alexas, and told them that he would be dead before long because of the pains that so greatly afflicted him in all parts of his body. Now death in itself is something to be borne and experienced in common by all men, but that he should have to go without the lamentation and mourning that are customary when a king dies was an extremely painful thought to him. He was not blind to the feelings of the Jews and he knew how ardently they prayed for his death and how much pleasure this would bring them because even during his lifetime . . .

Herod the Great was buried in an enormous tomb—which was not long afterwards desecrated—at the desert fortress of Herodion east of and overlooking Bethlehem, that very city in which he had ordered the deaths of the innocent infants.

Herod's tomb at Herodion, which was soon desecrated.

N.B.: The archaeological findings related to Herod's reign have opened up a new appreciation of Herod's accomplishments, and there is a growing movement to rewrite his history. The general tone of such revisions is that he was not as bad as the historical documents such as the Gospels and Josephus have made him out to be. Historians, however, often forget that accomplishments do not a good man make. For a summary of such a make-over of Herod in recent scholarship, see Byron R. McCane, "Simply Irresistible: Augustus, Herod, and the Empire," Journal for Biblical Literature 127/4 (2008)" 725-735.

1. In an article published in the National Geographic magazine, Tom Mueller says, with regards to the murder of the infants, that Herod was "almost certainly innocent of this crime, of which there is no report apart from Matthew's account" (Dec 2008, 40). The thing is there are also no other reports of many of Herod's other exploits except for the single report found in Josephus but that Mueller treats as certain truths. How, except out of unfounded bias, is it that Mueller could speak of those incidents as certain truth and Matthew's report of the infants' murder as suspect? It reflect poorly on Mueller's professional objectivity and integrity that, when readers protested against his remark, he retorted that what he meant was ####.

2. Herod had two sons named Philip. This Philip was the son by Cleopatra of Jerusalem*. The other was the son by Mariamme and the first husband of Herodias. This latter Philip is mentioned in Mt 14:3; Mk 6:17. (This Cleopatra is not to be confused with the more famous Egyptian princess and mistress of Mark Anthony. The latter was, in cahoots with Herod's mother-in-law, a pain in Herod's back until she and Mark Anthony committed suicide soon after they lost the battle to Octavian in 31 BC.)

3. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, tr. by R. Marcus (Loeb Classical Library) XVII.vi.5.