Rehabilitation of Herod the Great, King of Judea

Abstract

It is accepted by the author as the axioma in the paper that Jesus Christ was born in Judea and the Christianity era started with his birth at point 0 BC and it was point 0 AD. This subject is very complex. The accusation of Herod the Great, King of Judea started from the description of the Massacre of the Innocents. This subject had, has, and will have implications in the future. Some individuals and some events have had significant imprints on the history of countries, nations and even on the Global population. One of these individuals was Herod the Great, King of Judea and one of the events was the Massacre of the Innocents. Herod’s individuality is very controversial and has been described in different sources with significant controversy. Many conclusions and many assumptions have been made in contradiction to the obvious facts and the truth. The name “Herod” became a synonym in Christian society equivalent to an appellative noun (common name), which was used especially against Jews to show the gruesomeness of the Jewish personality and their deeds. It is commonly assumed and presented to the congregation by clerics that Herod the Great was a Jew. Herod the Great could not be so intensely mentioned if not for the event of the Massacre of the Innocents which was described in the Gospel of Matthew as the attempt to kill the Baby Jesus by giving the order to kill all Innocents in Bethlehem. Was Herod the Great a Jew as the impression presented by the clergy on the congregations? Did the Massacre of the Innocents happen as it was described in the Gospel of Matthew? Did the Massacre of the Innocents happen at all? This paper will examine the known facts described in available literature and historical background in order to disclose the probability of the truth and the credibility of the histories presented about Herod the Great in connection with the events described as the Massacre of the Innocents presented by Matthew in the Gospel. This paper will make an attempt to answer these questions by analyzing available sources, facts, and events before, at the time and several hundred years after the reign of Herod the Great, in the Roman Republic, and later in the Roman Empire, and in the land of Israel.