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Herod, The Not So Great?
Ask most Christians about Herod the Great and they will
likely refer you to the story in Matthew Chapter 2: magi (wise men, the word is
related to ‘magician’), come from afar, to worship the newborn king (Jesus).
After they had found the young Jesus in Bethlehem and given
him their gifts, the magi decided to skip a second visit to Herod on the return
leg of their journey: they understood that he wished the boy no good.
SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS
They were spot on. Herod soon sent soldiers to the town to
massacre all the infants two years old and under. But Joseph, Jesus’ adoptive
father, had heard in advance from God this would happen. He removed his family
to safety in Egypt ahead of time.
CRUEL KING
Through this brief story, we get a snapshot of the violent
tyrant Herod the Great was. He was a client king of the Roman Empire whose rule
over Judea from 37 BCE to 4 BCE was marked by cruelty and oppressive taxation
of his people. He also executed his wife, Miriamme, having accused her of
adultery.
And yet he was behind a series of marvelous building
projects that remain with us to this day.
JERUSALEM TEMPLE
Jerusalem’s Western Wall, formerly known as the Wailing
Wall, was part of the glorious Temple he built, with its vast Court of the
Gentiles, exclusively Jewish areas and great curtain draped across the entry to
the Holy of Holies. This curtain would be torn at the moment Jesus died on the
cross, symbolizing that we now have direct access to God, through Jesus.
Despite the quasi-universal hatred of the late Herod the
Great, the Temple, with its famous ‘forest’ of white columns in Solomon’s
Colonnade, was proudly admired by his disciples. Jesus acknowledged the Temple
as, “My Father’s house.”
MASADA
Other palaces built by Herod survive as ruins, including
Masada from which it is possible to look out across the salt-rimmed Dead Sea,
all the way to Jordan. In the opposite direction lies the seemingly endless Negev
Desert.
CAESAREA
Caesarea, on the Mediterranean coast between Tel Aviv and
Haifa, is a port and Roman-style city conceived and built by Herod. Paul and
Luke landing there ultimately led to the former’s 2-year imprisonment in Herod’s
Palace. Caesarea was the home of the Philip who converted the high-ranking
Ethiopian slave, and his four daughters, all of whom prophesied. And of
Cornelius, the Roman centurion whose household Peter brought to faith. Cornelius
is said to have gone on to become Bishop of Caesarea.
We can imagine a Christian congregation under the leadership
of Roman Cornelius and Jewish Philip there. Possibly it would have been frequented
by Luke and Paul himself. This congregation surely was a shining example of the
love and tolerance Paul advocated, yet Caesarea was well-known for the fighting
that went on between the town’s Romans and Jews.
Two thousand years on, we can still see the legacy of Herod,
all over Judea. He expressed his power through architecture. Yet we do not know
what he looked like. He is depicted in early Christian art as a bearded man
with a cloak, but we have no reliable portrait of him.
A PAINFUL DEATH
Few, if any, mourned him when he died at the age of seventy,
a painful death. Jewish first century historian Josephus describes his symptoms
as: “an ulceration of the intestines with particularly terrible
pains in the colon… There was a malignancy in the abdominal area, as well as a
putrefaction in the private member which was creating worms.”
Yuck!
As his body failed him, his sanity also suffered. He lived
in terror of being murdered or overthrown: a paranoia we can readily observe in
the megalomaniacs of today.
Bobbie Ann Cole is a writer, speaker, teacher and book coach
who is about to return to study at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
If you would like to keep abreast of what she learns and
where she goes in Israel, please sign up to receive her updates at http://scrollchest.com. You will also receive
her free, 5 Minute Testimony: How I Met Jesus. It started at a Jerusalem
church service where, as a Jew, Bobbie thought she wasn’t supposed to be.
Interesting, Bobbie, that we can write people off in history and yet they still achieved important things which have been greatly admired. It just goes to show that God does use everyone to achieve his purposes.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Sheila. I'm sure our fave Russian will go down in history, too.
DeleteThis is absolutely fascinating, Bobbie. So Henry VIII was not the only king who had his wife executed for (supposed or actual) adultery! And he too expressed his power with architecture; for many of our naval forts along our coasts, and many palaces in England are of Tudor origin commissioned by Henry VIII. We certainly cannot get away from the fact that tyranny can coexist in the human heart along with great works which are awesome and uplifting to many through all the following centuries. Human beings are very complex. Nobody knew that better than Jesus. I quite often think of his words, "Be as wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove." But the story you remind us of is also powerful in the sense that if we listen to God through dreams and through all the other ways God uses, we can indeed avert some of the worse consequences of the evil of others in our lives. (Sheila aka SC Skillman)
ReplyDeleteThank you for your insightful comments, Sheila. I particularly liked that "tyranny can coexist in the human heart along with great works." And that dreams can be powerful guidance from God.
DeleteLovely post, Bobbie! Thanks. I remember a time in my youth when I actually thought he was Roman! I remember being shocked to realise he was Jewish. He died such a horrible death that seemed like nemesis for the horrible crime he committed against innocent children. Not so great, I agree!! Blessings.
ReplyDeleteYou are not alone in thinking Herod was Roman. He certainly kowtowed to the Romans.
Delete