Who was Herod the Great?

HEROD THE GREAT. We read of four Herods in Scripture. We propose to mention them one after another, so that the reader may have them clearly distinguished in mind. Herod the Great was the son of Antipater, an Idumean. Antipater was a man of mean origin, who ingratiated himself into favour with the Emperor, and was appointed procurator of Judea. His son, Herod, was born B.C. 62. He began his career very early for he was made procurator of Galilee when only fifteen years old. Josephus tells us this was no impediment to him, for he possessed great ability, courage and ambition. In B.C. 40 he was appointed King of the Jews. In the 18th year of his reign he undertook to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem, not at the urge of piety, for he was a very wicked man, guilty of the murder of his own wife, and sons, and of many others also. His motive was to ingratiate himself with the Jews, and to get the glory of such an ambitious undertaking. Both the Bible and Josephus tells us of the rebuilding of the Temple.

At first the Jews stood in doubt of his intentions for it seemed sacrilegious that an Idumean, a heathen king, should rebuild the sacred Temple. But Herod soon showed he was in earnest, for he got together ten thousand wagons to transport the stones required for such an undertaking, and requisitioned ten thousand skilled workmen for the prosecution of the task. So gigantic were the efforts made that in a year and six months the Temple was opened with great rejoicings on the part of the Jews. Additions were added to it from time to time, which account for the remarks of the Jews when they said, “Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt Thou rear it in three days? But He [the Lord] spake of temple of His body” (John 2:20-21).

He was the son of Antipater an Idumaean, who was a proselyte to Judaism. His father having aided Caesar in his war with Egypt was rewarded by being made procurator of all Judaea, and he made his son Herod, then only fifteen years of age, governor of Galilee. On the death of Julius Caesar the country was in anarchy; but eventually Herod contrived to ingratiate himself with Antony and Octavian, and was appointed KING OF JUDAEA. He began his reign (B.C. 37) with blood: there were a few left of the Asmonaean house, descendants of the Maccabees; these were put to death and their adherents, and the whole of the Sanhedrim except two.

Herod had married Mariamne, daughter of Alexandra, who had a son named Aristobulus, a descendant of the Maccabees. Herod, being afraid of Rome to which Alexandra had appealed, made Aristobulus high priest; but when he witnessed the joy of the people his jealousy was aroused, and he caused the young man to be drowned, while bathing with his comrades, through their pretended rough play. Herod honoured his funeral, but none were deceived, and on Alexandra appealing to Cleopatra and Antony, he was summoned to appear. He left orders with his uncle Joseph that if he were put to death, Mariamne was to be killed. Herod succeeded in satisfying Antony; and indeed he had Coele-syria added to his dominions. On his return, his sister Salome poisoned his mind with suspicions of his wife's infidelity with Joseph, who had unwisely betrayed the orders of Herod. He was however reconciled with his wife, but Joseph was put to death and Alexandra imprisoned.

On Octavian becoming emperor, Herod contrived to secure his favour. Herod's domestic life was however greatly embittered by his renewed suspicions against his wife (who had again discovered that during his absence orders had been given to put her to death if he lost his life). He seemed to think her guilty and she was sacrificed to his jealousy; but as soon as his beautiful wife was slain he was filled with the deepest remorse. Her mother also was put to death. [For Herod's other wives, see HEROD, FAMILY OF.]

Herod the Great In time, by a combination of great ability, immense energy, and wholesale bribery, a worthless Idumean, known to history as Herod the Great, was advanced to the throne of Judea, under the suzerainty of Caesar. It was in his reign that our Lord was born. In his private life he was a monster of lust and wickedness. He died a terrible death, a mass of loathsome disease beyond description.

He it was who rebuilt the Temple at Jerusalem, making it his boast that he had outdone Solomon in his magnificence.

Herod, an Idumean, first appointed by the Romans as tetrarch, became king in 31 B.C., and aimed at creating an independent monarchy in his own family.

As it may not be out of place here, or uninteresting to our readers, we would notice for a moment the Herodian line of kings. They frequently come before us, both in the life of our Lord, and in the early history of the church. We have associated in our minds, from early youth, the massacre of the infants of Bethlehem and Herod, king of Judaea; though it is somewhat remarkable that Josephus, the principal historian of Herod, takes no notice of this event. It is generally thought, that the murder of a few children, in an obscure village, compared with Herod's other deeds of blood, was too unimportant in the eyes of Josephus to be recorded. But not so in the mind of God: both the deceit and cruelty of the treacherous heart of the king are recorded in the sacred narrative. The eye of God watched over the "Child born" unto Israel-the only source of hope for all nations. The cruel design of Herod was thus defeated.

Herod the Great, the first Idumean king over Israel, received the kingdom from the senate of Rome through the influence of Mark Antony. This took place about thirty-five years before the birth of Christ, and about thirty-seven before his own death. These Idumeans were a branch of the ancient Edomites, who, while the Jews were in the Babylonish captivity, and their land lay desolate, took possession of as much of the southern part of it, as contained what had been the whole inheritance of the tribe of Simeon, and also half of that which had been the inheritance of the tribe of Judah; and there they dwelt ever after. In course of time, the Idumeans were conquered by John Hyrcanus, and brought over to Judaism. After their conversion, they received circumcision, submitted to the Jewish laws, and became incorporated with the Jewish nation. In this way they became Jews, though not of the ancient stock of Israel. This happened about one hundred and twenty-nine years before Christ. They were bold, crafty, and cruel as princes: they had great political foresight, courted the favour of Rome, and cared only for the establishment of their own dynasty. But, as God would have it, with the destruction of Jerusalem, the Idumean dynasty passed away, and even the very name of Herod seems to have perished from among the nations.

Besides the slaughter of the children in Bethlehem, which took place shortly before Herod's death, he had deeply imbrued his hands in the blood of his own family, and in the blood of many noble persons of the Asmonean line. His cruel jealousy towards that heroic family never slumbered. But one of his last acts was to sign the death warrant of his own son. When dying under the signal judgment of God, like his grandson, Herod Agrippa, he raised himself up in his bed gave the mandate for the execution of Antipater, named Archelaus as his successor to the throne, fell back, and expired.

There are four Herods referred to in the New Testament. The first of these is called Herod the Great (Matt. 3) who was reigning as king (under the Romans) when our Lord was born. This was one of the most atrociously wicked rulers that ever lived. Augustus, at that time Emperor of Rome, said smilingly (and making a play upon the words in the language in which he was speaking), that "it was better to be Herod's swine than Herod's son": and another thus describes him sans compliment, if not sans phrase, "A heathen at heart, a savage in character, a brute in passions, and a fawning slave to the Imperial Court, he made use of his position to betray his country to the Romans, by fostering immorality, cultivating alien customs, sapping religious faith, corrupting the priesthood and massacring the nobles." He was an Idumean or descendant of Edom, that is Esau, who had struggled against Israel before he was born, had tried to kill him in his manhood, whose descendants had tried to stop the march of the Israelites through the wilderness, attacked them ceaselessly in the land, and now were making a last desperate effort to destroy the Messiah, the true Israel. This Herod was the man who ordered his own wives and sons to be murdered, prepared a general massacre of the nobles "to make the people mourn," and slaughtered the poor little infants of Bethlehem, whilst he was advertising his piety and patriotism by making the people build the most gorgeous temple in the world. The subject is not inviting to continue. Only that when we are told that Christ was merely the efflorescence of a long-continued progress in mankind, it is well to remember of what kind the leading man was in the country to which He came,

The rule of the Herods was subservient to Rome. Several members of the Herod family are mentioned in the New Testament history, but most were enemies to Christ and to those who bore His name. (1) Herod the Great, one of the worst tyrants of all time, massacred the children of Bethlehem (Matt. 2:16). (2) Archelaus was the son of Herod the Great whom Joseph feared (Matt. 2:22). (3) Herod Antipas executed John the Baptist (Matt. 14:1-12), and mocked Jesus (Luke 23:11). (4) Herod Agrippa I. executed James, the brother of John (Acts 12:1-2). (5) Herod Agrippa II. had Paul brought before him as prisoner (Acts 25:13-27).

The Herods were Idumean in origin, and were placed in the position of titular rulers in Judea and Galilee by the Roman government. The name Idumea is the Greek equivalent of Edom, the land of the descendants of Esau. So that the position of the Jews in the days of the Gospels was humiliating in the extreme. They were not only under the dominion of the Gentile power at Rome, but a son of Esau ruled over them in the land. This order was not according to the purpose of God announced from the beginning — that, of Jacob and his brother, the "elder should serve the younger" (Gen. 25:23). But through the unfaithfulness of the chosen people, this divine order was for the time reversed, and Esau was in the ascendant, though an enemy of God and His truth. Indeed hatred and jealousy and bitter animosity against God and the people of God characterise the Edomites throughout the Old Testament records. The last of the prophetic "burdens" declares them to be the people against whom Jehovah has indignation for ever (Mal. 1:4). And the New Testament opens with the effort of the Edomite, who was ruler of Edom as well as of Judea and Galilee, to destroy Him who was born King of the Jews (Matt 2). The bloodthirsty Herod was a true descendant of Doeg the Edomite, the murderer of the priests at Nob (1 Sam. 22:9-19).

In B.C. 65 Syria became a Roman province and in the year 40 Herod was appointed by Rome king of Judaea, and he continued on the throne to N.T. times. The children of Israel inhabiting Judaea in those days were the descendants of Judah and Benjamin (except any individuals who may have found their way thither from the ten tribes). They were the people to whom the Messiah was presented, and who refused and crucified Him. They continued their persecution in the times of the apostles, and they will be dealt with separately from the ten tribes: cf. Matt. 24:4-35; Matt. 27:25.

Herod was an Idumean, and therefore a usurper. He had no legal right to the throne of David. He was the type of man's King — Satan, the usurper.

It was a period of stirring times for the land of Israel. Systematic and diabolical persecution, such as perhaps no other nation could have survived, occupied part of this period. Remarkable victories, gained by a few patriotic men over multiplied enemies, followed. Finally, corruption and decay set in, until all that was good and noble disappeared; and we open our New Testament to find Herod, an Idumean usurper, reigning in the Lord's land: the "sceptre has departed from Judah."