An Israeli archaeologist on Tuesday said he has found the tomb of King Herod, the legendary builder of ancient Jerusalem and the Holy Land - a potentially major discovery that capped a 35-year quest for the researcher.
This is a major find indeed if it is confirmed. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus was born during the reign of Herod and the gospel also says that Herod ordered the slaughter of every boy aged two years or less in an attempt to snuff out Jesus' life. By then, however, Jesus and his parents had moved to Egypt.
Herod is a very significant figure in the history of the Jews and the Jewish nation. Herod ruled the Roman province of Judea, corresponding roughly to the old Jewish kingdom of Judah. The Romans did not rule Judea directly until after Herod's death. Herod was a very brutal king, not hesitating to have executed even some of his own sons when he thought they were plotting to dethrone him. Caesar Augustus then remarked that it was better to be Herod's pigs than his sons. Herod ordered several major building projects in Jerusalem and Judah, many of which survive today.
The Herod whose tomb is claimed found is not the same man who refused to judge the grown Jesus and sent him back to Pontius Pilate. That was Herod Antipas, son of the Herod referenced in the find.
"...the gospel also says that Herod ordered the slaughter of every boy aged two years or less in an attempt to snuff out Jesus' life."
Is this detail taken as fact or metaphor? Because it raises the obvious question about how Herod "knew" that some 2 year old would grow up to be a spiritual figure that would allegedly be a threat to the Roman Republic or whatever. Where did he come by this information? Wasn't he a pagan?
In the Gospel of Matthew, it is related that the 3 Wise Men (or "Magi") visited Herod, and informed him that they were seeking the newborn king of the Jews. They assert they have seen the star in the East.
As for pagans knowing the future, they are assumed by traditional Christianity to be in touch with dark powers that grant them such knowledge. Chesterton had it:
_The wise men know what wicked things
Are written on the sky,
They trim sad lamps, they touch sad strings,
Hearing the heavy purple wings,
Where the forgotten seraph kings
Still plot how God shall die.
The wise men know all evil things
Under the twisted trees,
Where the perverse in pleasure pine
And men are weary of green wine
And sick of crimson seas.
But you and all the kind of Christ
Are ignorant and brave,
And you have wars you hardly win
And souls you hardly save._
Furthermore, Matthew records that Herod asked his own religious scholars about the Magis' report, who replied that the Jewish Scriptures prophesied that the king of the Jews would be born in Bethlehem. Herod was obsessive about other pretenders to his throne,as his record of killing his own sons shows, so he would have been intensly interested in these reports.
Herod was descended from Idumean stock (the nation of Edom) who were not historically Jewish, being descended from none of the 12 tribes of Israel. Edom had been conquered by Judah in 140-130 bce and many Edomites converted rather than accept forceful exile. Herod was descended from these.
Although Herod would have considered himself Jewish, almost none of the people of Judah agreed. It didn't help matters that Herod was heavily Hellenized. Herod had no bloodline claim to the throne of the king of the Jews, he was appointed to the throne by the Roman senate. This made him a double interloper in the minds of Judahites.
BTW, the "massacre of the innocents" in Bethlehem, ordered by Herod, is mentioned nowhere but in the Gospel of Matthew. However, Bethelem was small town in those days and the number of less-than-2 year-old boys killed could well have been in the single digits. As killings went in those days, that was small potatoes.
The scripture referenced by Herod's scholars was probably Micah 5:2-5.
(NIV)
Brother. I have never figuresd out this block quote thing... sorry.
The Pharisees were widely claiming that a Messiah would depose Herod, and even expel the Romans from Judea, so it was not exactly a secret. Herod executed loads of Pharisees for tearing down Roman eagles in Jerusalem in preparation for the Messiah.
Herod also executed three of his own sons at about the same time.
Grim: I'm not sure I would use G.K. Chesterton as an example of Orthodox thinking. Nor for that matter am I convinced you are offering a correct interpretation of the poem. Nonetheless...
My understanding is that the Magi mentioned in Bible are typically taken to be Persian Zoastrians, and that they are from the perspective of the Church 'virtuous pagans' much like say Socrates or Plato, and therefore, that their understanding is inspired by God and not by any black art. Thier quest is assumed to have redeeming value.
Those were turbulent times at Judah. Herod knew he was in a very weak position so it is not strange he took quite radicial decissions.
I'm not sure I meant to say that Chesterton was Orthodox in a pure sense. I only meant that the poem is a (particularly beautiful) example of the idea, common in traditional Christianity, that one could seek knowledge of the future through dark powers. Of course, there would be a cost. They might be deceptive -- false prophets whose prophecies would lead a man into despair or some other mortal sin -- or, they might offer the power only in exchange for your soul (as Medieval literature on witches suggests).
As for how I interpret the poem, I'm not trying to do so at all. I was only quoting part of it that touches on the subject. Unless you're saying that the passage above doesn't refer to pagan prophetics, I'm not sure how I can be accused of misinterpreting it.
The status of the Magi, by the way, was not something I meant to speak to at all. I was just answering tcg's query as to whether it was a problem to say that a pagan had accurate foreknowledge of the future. The answer is, no, it's not -- it's quite a common motif in Christian writing.
the idea, common in traditional Christianity, that one could seek knowledge of the future through dark powers. Of course, there would be a cost. They might be deceptive
Well, the magi didn't exactly follow the star directly to Jesus. Their path led them first to the presence of King Herod who would pose a danger to them.
"They assert they have seen the star in the East."
Is my logic or my geography bad here: wouldn't the star have been in the west? or were they coming from Cyprus? If they were Persian and following an eastern star wouldn't they have ended up somewhere in the russian steppes?
Matthew ch. 2 says,
This can be read to means that the wise men (magi) were basically saying, "While we were in east we saw the star," not necessarily that the star appeared in the eastern sky.
There is also the alternative translation:
That might refer to a star that is first seen on the horizon at dawn.
There has also been some scientific exploration of possible "reasons" for the star reference. One of the theories is that the Persians noticed that there was a rare conjunction of Jupiter and Mars in the constallation(sp?) Capricorn. According to the theory, the constallation Capricorn was a sign signifying Judea and that the conjuntion meant that a king would be born in Judea. That is what the wise men (magi) were following when they went to Judea, they would have had to stop at Herod's abode because the stars didn't tell them where in Judea to look. While I generally find scientific pursuit of spiritual matters often counterproductive, I do find this explaination quite logical (IMHO).
Grim: I think in context the question of whether Christians believe that knowledge possessed by non-Christians comes from the devil, or from God is quite relevant. It is most certainly not true that "[Pagans] are assumed by traditional Christianity to be in touch with dark powers that grant them such knowledge." That is only one of several possibilities.