King Herod The Great

1
King Herod The Great

• Not The Man You Thought He was!

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King Herod Was Not

• Slide 1 please
• A Jew
• A baby killer
• (theory)
• A coward
• The enemy of Israel

3
King Herod Was

• The best Gentile leader Israel ever had
• A great builder
• A highly intelligent man
• A compassionate king

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Not a Jew

• Slide 2 please
• Lets look into the fact that Herod was not a
  Jew
• The Father of Herod was Antipater, a governor in
  the region.
• Josephus says of him, An Idumean by race
• Edomite (Idomeon)
• Descendant of Esau.

5
Not a Jew

• Slide 3
• Herods mother was a Nabatean
• Her name was Cypros.
• She wasnt just any Nabatean either, she was a
  Nabatean Princess from Petra the Nabatean capital

6
Not a Jew
If you click on slide 4, you will see that
Nabatea is on the other side of the Dead Sea in
present day Jordan
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Not a Jew

• Theres a lot of Misinformation out there
  concerning Herods ethnicity
• On Answers.com it says
• Herod himself never lived down the charge
  that he was only a half Jew - and he seems to
  have spent part of his childhood among the
  Nabateans.

8
Not a Jew

• Misinformation
• Catholic Encyclopedia
• Antigonus called Herod a half- Jew.
• Antigonus was a Macedonian not a Jew himself.

9
Not a Jew

• So why all this confusion?
• There are two reasons
• One is that Herods father was a converted Jew.
  He wasnt Jewish by blood, he was a convert.
  Though he was a convert, he wasnt one by choice.

10
Not a Jew

• A Historian by the name of Ptolemy who lived in
  the first century BC and wrote the History of
  King Herod said that the Idumeans were conquered
  by the Jews, forced to be circumcised and convert
  to Judaism.
• Now this is confirmed later by Josephus who tells
  us that the Hasmonean ruler John Hyrcanus the
  1rst did exactly that. He conquered them and
  forced them to become Jews.

11
Not a Jew

• So were they really Jews? No. Even the Jews of
  that time didnt welcome them as Jews. So if they
  didnt why should we?
• Another reason some people think Herod was a Jew
  was because he married a Jewess. But thats kind
  of silly, just because you marry a Jew doesnt
  mean you ARE a Jew.

12
Not a Jew

• So no, Herod was not a Jew!
• Why do some want so badly to believe that Herod
  was a Jew even after presented with the facts?
• Because they want to think he was a Jew. There
  are anti-Semites who like to think that Jews are
  so bad that they even hate their own people.

13
Not a Jew

• Thats how the whole myth that Hitler was
  actually a Jew got started. Hitler wasnt Jewish
  either
• Find a bad man and youll find an anti-Semite
  trying to prove that the bad man is a Jew. It
  never fails.

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Not a Baby Killer

• The Story
• Matthew 216-18 (King James Version)
•   Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked
  of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent
  forth, and slew all the children that were in
  Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from
  two years old and under, according to the time
  which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.
  Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by
  Jeremiah the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a
  voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great
  mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and
  would not be comforted, because they are not.

15
Not a Baby Killer

• Population
• Matthew 216 Greek word horios
• translated as coasts in the KJV is actually
  districts plural.
• The Byzantine liturgy had 14,000 Holy Innocents
  and an early Syrian list that states that there
  were 64,000.

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Not a Baby Killer

• Population
• The world's population was about 200 million in
  the time of Jesus' birth.
• If we assume a proportional growth, there would
  have been about 209,000 people in Palestine at
  that time. If we guess that the population of
  Bethlehem and surrounding district

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Not a Baby Killer

• Continued
• was about one fiftieth the population of
  Palestine, we arrive at a Bethlehem population of
  about 4,200.We furthermore assume that the age
  distribution ranged from zero to about forty.
  Thus, there would have been about one-twentieth
  of 4,200,

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Not a Baby Killer

• Continued
• or about 210 infants and toddlers under two
  years who wouldve been slashed to death by
  Herod's swordsmen!

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Not a Baby Killer

• Sizable Event
• Only mentioned once in Matthew. Not recorded in
  any of the other Gospels.
• Not mentioned in the rest of the New Testament,
  not once!
• We have many other writings from that time
  period.

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Not a Baby Killer

• Sizable Event
• Slide 5 please
• Flavious Josephus A.D. 37/38 - Hasmonean
  historian writing at the time of Yeshua gives
  detailed, info on Herod.
• His ability to hunt, ride a horse, shoot an
  arrow,etc. (War 1. 21. 13.).

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Not a Baby Killer

• Sizable Event
• Slide 6 please
• Volumes were written by
• Josephus!
• 1. War of the Jews
• 2. The Antiquities of the
• Jews
• 3. Flavius Josephus
• Against Apion
• 4. The Life of Flavius
• Josephus.

22
Not a Baby Killer

• Sizable Event
• Slide 7 please
• Volumes were written by
• Philo!
• Philo (20 BC - 50 AD), known also as Philo
  of Alexandria, a Hellenized Jewish philosopher
  who represented the Jewish community before the
  Emperor!

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Not a Baby Killer

• Sizable Event
• Slide 8 please
• Volumes were written
• by Philo!
• 1. Exposition of the Jewish
• Law
• 2. Apologetical works
• 3. Philosophical treatises

24
Not a Baby Killer

• Sizable Event
• These were Jews who
• lived during this time and
• they wrote nothing of it?
• Are Jews not good at
• remembering/recording
• history?
• I think weve written the
• best history books!

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Not a Baby Killer

• So what happened?
• Is it possible that one of
• the scribes copying in
• Greek, from the Hebrew
• Original, added a little of
• his own opinion
• concerning Herod?

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Not a Baby Killer

• So what happened?
• Slide 9 please
• The Jews at that time
• hated Herod but that has
• to be taken in context.
• They despised Herod like I
• despise Bill Clinton. But
• better ruled by Bill Clinton
• then say someone like
• Yassir Arafat.

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Not a Baby Killer

• 1. The Jews had to pay
• high taxes.
• 2. Herod had a pro Roman
• attitude.
• 3. He wasnt the ruler they
• wanted. They wanted
• the Hasmoneans, better
• known as the
• Maccabees, to rule.

28
Not a Baby Killer

• So is it possible or
• even likely that a scribe
• would add this little
• tidbit? Absolutely!

29
Not a Baby Killer

• This is important
• because
• what we think of Herod is based largely on
  this depiction of him as a baby killer. What Im
  going to show a little later is that he was the
  best gentile friend Israel ever had.

30
Wife Killer?

• Slide 10 please
• Yes he did kill his wife in 29 B.C. he had his
  wife, Mariamne, put to death. But why?
• Josephus says that he killed her out of jealousy
  because she committed adultery. Mariamnes own
  mother, Alexandra, testified against her, saying
  it was true.

31
Wife Killer?

• And this was the second time this charge had been
  put against her. The first time, Herod refused to
  believe it.

32
Wife Killer?
After her death Josephus wrote Herod, talked to
her as if still alive, until time revealed to him
the terrible truth, and filled his heart with
grief as passionate as his love had been while
she lived.
33
Wife Killer?
Josephus relates also that after her death Herod
tried in hunting and banqueting to forget his
loss, but that even his strong nature succumbed
and he fell ill in Samaria, where he had made
Mariamne his wife ("Ant." xv. 7, 7).
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Wife Killer?
Josephus was a Hasmonean! He hated Herod because
Josephus felt that the Hasmoneans were supposed
to be in power!
35
Wife Killer?
Herod loved her so much that upon her insistence,
he made her brother High Priest of the Temple.
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Wife Killer?
Slide 11 please The Mariamne tower in Jerusalem,
built by Herod, was named after her. (not the
actual tower, but below it)
37
Wife Killer?
In Fact Herod didnt even want to put her to
death but was only going to imprison her. It was
his sister Salome that insisted she be put to
death because she thought the people would rebel
and try to free her. Herod did finally agree
38
Good Friend

• Slide 13 please
• Marc Anthony
• a Roman politician and general. He was an
  important supporter of Julius Caesar as a
  military commander

• Herod met Anthony around 42 bc. Herod was 16
  years old when they became friends.

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Good Friend

• Herod went with Antony and Caesar, as well as
  other officials to offer sacrifices (in doing so,
  Herod was engaging in avodah zerah, idolatry).
• Herod a Jew?

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Good Friend

• Slide 14 please
• After Herod became King
• He named the Antonio Fortress after Anthony

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Good Friend

• Slide 15 please
• Marc Anthony fell in love with Cleopatra.
• Later, Herod went to visit her and she tried to
  seduce him! (Antiquity of the Jews 15.4)

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Good Friend
Herod refused her! This was the woman his best
friend was in love with. It was tempting for
Herod, all the riches of Egypt at his finger
tips. A woman that was worshipped as a god. None
could deny her.
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Good Friend
Herod did! For the sake of his friend he left
her. Cleopatra hated him for this, a woman
rejected.
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Good Friend
Slide 16 please Years later Anthony went to war
against Octavian because Cleopatra convinced him
to. Anthony asked for Herods help in the war but
Herod begged him not to go through with it.
Herod, being a great General, knew Anthony would
lose
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Good Friend
Slide 17 please After much pleading from Herod.
Anthony left his friend and did it anyway.
Anthony lost the battle and then took his own life
46
Good Friend
Cleopatra did the same. This concludes part 1 of
this class please click on link 2 above for the
rest of the lecture. Thankyou
47
Friend to Israel!
48
Friend to Israel
Herod rebuilt Solomons Temple. Some say he
restored it, but he actually replaced it stone by
stone. It took 8 years to build. Herods
Temple was much larger the Solomons Temple
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Friend to Israel
Slide 18 please Herod's Temple was one of the
biggest construction projects of the first
century BC, Stood for 80 years before it was
destroyed
50
Friend to Israel
Slide 19 please Only the finest materials were
used. Some of the walls were made of a white
limestone that made the structure appear as if
it was glowing.
51
Friend to Israel
The outer walls were made of Jerusalem stone
which at night, when the light is shined on it.
They appear golden
52
Friend to Israel
Slide 20 please Jerusalem, City Of Gold.
53
Friend to Israel
Slide 21 please Other walls were made of white
and black marble. Herod was going to overlay them
with gold but the priests said not to because it
made the walls appear as it they were the waves
of the sea
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Friend to Israel
Slide 22 please Or like this.
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Friend to Israel
It was said of Herods temple that if a person
had not seen it, he had not yet seen a beautiful
building.
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Friend to Israel
Herod never collected taxes from the donations
that were sent to the Temple from Jews in the
Diaspora.
57
Friend to Israel
His Roman counterparts DID collect taxes from
outside sources for other temples in the Roman
empire.
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Friend to Israel
Under Herod, the Jews never had to join the Roman
army either!
59
Friend to Israel
In countries that were taken captive, most of the
men were forced to join the army. Herod went to
bat for the Jews and had them disqualified for
this. During his reign they never had to fight
for Rome
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Friend to Israel
Slide 23 please Herod was an Arab, what kind of
Arab friends does Israel have today?
61
Herods Illness
Slide 24 please Herod the Great probably expired
from chronic kidney disease complicated by
Fourniers gangrene," according to Medical Doctor
Jan Hirschmann. Extremely Painful!.
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Herods Illness
Josephus lists several major features of the
disease that caused Herods death. He writes
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Herods Illness
There was a gentle fever upon him, and an
intolerable itching over all the surface of his
body, and continual pains in his colon, and
dropsical turnouts about his feet, and an
inflammation of the abdomen, and a putrefaction
of his privy member, that produced worms. Besides
which he had a difficulty of breathing upon him,
and could not breathe but when he sat upright,
and had a convulsion of all his
members. Josephus, The Jewish War
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Herods Illness
Its hereditary and probably what killed his
grandson in Acts 1221 21On the appointed day
Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne
and delivered a public address to the people.
22They shouted, "This is the voice of a god, not
of a man." 23Immediately, because Herod did not
give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck
him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.
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Great Architect
Slide 25 please This kind of pain would bring on
severe paranoia to a leader of that time. A king
could not appear weak, if he did, hed be
overthrown and killed. So because of this
paranoia he built many fortresses.
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Great Architect
Slide 26 please He built Masada!
67
Great Architect
Slide 27 please After the destruction of the
Temple in 70AD many of the Jews fled to Masada to
hide out. It took the Romans 3 more years to get
into that fortress. You can see on this slide the
ramp that the romans built to get into massada
68
Great Architect
Slide 28 please Herod also built Caesarea!
69
Great Architect
Slide 29 please Herod built Herodium down by
Hebron. This is a good example of a tell
70
Great Architect
Slide 30 please He built many amphitheaters and
hippodromes.
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King Herod
Not a Jew Not a baby killer (theory) Now I know
some try to accuse me here of challenging the wor
of G-d and taking away from the bible and they
quote Rev 2219 Lets look at that passage though
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• (Rev 2219) And2532 if1437 any man5100 shall
  take away851 from575 the3588 words3056 of the
  book976 of this5026 prophecy,4394 God2316 shall
  take away851 his846 part3313 out of575 the
  book976 of life,2222 and2532 out of1537 the3588
  holy40 city,4172 and2532 from the things which
  are written1125 in1722 this5129 book.975

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• First of all Im not challenging the word of G-d
  Im challenging the greek translation of the word
  of G-d.
• Theirs a big difference between challendging the
  bible and a translation of the bible
• Second of all this scripture in revelation
  doesnt apply, it didnt say take away the words
  of the Bible, it said this book, what book is
  that? Its the book of revelation. Its not the
  whole new testament, There was no new tetstament
  then then., so lets wise up.

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• Passionate man
• Good friend
• Good friend to Israel
• Great architect

75
Sources
Nicholas Of Damascus Greek historian and
philosopher whose works included a universal
history from the time of the Assyrian empire to
his own days. Nicholas an intimate friend of
Herod the Great, instructed Herod in rhetoric
and philosophy. Wrote, A Life Of Herod .
76
Sources
Mestrius Plutarchus
better known in English as Plutarch, was a Greek
historian, biographer, and essayist. Plutarch was
born to a prominent family in a town about twenty
miles east of Delphi.
77
Sources
Josephus (37 sometime after 100 AD), who became
known, in his capacity as a Roman citizen, as
Titus Flavius Josephus, was a 1st-century Jewish
historian and apologist of priestly and royal
ancestry who survived and recorded the
Destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD. His works give
an important insight into first-century Judaism.