"Even today the very name Herod resonates with evil." "He is one of the Bible's most notorious villains" " the king who slaughtered new-born babies" "By this bloodshed, he hoped to kill a child named Jesus;" "a child already called by some King of the Jews." "There is just one verse in the Gospel of Matthew that has made Herod a pariah." "But Herod stands accused by history as a brutal king." "The pattern of his entire life is to use violence as a solution to his problems." "So did Herod really carry out this horrendous slaughter?" "Herod the Great was a giant of the ancient world." "A powerful king, he ruled the land of Judea for over thirty years." "His legacy includes fine architecture, and impressive engineering." "But it's the killing of the children that has earned Herod his reputation as a tyrant." "Matthew explains in his Gospel how the crime took place." "Travellers from the eastjourneyed to King Herod's palace in Jerusalem." "Matthew calls them "wise men."" "They had seen a star, a sign that a new King of the Jews had been born." "This news troubled Herod." "He was King of the Jews." "Herod's High Priest warned him of a prophecy that a king would be born in the town of Bethlehem." "Herod asked the wise men to return and tell him where the child was." "Warned in a dream, the Wise Men secretly made their way home by a different route." "When the wise men didn't return Herod flew into an uncontrollable rage." "According to the Bible, he had planned to kill Jesus, and had failed." "Herod ordered the killing of every child in Bethlehem, under the age of two." "But there was at least one boy who escaped" "Joseph and Mary had taken their son and fled to Egypt." "The massacre is described in just one verse in the Bible." "A single verse has grown into one of history's most infamous crimes." "But the evidence that Herod ordered these murders is incredibly thin." "In fact, the story is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible." "In researching Herod's life, historian Peter Richardson has checked for any references to a mass murder of children." "I think it is important that even within the New Testament only Matthew tells the story, and Luke who tells of other incidents surrounding the birth of Jesus told from a quite different point of view in fact in Luke." "Luke knows nothing of this incident." "Luke isn't the only writer who fails to mention the massacre." "No other records of it have been found." "The Jewish historian Josephus lived in the first century AD." "He wrote about Herod and Jesus, yet he makes no reference to the killing." "Josephus knows nothing of this incident." "I think we have to simply grant that there is very little evidence for it." "We have only Matthew's account." "And that should make us just a little bit suspicious about the details of the story" "One verse from the Bible, one piece of evidence, is hardly enough to convict Herod." "But there's another way to investigate the killings." "By focussing on Herod himself, rather than the historical records, it may be possible to establish if he had the motive, and the capability for the crime." "Josephus wrote in detail about Herod's actions and even his feelings." "He got much of his information from Nicolas of Dam" "Herod's prime minister and court historian." "With such rich source material modern psychology can shed light on Herod's character and personality." "Josephus in the biography of Herod pays very close attention, unusually close attention, I think, to psychological facts of Herod's life, his paranoia, his violence, his melancholia and also his greatness." "So we get a lot of psychological detail in the biographical portrait of Herod and that's essential to make sense of Herod's life." "So was Herod ruthless enough to commit this crime?" "Josephus provides illuminating information about his early life." "Herod's father was prime minister of Judea a Roman province at the time, and a close friend of Julius Caesar." "His mother was an Arab princess from Petra, in present day Jordan." "Herod was born into a privileged world and had an early introduction to the power politics of his age." "In Herod's family he grows up with names at the table that his grandfather and his father have rubbed shoulders with" " Pompeii, Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony, Octavian, Cleopatra, Brutus, Cassius" " all of the great names are names right at the table." "Herod's own rise to power was fast." "At 25 he was appointed Governor of Galilee" "He married a woman called Doris and they had a son." "His life and career were taking off." "But Josephus writes that shortly after this, Herod's life took a fateful turn." "Returning from a successful military campaign, he was made a tantalising offer" "Betrothal to a beautiful teenage girl who was of Jewish royal blood" " Princess Mariamme." "Mariamme represented a golden opportunity for Herod." "She was from the royal family most Jews regarded as the rightful rulers of Judea." "Marrying her would be a powerful alliance for Herod." "But there was one problem." "He already had a wife and son." "Josephus writes that Herod acted decisively." "He banished Doris and their three-year-old son." "He went ahead with the betrothal and married Mariamme." "The Romans clearly saw Herod as a man after their own hearts." "Five years later, they named him "King of the Jews"." "He wants what he wants, nothing's going to stand in the way of what he wants, he's going to get what he wants." "He's very single-minded in that respect." "Herod was ambitious and unscrupulous." "But that's hardly grounds enough to condemn him as child killer." "In fact a very different side of his character emerges from a number of archaeological finds made in Israel over the last few decades." "They a reveal a king with sophisticated tastes, whose legacy as a great builder belies his reputation as a murderer." "Just south of Bethlehem, are the remains of an architectural wonder conceived and designed by Herod." "It's Herodium -a desert palace built by Herod, which, according to archaeologist Jodi Magness, is a testament to his engineering genius." "She has excavated inside Herodium and identified its unique design." "There are actually two palace complexes at Herodium." "There was a palace, or palace buildings, on top of the mountain, sort of in the mouth of the volcano, if you wish, and a palace complex at the foot of the mountain." "And that complex includes an enormous pool that had a pavilion in the middle of it and the pool would have been used for swimming and, perhaps, even for boating, and was supplied by aqueduct from springs that were located some miles away." "The sheer scale of Herodium has become apparent in the last thirty years." "Thanks to the work of archaeologists like Ehud Netzer." "He discovered royal apartments, guestrooms bathhouses, arcades, and gardens where Herod could entertain his family and his entire court." "A typical day of Herod at Herodium would be maybe he started with swimming." "There was a large swimming pool where the morning is very pleasant in the summer to swim." "I guess after a good breakfast he would meet many of the friends." "It seems that the site accommodated dozens if not hundreds, of family members." "No doubt, maybe some nice dinners, and a lot of wine there from Italy." "Herodium wasn't unique." "Forty miles to the south, by the shores of the Dead Sea is the most impressive of all Herod's palaces" " Masada." "It towers a thousand feet above the Judean desert." "Three stories high the palace is a sensational feat of building." "Josephus writes that Herod was directly involved, at every stage, in the design and location of his buildings." "Achievements like this suggest a highly cultured man." "Ajudgement that's difficult to square with his reputation as a child-killer." "But there's more than meets the eye at Masada and Herodium." "Both palaces say much about Herod's state of mind." "What's striking about Masada is that it's more than just a palace." "Built on a treacherous mountain, in a vast desert, it is an unassailable fortress." "A place where Herod could feel safe." "It seems the king was terrified of something." "And excavations here have revealed the depth of his insecurity." "Archaeologists have unearthed large storage rooms for food." "The water cisterns are the biggest ever discovered from the Roman Empire." "Herod had prepared Masada to withstand a very long siege." "Well we know that in addition to storing food and water on top of Masada, that Herod also stored an arsenal of weapons." "We do know also that Herod, of course, had soldiers stationed on top of the mountain and, in fact, after he died, the mountain continued to be occupied by a small garrison of soldiers." "Even the family palace of Herodium is deceptive for it too is in fact a fortress." "Another place born of deep insecurity." "The steep sides meant Herod could defend it with just a few soldiers." "Precisely how, was revealed when archaeologists found these huge stones at its base." "The big stones, we call them rolling stones, nothing to do with pop music, we call them rolling stones." "And this is if a group of soldiers would try to go as a group up, or a few ones, you roll them from the top, and then it is very frightening as well as effective if it hits the people" "Herod's fear was so strong that he built more than 20 fortresses across his kingdom" "Signals could be sent between the fortresses with mirrors." "They mirror the architecture of his paranoid mind." "He had these deep fears of being attacked and being vanquished and having his titles taken from him." "And the buildings speak to that fear quite directly." "Perhaps Herod felt so threatened that he would even kill the children of Bethlehem to protect his interests." "But what was he so afraid of?" "Documents from the period reveal a widespread desire among Jews for a different kind of king." "They believed that a great leader, a Messiah, would be chosen by God to overthrow Herod and become the true King of the Jews." "Biblical historian Warren Carter has studied the expectations of the times." "In Herod's day everyone knew the scriptures and their prophecies." "We do know that in some Jewish traditions during the time of Herod, there were some expectations among some people of a Messiah." "We have some psalms written in the name of Solomon that look for a king in the line of David who will come to Jerusalem and, without using military means, will somehow expel the Romans." "Herod was aware of these expectations and was aware of the threat that they posed." "The Jews had every reason to question Herod's claim to be their legitimate king" "They expected their king to be a full-blooded Jew and many were suspicious of Herod's Jewish origins." "Herod's Jewishness comes from the conversion of his grandfather." "Herod thus is a third generation Jew and he acquires his commitment to Judaism as a result of that conversion process, rather than through bloodline." "Herod himself did not have a drop of Jewish blood in him, though he was Jewish by religion." "In fact, Josephus wrote that much of the population looked down on Herod, especially those from old families." "This is why Herod married Princess Mariamme." "As a member of the Jewish royal family, she strengthened his claim to the title, King of the Jews." "Fear of his subjects explains why" "Herod built such an unusual network of fortresses across his kingdom." "Herod fortified Masada and other palaces as a sort of a fortification system against an internal threat, his Jewish population." "Because the Jewish population did not like him, did not accept him as the legitimate King, and he lived his life in fear that one-day they would rise up in revolt and try to kill him." "Herod was clearly worried." "There's evidence that he went out of his way to flatter his Jewish subjects" "He worked hard to gain popularity and public approval." "This is the Wailing Wall, one of the oldest landmarks in Jerusalem." "Jews from all over the world come here to pray." "This wall is all that's left of a spectacular building masterminded by Herod" "Precise descriptions by Josephus have allowed architects to recreate the entire building." "It is the Temple of Jerusalem, and it was Herod's idea." "The Temple was hailed by many at the time as the most beautiful building in the world." "It was a very public attempt by Herod to win the hearts and minds of the Jewish people." "Now, because there could only be in Judaism one temple building, the one in Jerusalem, therefore by definition, that was of course a very important building, because the entire Jewish religion was centred around that single building." "We do know that it was a very large and magnificent building with marble and gold and that it was surrounded by its own courtyard with towers and fortification walls." "18,000 workers were employed and more money was lavished on this temple than on any other building in the history of Judea." "We're told in one of the Jewish sources that God so favoured this project that it only rained at night during the years of the building of the temple, but every day was a sunny, dry day so that the project could proceed unhindered" "During the construction work" "Herod took great care to show respect for Jewish sensibilities." "On the human front it was important that the temple not be defiled during the time of the rebuilding." "And in order to get around that" "Herod had priests trained in all the relevant building technologies" " as masons, as carpenters and so on." "There's no question that Herod rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem in order to solidify his reputation with the Jewish people." "With such public devotion to the Jewish faith," "Herod should have won the approval of his people." "But despite everything he tried, Josephus says that many still despised him" "The roots of this hatred are not hard to trace." "Although Herod was King of the Jews, he had been appointed by an occupying power" " the Romans and to make things worse, he pandered to them at every opportunity." "In his next building project," "Herod took a step that caused great offence to the Jewish population and swept away any remaining traces of goodwill." "Herod's new project lies 60 miles northwest of Jerusalem and was once known as the jewel of the Mediterranean" " it is an entire city and seaport." "This aqueduct which supplied fresh water is one of the best preserved structures." "But in naming the city Herod delivered the highest insult to his Jewish population." "He named it Caesarea, in honour of the Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus." "Its amphitheatres arenas were packed with Roman entertainments despised by Jews as decadent and immoral." "Herod's hippodrome in Caesarea was for horse races, perhaps chariot races, but also could be used for gladiatorial games, battles with animals, between humans, those kinds of bloody spectacles." "This was the bloody underside of Roman civilisation." "Then Herod committed the unforgivable." "He built a temple, not to the god of the Jews, but to a Roman god, the Emperor." "He even funded a vast harbour with proceeds from Jewish taxes." "Little of it survives today but from the air it's still possible to make out the foundations of this sophisticated piece of engineering." "Architect Christopher Brandon has been carrying out underwater archaeology that is revealing the true scale of Herod's harbour." "What you first see is basically a reef, you think it's just a natural reef." "And then you start to see beam impressions postholes and you start to realise that this is not a natural feature this is a manmade structure." "Herod used a revolutionary building technique that had just been invented by the Romans" "Herod constructed this harbour by floating out wooden boxes, which were sunk in a line by filling them with concrete." "All it was is an enclosing wall, which was always filled with water, so the concrete was poured into the water and set within the water." "They formed a solid foundation, which he could then build the rest of the piers that actually formed the harbour itself." "In the final analysis, Herod's sympathies lay with the Romans." "No wonder Jews challenged the legitimacy of his kingship..." "No wonder he felt insecure." "It would certainly give him a motive for murdering the children of Bethlehem." "But was Herod actually capable of such a barbaric crime." "The first indication ofjust how far he would go came when he was 38 years old." "In 35 BC Herod appointed a new High Priest at the Temple in Jerusalem." "The High Priest was second in power only to the King." "Under pressure from his wife, Mariamme, and from her mother," "Herod appointed his brother-in-law, the 17 year old Aristobulus." "But Herod worried that powerful Jewish families might form an alliance against him, and back Aristobulus, a full-blooded Jew, as king." "Then at a poolside party, Aristobulus was mysteriously drowned." "Few believed it was an accident, and Josephus was convinced that Herod had had the young man drowned." "Here we find Herod ordering the drowning of Mariamme's brother, Aristobulus." "And this tells us first that Herod is paranoid and secondly, that he's capable of murder, even though the evidence is rather circumstantial." "The evidence would hardly stand up in a court of law." "But there was worse to come." "Five years later, Rome had a new ruler." "Octavian had defeated Mark Anthony." "Herod immediately switched his allegiance from Mark Anthony and went to pledge his loyalty to Octavian." "Josephus says Octavian was impressed and confirmed Herod as King of the Jews." "This was a risky step for Herod." "He left Jerusalem fearing Octavian's retribution for supporting his enemies." "In fact, Herod left secret orders for his wife, Mariamme, to be killed if he did not return alive." "Josephus writes that he could not bear the thought of her being with anybody else." "The relationship between Herod and Mariamme was by all accounts volatile, intensely volatile one might say." "It was not, as Josephus put it, of a calm nature." "Herod was deeply in love with Mariamme." "His love was intense and passionate." "Herod was horrified to discover that" "Mariamme had learned of his plans to have her killed." "Their marriage fell apart." "She stopped sleeping with him." "I do feel in his heart of hearts that Herod may have slightly resented Mariamme for not loving him with the intensity that he loved her." "But that again reveals something about Herod I think." "The fact that he has a very difficult time comprehending other people's emotions." "It's almost as if his view of the world is that everybody should accede to his wishes, and be what he wants them to be." "Increasingly jealous, Herod put Mariamme on trial" "Mariamme was brought before her own husband on a trumped up charge of adultery." "The penalty was death." "Herod's sister, Salome, was the chief witness against her." "Mariamme's mother, Alexandra, made a dramatic appearance at the trial and testified against her own daughter." "Josephus saw this as a reflection of Herod's hold on Alexandra." "She too was on his death list and probably incriminated her daughter to save her own life." "Herod declared Mariamme guilty and ordered her execution." "She was just 25 years old and had given him five children in seven years." "Josephus writes movingly that" "Mariamme was calm and serene as she went to her death." "If Herod could kill his own wife then perhaps he could murder rivals for his throne." "I see the turning point in Herod's life without doubt being his ordering of the murder of Mariamme, and that he begins down the avenue of his ruin from then on." "I think the ordering of that murder determines a lot of his psychological life from then on." "It determines a lot of his motives from then on." "But Herod might argue in mitigation that the killing of Mariamme was not a cold-blooded murder, but a crime of passion." "And indeed Josephus reports that Herod grieved for her loss." "Apparently Mariamme's death tore Herod apart." "He was consumed with remorse and refused to believe she was dead." "He wandered the palace, calling her name." "It does to some degree redeem Herod's character, he's not thoroughly unlikeable, he is capable of love, he is capable of grief." "He is absolutely undone by her death, and so we feel more warmly towards him because we don't see him as this vile beast any longer, we see him as this suffering person." "While the killing of Mariamme doesn't make Herod a mass murderer," "Josephus records that it did push him dangerously close to the edge." "He's psychotic." "He's hearing voices." "He's deeply depressed." "He's incapable of carrying on public affairs any longer so this is a this is a true psychotic break." "It's a definite turning point and it cements his fate." "Herod was by now seriously ill, his behaviour was erratic and there were reports of heavy drinking." "His enemies sensed he was losing his grip on the country." "Some even thought he'd lost his mind." "For the first time, there was a bold attempt to seize his throne." "The way Herod reacted gives the clearest indication yet of whether he could kill in cold blood." "With Herod lying ill" "Mariamme's mother made a wild bid for power." "Alexandra, declared herself Queen proclaiming that the King was no longer mentally fit to rule the country." "The historian Josephus says she made a fatal mistake." "Her action brought Herod out of his lair, fighting." "Without so much as a trial, he had Alexandra executed." "But that only served to increase the risk of a coup." "When he was 65, Herod's constant fears were confirmed when he heard that his two sons from his marriage to Mariamme, were plotting to assassinate him and seize the kingdom." "These were his own sons, from the woman he had loved." "It's good to remember that Herod in the later part of his life was completely unhinged." "He believed in solving problems through violence, he was also deeply paranoid, so when rumours are flying about possible efforts on the part of his sons to seize power from him," "Herod falls back on the behaviours that have worked for him psychologically in the past." "Herod decided to act." "He had his two sons executed." "In this same year, just eight miles away, in a manger in Bethlehem, a woman named Mary gave birth to a baby she called Jesus." "When the Wise Men arrived at Herod's court they met a king who had killed his wife and murdered her brother and her mother." "Just months before he had also killed two of his sons." "If Herod could kill his own children, it doesn't require a great leap of faith to believe he could also have killed the children of Bethlehem." "But if he did the mystery is why such a horrific episode is reported only in the Gospel of Matthew" "Why is the story absent from all the other contemporary historical sources" "Some scholars now believe that despite everything we know about Herod's paranoia and brutal crimes, there was in fact no massacre in Bethlehem." "They believe two different accounts of the killing of children got confused in the re-telling of the story through the ages." "I find it very suggestive that the birth of Jesus and the execution of two of Herod's children may have taken place in the very same year." "One of the things that might be happening in the Christian story about the massacre of the innocents at Bethlehem is that the horror of a father executing two of his own children has got transferred into the story of the birth of Jesus" "and has become the story of the execution of a bunch of children at the time of the birth of Jesus." "There's another possibility." "Perhaps the massacre did take place, but the historian Josephus deliberately left it out." "It's possible because Josephus is interested in the important people, the powerful people, kings and successors and rivals and allies." "And a little event in a nowhere town like Bethlehem with little people, it's not something that is particularly important in the grand scheme of things." "So it could be that it fell through the historical cracks in that way." "But the massacre of children, even in a small town, is certainly worthy some notice." "The Gospel of Matthew does not say how many children were killed." "Later accounts, however, insist that the numbers were huge." "The Greek Orthodox Church says Herod killed 14,000 boys, the Syrian Church speaks of 64,000, and later medieval authors went as far as 144,000." "But maybe the massacre was not on the scale that any of those traditions suggest." "Biblical historian Olu Peters approached this question by looking again at Matthew's account of the killings, in the original Greek." "The word massacre at that time connotes the idea of thousands of people that may have been killed." "But if you go back to the Gospel of Matthew, the word that is used there is "anaireo" that's the Greek word, not to be translated as "massacre" but as "the killing of infants."" "That word can be used for even the killing of one person." "So the word as it is used in Matthew does not give you the idea of thousands being killed." "In fact demographic clues from first century Palestine reveal that" "Bethlehem was a small village with a population between 300 and 1000." "At any given time, the number of babies under the age of two would be only between 7 and 20." "So numbers alone may be the reason why Josephus does not mention the murders" "That's still not enough evidence to convict Herod beyond a reasonable doubt but he certainly had the motive and the cold blooded capability." "And for some historians that is enough to condemn him." "It's overwhelmingly obvious to me that slaughtering the innocent children in Bethlehem is entirely consistent with Herod's way of dealing with problems in his life." "Violence is a theme in his life." "He killed his wife, after all, he killed his sons, so when he hears of this King of the Jews being born, and perceives a threat to his kingship, it seems perfectly understandable that he would resort to violence." "It's worked for him in the past." "And it worked for him over and over again" "Only five days before he himself died, Herod killed another plotter, this time it was his son Antipater." "This was his own first-born child, the baby boy he'd had with his first wife, Doris." "Herod finally died in his seventieth year and was buried at his desert palace, Herodium." "He is remembered today as the tyrant who tried to kill the infant Jesus." "Ironically although he failed, many historians now take the view that" "Herod actually created the conditions, for Christianity to flourish." "Herod has embodied roman rule in a way that has caused much misery and much pain and much hardship for much of the population." "There has been considerable resistance that has built up there is longing amongst some for a very different way of life." "The teaching of Jesus taps into this unrest, he envisages a different sort of society." "The teachings of Jesus offered hope and a better world to people who had been oppressed for more than a generation." "At the same time, Herod's connections with Rome allowed Christianity to spread out across the wider world." "The development of roads, for example, the Roman peace, the ability to take ships easily from one place quickly to another, the interest in literature - all of these things play into the ongoing strength of early Christianity" "as it develops in the first few generations." "So in some ways, Christianity has a kind of debt, dare I say, to Herod the Great for helping to create some of these conditions that allowed it to flourish." "Having failed to kill its founder," "Herod would be astonished to see what Christianity became, so far beyond the borders of his kingdom, where it began..."