The Slaughter of the Innocents: Historical Fact or Legendary Fiction?

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Excerpt In the December 2008 issue of National Geographic there was a well illustrated article on the recent excavations at the Herodian. This was the final burial place of Herod the Great, located 5 ½ kilometers southeast of Bethlehem as the angels fly. In the article, the author made this bold statement, reflecting current historical and theological understanding: “Herod is best known for slaughtering every male infant in Bethlehem in an attempt to kill Jesus. He is almost certainly innocent of this crime” (Mueller 2008:42). Was Herod the Great really innocent of this crime, or did this criminal act actually happen? Continue reading

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In the December 2008 issue of National Geographic there was a well illustrated article on the recent excavations at the Herodian.  This was the final burial place of Herod the Great, located 5 ½ kilometers southeast of Bethlehem as the angels fly.  In the article, the author made this bold statement, reflecting current historical and theological understanding: “Herod is best known for slaughtering every male infant in Bethlehem in an attempt to kill Jesus.  He is almost certainly innocent of this crime” (Mueller 2008:42).  Was Herod the Great really innocent of this crime, or did this criminal act actually happen?


Michael Grant, a popular writer on historical themes says of the Massacre of the Innocents: “The tale is not history but myth or folk-lore” (1971:12).  He went on to say, Herod became known as “Herod the Wicked, villain of many a legend, including the Massacre of the Innocents: the story is invented, though it is based, in one respect, on what is likely to be a historical fact, since Jesus Christ was probably born in one of the last years of Herod’s reign” (1971:228-229).  Elsewhere he says, “Matthew’s story of the Massacre of the Innocents by Herod the Great, because he was afraid of a child born in Bethlehem ‘to be King of the Jews’, is a myth allegedly fulfilling a prophecy by Jeremiah and mirroring history’s judgment of the great but evil potentate Herod, arising from many savage acts during the last years before his death in 4 BC” (1999:71).  Was the slaughter of the innocents a tale, myth, folk-lore, or legend?  Or was it a historical event?


Unfortunately archaeologists have yet to excavate the archives of the Jerusalem Post from the year 4 BC!  Nor does the first century AD Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus record this event in any of his writings.  Even though secular history is silent on this event it does not mean it did not occur.  When the life of Herod the Great is examined, this event is very consistent with his character and actions so this is pointing to the fact that it did happen as recorded in Holy Scripture.


The Gospel of Matthew records the event in this manner: “Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.  Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more’” (2:16-18, NKJV).


Herod’s Paranoia


In 1988 I was attending a lecture at the Jerusalem Center for Biblical Studies by Dr. Isaiah Gafni, a leading authority on the Second Temple period at the Hebrew University. His topic was the life of Herod the Great. Sitting next to me was Dr. Bruce Narramore, a Christian psychologist from Biola University.


Dr. Gafni recounted a seminar that was held at Hebrew University a few years before. Attending it were historians and archaeologists of the Second Temple period as well as psychiatrists and psychologists. They laid out (figuratively speaking) Herod the Great on the psychiatric couch and preceded to psychoanalyze him. The historians explained a recurring pattern in the life of Herod. He would hear a rumor that somebody was going to bump him off and take over his throne, but Herod would kill that person first. He would then go into depression. After awhile he would come out of his depression and would build, build, build. He would hear another rumor and would kill that person, then go into another depression. After awhile he would come out of this depression and would build, build, build. This cycle repeated itself a number of times in which numerous people were killed, including one of his ten wives as well as three of his sons! The shrinks diagnosed Herod the Great as a paranoid schizophrenic.


After the lecture I turned to Dr. Narramore and asked his analysis of Herod: “Well, do you think he was a paranoid schizophrenic?”  Bruce laughed and said, “No, he was a jerk!”  [That is a direct quote!].  Recently a historical / psychological analysis was done on Herod the Great and he was diagnosed with Paranoid Personality Disorder (Kasher and Witztum 2007:431).


The Historical Plausibility of the Slaughter of the Innocents


It is true; Josephus does not record the slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem.  He does, however, record a number of ruthless murders by Herod in order to keep his throne secure.


Herod was crowned “King of the Jews” by the Roman Senate in 40 BC in Rome.  He was, however, a king without a kingdom.   Upon his return to the Land of Israel, he was given a Roman army and was eventually able to capture Jerusalem.  The first order of business was to eliminate his Hasmonean predecessors.  Mattathias Antigonus was executed with the help of Mark Antony and Herod killed 45 leading men of Antigonus’ party in 37 BC (Antiquities 15:5-10; LCL 8:5-7).  He had the elderly John Hyrcanus II strangled over an alleged plot to overthrow Herod in 30 BC (Antiquities 15:173-178; LCL 8:83-85).


Herod continued to purge the Hasmonean family.  He eliminated his brother-in-law, Aristobulus, who was at the time an 18 year old High Priest.  He was drowned in 35 BC by Herod’s men in the swimming pool of the winter palace in Jericho because Herod thought the Romans would favor Aristobulus as ruler of Judea instead of him (Antiquities 15:50-56; LCL 8:25-29; Netzer 2001:21-25).  He also had his Hasmonean mother-in-law, Alexandra (the mother of Mariamme) executed in 28 BC (Antiquities 15:247-251; LCL 8:117-119).  He even killed his second wife Miriamme in 29 BC.  She was his beloved Hasmonean bride whom he loved to death [literally, no pun intended] (Antiquities 15:222-236; LCL 8:107-113).


Around 20 BC, Herod remitted one third of the people’s taxes in order to curry favor with them, however, he did set up an internal spy network and eliminated people suspected of revolt, most being taken to Hyrcania, a fortress in the Judean Desert (Antiquities 15:365-372; LCL 8:177-181).


Herod also had three of his sons killed.  The first two, Alexander and Aristobulus, the sons of Mariamme, were strangled in Sebaste (Samaria) in 7 BC and buried at the Alexandrium (Antiquities 16:392-394; LCL 8:365-367; Netzer 2001:68-70).  The last, only five days before Herod’s own death, was Antipater who was buried without ceremony at Hyrcania (Antiquities 17:182-187; LCL 8:457-459; Netzer 2001:75; Gutfeld 2006:46-61).


Herod the Great became extremely paranoid during the last four years of his life (8-4 BC).  On one occasion, in 7 BC, he had 300 military leaders executed (Antiquities 16:393-394; LCL 8:365).  On another, he had a number of Pharisees executed in the same year after it was revealed that they predicted to Pheroras’ wife [Pheroras was Herod’s youngest brother and tetrarch of Perea] “that by God’s decree Herod’s throne would be taken from him, both from himself and his descendents, and the royal power would fall to her and Pheroras and to any children they might have” (Antiquities 17:42-45; LCL 8:393).  With prophecies like these circulating within his kingdom, is it any wonder Herod wanted to eliminate Jesus when the wise men revealed the new “king of the Jews” had been born (Matt. 2:1-2)?! (For a full discussion of these historical events, see France 1979 and Maier 1998).


Macrobius (ca. AD 400), one of the last pagan writers in Rome, in his book Saturnalia, wrote: “When it was heard that, as part of the slaughter of boys up to two years old, Herod, king of the Jews, had ordered his own son to be killed, he [the Emperor Augustus] remarked, ‘It is better to be Herod’s pig [Gr. hys] than his son’ [Gr. huios]” (2.4.11; cited in Brown 1993:226).  Macrobius may have gotten some of his historical facts garbled, but he could have given us a chronological key as well.  If he was referring to the death of Antipater in 4 BC, the slaughter of the Innocents would have been one of the last, if not the last, brutal killings of Herod before he died.  What is also interesting is the word-play in the quote attributed to Augustus- “pig” and “son” are similar sounding words in Greek.  Herod would not kill a pig because he kept kosher, at least among the Jews; yet he had no qualms killing his own sons!


Why did Josephus not record this event?


There are several possible explanations as to why Josephus did not record this event.  First, Josephus, writing at the end of the first century AD may not have been aware of the slaughter in Bethlehem at the end of the first century BC.  There were some pivotal events in the first century AD that Josephus does not record.  For example, the episode of the golden Roman shields in Jerusalem which was the cause of the bad blood between Herod Antipas and Pontus Pilate (cf. Luke 23:12).  It was the Jewish philosopher, Philo of Alexandria that recorded this event (Embassy to Gaius 38:299-305; Maier 1969:109-121).  It should also be pointed out that Josephus got some of his information from Nicolas of Damascus who was Herod the Greats friend and personal historian.  Nicolas may not have recorded such a terrible deed so as not to blacken the reputation of his friend any more than he had too (Brown 1993:226, footnote 34).


Second, the massacre might not have been as large as later church history records.  The Martyrdom of Matthew states that 3,000 baby were slaughtered.  The Byzantine liturgy places the number at 14,000 and the Syrian tradition says 64,000 innocent children were killed (Brown 1993:205).  Yet Professor William F. Albright, the dean of American archaeology in the Holy Land, estimates that the population of Bethlehem at the time of Jesus’ birth to be about 300 people (Albright and Mann 1971:19).  The number of male children, two years old or younger, would be about six or seven (Maier 1998:178, footnote 25).  This would hardly be a newsworthy event in light of what else was going on at the time.  Please do not get me wrong, one innocent child being killed is a horrific tragedy.
 
Based on the date of Jesus’ birth provided by Clement of Alexandria (ca. 200 AD), Jesus would have been born on May 14, 6 BC (Faulstich 1998:109-112).  The wise men from the east do not arrive in Jerusalem to visit Herod and then go on to Bethlehem until at least 50 days after the birth of the Lord Jesus, but more than likely a year to a year and a half later.  When Mary performed the ritual of purification for her firstborn in the Temple she offered two turtledoves, the offering of the poor (Luke 2:22-24; cf. Lev. 12:8).  If the wise men had already arrived with their gold, frankincense and myrrh, Mary would have been obligated to offer a lamb and would have had the means to do so (Lev. 12:6).  Herod inquired of the wise men when the star first appeared and instructed them to go and find the “King of the Jews” and return and tell him so he could go and worship the young Child as well (Matt. 2:7-9).  Herod realized he was tricked when the wise men returned home another way after they were warned in a dream of Herod’s evil intentions (2:12).  Herod calculated the age of the young Child based on the testimony of the wise men as to when the star first appeared.  He ordered the killing of all male children in Bethlehem and its immediate vicinity who were two years old and younger (2:16).  Herod dies in March of 4 BC, just under two years from the birth of Jesus.


Right before he dies, Herod realizes nobody will mourn for him at his death.  He hatched a diabolical scheme to make sure everybody will morn at his death, even if it was not for him.  He ordered all the notable Jews from all parts of his kingdom to come to him in Jericho under penalty of death.  He placed them in the hippodrome of Jericho and left instructions for the soldiers to kill all the notables upon his death (Antiquities 17:174-181; LCL 8:451-455; Netzer 2001:64-67).  Fortunately, after the death of Herod, his sister Salome countermanded the order and released the Jewish leaders.  Ironically, Herod died on the Feast of Purim and there was much rejoicing at the death of Herod the Wicked (cf. Esther 8:15-17; Faulstich 1998:110)!


Five days before he died, Herod executed his oldest son Antipater (Antiquities 17:187; LCL 8:457-459).  During that time period he also executed, by burning alive, two leading rabbis and then executed their students for participating in the “eagle affair” in the Temple (Antiquities 17:149-167; LCL 8:439-449; Wars 1:655; LCL 2:311).


Paul L. Maier has pointed out, “Josephus wrote for a Greco-Roman audience, which would have little concern for infant deaths.  Greeks regularly practiced infanticide as a kind of birth control, particularly in Sparta, while the Roman father had the right not to lift his baby off the floor after birth, letting it die” (1998:179).


Josephus, even if he knew of the slaughter of the innocents, would have deemed this episode unimportant in light of all the other monumental events going on at the time of the death of Herod the Great, thus not including it in his writings.


Conclusions


The slaughter of the innocents is unattested in secular records, but the historical plausibility of this event happening is consistent with the character and actions of Herod the Great.  Besides killing his enemies, he had no qualms in killing family members and friends as well.  Herod would not have given a second thought about killing a handful of babies in a small, obscure village south of Jerusalem in order to keep his throne secure for himself, or his sons, even if it was one of the last dastardly deeds he committed before he died.  As Herod lay dying, raked in pain and agony, the men of God and those with special wisdom opined that Herod was suffering these things because it was “the penalty that God was exacting of the king for his great impiety” (Antiquities 17:170; LCL 8:449-451).


Bibliography


Albright, William; and C. S. Mann
1971 The Anchor Bible.  Matthew.  New York: Doubleday.


Brown, Raymond
1993 The Birth of the Messiah.  A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.  New York: Doubleday.


Faulstich, Eugene
1998 Studies in O.T. and N.T. Chronology.  Pp. 97-117 in Chronos, Kairos, Christos II.  Edited by E. J. Vardaman.  Macon, GA: Mercer University.


France, Richard
1979 Herod and the Children of Bethlehem.  Novum Testamentum 31/2:98-120.


Grant, Michael
1971 Herod the Great.  New York: American Heritage.

1999 Jesus.  London: Phoenix.


Gutfeld, Oren
2006 Hyrcania’s Mysterious Tunnels.  Searching for the Treasures of the Copper Scrolls.  Biblical Archaeology Review 32/5:46-61.


Josephus
1976 Jewish Wars, Books 1-3.  Vol. 2.  Trans. by H. Thackeray.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.  Loeb Classical Library 203.

1980 Antiquities of the Jews 15-17.  Vol. 8.  Trans. by R. Marcus and A. Wikgren.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.  Loeb Classical Library 410.


Kasher, Aryeh; with Witztum, Eliezer
2007 King Herod: A Persecuted Persecutor.  Trans. by K. Gold.  Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter.


Maier, Paul
1969 The Episode of the Golden Roman Shields in Jerusalem.  Harvard Theological Review 62:109-121.

1998 Herod and the Infants of Bethlehem.  Pp. 169-189 in Chronos, Kairos, Christos II.  Edited by E. J. Vardaman.  Macon, GA: Mercer University.


Mueller, Tom
2008 Herod.  The Holy Land’s Visionary Builder.  National Geographic 214/6:34-59.


Netzer, Ehud
2001 The Palaces of the Hasmoneans and Herod the Great.  Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi Institute and Israel Exploration Society.

 

Comments Comment RSS

12/11/2009 5:47 AM #

Whether or not Herod can be accused of said atrocities, the authors statement, "Ironically, Herod died on the Feast of Purim and there was much rejoicing at the death of Herod the Wicked (Esther 8:15-17; Faulstich 1998:110)!" is completely false. The Jews of Shushan were rejoicing when the plots of Hamen were thwarted not because of the death of Herod. The story of Purim was during Persian times not Roman. If the author could not get this simple fact straight then I suspect his complete thesis, is suspect as well.

Herbert Burack - 12/11/2009 5:47:44 AM

12/11/2009 6:24 AM #

Very interesting article.  Two points that caught my attention: first Dec 25th is not Jesus birthday. (that won't surprise most people) second: the astrologers that visited Jesus quite some time after he was born, not the night of his birth as depicted in nativity pageants brought danger to the messiah.  One wonders if these pagan astrologers so called wise men and the star they followed  that lead them to jerusalem first and then to Bethlehem after have any place in the nativity.  

cindy - 12/11/2009 6:24:23 AM

12/11/2009 6:42 AM #

I side with Albright plus add the fact that  if there were more than a few infants killed then we probably would have heard about it for it would be an event that could not be kept silent.

dr. david tee - 12/11/2009 6:42:45 AM

12/11/2009 7:35 AM #

I would also like to point out that the Bible does NOT provide any details as to  HOW Herod sent His men.  It would be wrong to assume that He allowed it to look like he was responsible for the deed. It is possible that he had it look like an opponent to the throne did it or some other nefarious scheme so he could be blameless and look like the hero when the men were 'caught'.

there are too many options available that could e used to disguise the act and originator dispelling the claims that the account is a myth.

dr. david tee - 12/11/2009 7:35:48 AM

12/11/2009 8:15 AM #

Excellent synopsis of the real and pertinent facts surrounding this event! Thanks.

Greg Gulbrandsen - 12/11/2009 8:15:36 AM

12/11/2009 10:54 AM #

Dear Herbert, (re:12/10/09) post...

Uh....the Feast of Purim is celebrated as a remembrance of what happened in the book of Esther. Herod died at that same time of year. The death of Herod was not the occasion of the original event. It was the anniversary of the event that occurred first in the Persian period. You should read our articles more carefully before throwing stones.

ABR

ABR - 12/11/2009 10:54:39 AM

12/11/2009 11:14 AM #

In response to Birack above: The Jews have for many centuries, and still do, celebrated Purim with great rejoicing. They would have been doing so at the time of the death of Herod. Many could have been celebrating the death of Herod at the same time.
Great article.
Thanks

Glen A. - 12/11/2009 11:14:22 AM

12/12/2009 6:27 AM #

To me, the fact that Herod was already officially known as "The King of the Jews" for decades before the birth of Jesus, together with Herod's "habit" of liquidating any potential rivals to his position, makes the murder of the innocents in Matthew's account of Jesus' childhood entirely understandable.

The "King of the Jews" title for Jesus was made very public by Pontius Pilate on the placard affixed to Jesus' cross. If Pilate knew about this title, Herod, a much shrewder man than Pilate, is unlikely to have missed such a "vital piece of intelligence".

John Wigg - 12/12/2009 6:27:00 AM

12/12/2009 9:51 AM #

In addition to the fact that Josephus is known to have not mentioned some significant events that other sources of that era mentioned, we should keep in mind the pro-Christian nature of the event in question. Matthew's gospel probably was circulating before Josephus published his material on Herod, and the traditions behind Matthew's gospel would have been circulating even earlier. Christians were already using the account for their own purposes. The Slaughter of the Innocents elicits sympathy for Christianity, it suggests that Jesus was under God's protection, and it involves Jesus' fulfillment of a commonly accepted Messianic prophecy (Micah 5:2). Josephus had enough other material on Herod to avoid utilizing an account that had such pro-Christian implications, an account that was being utilized by the Christians of his day. Similarly, Josephus makes vague reference to the miracles of Jesus, demonstrating that he was aware of them, without going into detail. He knew more than he wrote.

Jason Engwer - 12/12/2009 9:51:39 AM

12/15/2009 6:04 PM #

"Ironically, Herod died on the Feast of Purim and there was much rejoicing at the death of Herod the Wicked"

I read this as such: "Because of the Feast of Purim there was much rejoicing on the day that Herod died. Which is pretty Ironic"

I'm pretty sure the author is not claiming that the Feast of Purim is celebrated because of the death of Herod. Great article. It was interesting seeing into the mind of Herod. Given all we know about Herod, it does not seem too far fectched that he would have slaughtered babies. He slaughtered everyone else.

David Casey - 12/15/2009 6:04:05 PM

12/22/2009 3:33 PM #

Re: Herbert Burack's comments about Purim - that's like saying that if someone is celebrating on 25th December this year, they can't be celebrating Christmas because Jesus was born about 2000 years ago...
I believe Jews will be celebrating Purim next year from 28th of February to 1st of March.
Also, I'm sure Gordon Franz is well aware of when the original Purim occurred!

Ailsa - 12/22/2009 3:33:11 PM

1/14/2010 8:20 AM #

Herod was indeed paranoid about remaining King of Judea, and would not bat an eye at arranging the death of the male babies of Bethlehem.  However, Bethlehem was a very tiny village, and the original figure tradition claims were slain was 3,000.  By the Byzantine era this grew to 14,000, the Syrians later claimed 64,000 were slain, and by the medieval period, the number had grown to 144,000.  This suited Near Eastern merchants who would sell one or more (freshly disinterred) corpses of infants to gullible pilgrims and travellers, often for huge sums of money.  

Thus, several bodies of the alleged victims were to be found in Rome at St. Paul's Outside the Walls.  Later Pope Sixtus V translated (moved) some of these relics to the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, also in Rome.  Padua, Italy claimed one martyred child in the church of St. Justina.  The cathedrals of Lisbon and Milan also had relics.  Still more relics could be found in England, France and Germany.  

A day commemorating the slaughter of the babies was not fixed until 485 AD, with Roman Catholics choosing December 28th to honor the slaughter of the Holy Innocents, while other confessions chose December 27th or 29th.  The Armenians chose May 11th.  In England the commemorative day was known as Childermas, presided over by a boy bishop, as was the case in France and Germany.

In the medieval morality plays King Herod is represented as a screaming, raging monster, ranting, making florid gestures.  Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, has the prince advise the players he has hired to entertain the court, not to speak bombastically, as "...it out-Herods Herod."l

I believe perhaps half a dozen infants were slaughtered on Herod's orders; all the rest--numbers slain, alleged relics--are pure fiction.

Joyce - 1/14/2010 8:20:06 AM

3/21/2010 7:38 PM #

One of the reasons that evidence of the slaughter have not turned up is that people are looking for evidence far to late. Christ was born about 15 BC. Maybe if records of that era were searched Some ting would be found. Herod murdered so many people during his reign that a couple of dozen young boys might well go unwritten.

D L Frakes - 3/21/2010 7:38:20 PM

10/18/2010 11:57 AM #

Excellent article! Thank you!

Maggie Kelly - 10/18/2010 11:57:18 AM

12/22/2010 9:57 PM #

For those who are not aware of Jewish celebrations, we still rejoice during Purim.
Yechiel

Yechiel Shlipshon - 12/22/2010 9:57:58 PM

3/14/2011 8:03 PM #

I am still trying to stop wondering how come Elisabeth's babe, John the Baptist, who did not flee was not killed? He indeed was not even close to the 2 year old cut off required for safety!

Verhoeven A. P. - 3/14/2011 8:03:26 PM

3/15/2011 12:44 PM #

The answer to your wondering is quite simple. Herod killed the babies in the Bethlehem area to the south of Jerusalem, not the Jerusalem area. According to tradition, John the Baptizer (remember: John was a Jew, not a baptist) was born in Ein Karem, a few kilometers to the west of Jerusalem. Thus he was not affected by the decree. No need to wonder any more.

Gordon Franz

Gordon Franz - 3/15/2011 12:44:49 PM

10/8/2011 10:39 PM #

a man that haves no problem killing his own family is enough  evidence that he would have no problem killing babies  

Travis - 10/8/2011 10:39:05 PM

12/26/2012 6:12 AM #

I disagree with a number of things in this article. First Jesus was born around 2BC. Second the population was Rachel crying for her children, Benjamin and possibly because of plural, Ephraim and Manasseh, it was Bethlehem and its surrounds including Jerusalem. Third Jesus was born on 25th day of Kislev (for good reason), which in our date system December to Kislev gives 25th December (blame the Puritans circa 1600s for the disagreement). Fourth the population was much larger than one which produces 6 or 7 murders because of surrounding areas. Fifth the Magi found Jesus about 12 days after he was born.

Darryl - 12/26/2012 6:12:28 AM

12/26/2012 6:24 AM #

And I neglected to mention that John the Baptist was taken by his mother trans Jordan, to escape the murder, and his father Zechariah was quite possibly murdered for refusing information about the whereabouts of his son. Hence John grew up in the area he spent much of his ministry and in tough times, learning to survive eating locusts and wild honey.

Darryl - 12/26/2012 6:24:33 AM

12/26/2012 3:07 PM #

you all may want to look again. Herod died in 4 BC, and the slaughter of the innocents did happen-6th century bc-in what today we call India. It is in the sacred writings of the hinhus, when Khrishna was born
As for the date, wise men and three divinities? Found in  many sacred writings of several other faiths. Not all, neccessarily, but everyone BC.
Have fun, y'all.

Yechiel Shlipshon - 12/26/2012 3:07:07 PM

12/29/2013 1:42 PM #

In response to Darryl:
Many churches celebrate the day the wise men found Jesus on Epiphany (12 days after Christmas.) This does not necessarily mean that they actually found him 12 days after his birth.

Laura - 12/29/2013 1:42:50 PM

1/6/2014 2:18 PM #

The excuse that a Herod's biographer omitted the slaughter because  the memory of a man who would kill his own family members, and dozens of others,  would be "dirtied" by ordering the killing of infants,  is ridiculous.

Papa - 1/6/2014 2:18:51 PM

2/17/2014 12:10 PM #

Is Herod attempted to kill all the males less than two years of age in Bethlehem, what hope would he have of killing Jesus who lived a hundred miles away in Nazareth?

Ralph Fredericks - 2/17/2014 12:10:33 PM

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