2021-04-27

Tomb of Herod the Great discovered

massacre of the innocents ordered by herod the great    
Since I was a child I would become immersed in Bible stories. The special time which Christmas brought into my life each year lent itself to those stories surrounding the birth of Christ and how Joseph and Mary's flight to Egypt to escape the massacre of the innocents imposed by Herod 'the Great' was thwarted while so many first born children were murdered.

Over the years I have viewed many examples of fine art depicting this event and the sadness they invoke remain to this day.

I have a problem with calling anyone who would murder children 'the great' for any reason. There are quite a few who disagree with me on Herod's place in history and attribute his other accomplishments to that sobriquet. Be all of this as it may my picture of Herod the Great is somewhat less lofty than some others whom I have encountered in my various interactions.

    Tomb of Herod the Great
On this day in 2007, archaeologists in Israel discovered the tomb of Herod the Great in an area south of Jerusalem.

Herod I aka Herod the Great, was a Roman client king of Judea, referred to as the Herodian kingdom.

He lived circa 72 – 4 or 1 BCE and he is known for his building projects such as the renovation of the seond temple in Jerusalem, northern expansion of the Temple Mount, the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, construction of the port at Caesarea Maritima and the fortress at Masada and Herodium.

He is is described in the works of Josephus as a tyrant and he appears in the Christian Gospel of Matthew as the Judean ruler who ordered the massacre of the innocents around the birth of Christ. When he died his kingdom was divided among his sons and sister.

The location of Herod's tomb is documented by Josephus but the exact location was determined by an Israeli team of archaeologists from Hebrew University. The discovery has been contested as "too modest" to be that of Herod the Great and the scholars at Hebrew University stood by the earlier claims of identification and discovery.