Herod the Great

Hordos הוֹרְדוֹס, also known as Herod I or Herod the Great, was a Roman client-king of Judaea (c. 74 BC - c. 5, 4 or 1 BC in Jerusalem). The details of his biography can best be gleaned from the works of the 1st century AD Jewish historiographer Josephus. To the majority of non-specialist Christians Herod is best known from the Gospel according to Matthew that gives in chapter 2 an account of the events leading up to and including what subsequently has come to be referred to by Christians as the Massacre of the Innocents, of which however no mention in other contemporary sources has come down to us.

Herod the Great arose from a wealthy, influential Idumaean family. The Idumaeans, successors to the Edomites of the Hebrew Bible, settled in Idumea, formerly known as Edom, in southern Judea.

When the Maccabean John Hyrcanus conquered Idumea in 130-140 BC, he required all Idumaeans to obey Jewish law or to leave; most Idumaeans thus converted to Judaism.

According to some, archaeological evidence suggests that Herod identified himself as Jewish, although according to the Mosaic Law he was not. For he was the second son of Antipater the Idumaean, founder of the Herodian dynasty, and his wife Cypros, a princess from Petra in Nabatea (now part of Jordan). The family rubbed shoulders with the great in Rome, such as Pompey, Cassius, and in 47 BC his father was appointed Procurator over Judea, who then appointed his son governor of Galilee at the age of 25.

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