People’s Daily Online — King Herod’s tomb unearthed in West Bank
The tomb of the Roman-anointed “King of the Jews,” Herod the Great, who ruled around the time of the birth of Christ, has been found in a hillside in the Judean desert, Israeli media reported on Wednesday.
Hebrew University archaeologist Ehud Netzer said on Tuesday he has found the sarcophagus of the king, who ruled Judea from about 37 BC until his death in 4 BC, had been smashed, most likely by Jews who rebelled against Rome from 66 AD to 72 AD.
Anyone else suddenly have the urge to sing “King Herod’s Song” from Jesus Christ Superstar?
There absolutely NO historical evidence that there was a mass slaughter of newborn male children around the alleged time of jesus, Besides which, the only documents (other than the bible) purporting to this were penned by Josephus almost 100 years after herod’s death and as such cannot be relied upon for proof of anything.
Mikey….
The bible is a historical document… get over it. Herod himself had no other evidence for existing until archaeologists found stuff that proved that it was right… again.
So, you should be saying “there is only ONE historical document”….
You get my point.
Not to start a religious war, but Herod’s “slaughter of the innocents” is the third such incident in the Bible (although the first in the New Testament).
Pharaoh’s slaughter of the Israelite children in Exodus.
God’s slaughter of the Egyptian children a few chapters later.
and Herod….
Did any of this happen? Probably not, nor is the story exclusively Judaeo-Christian. What it does is say that “this guy is totally evil, so whatever he gets, he deserves.”
(God’s action against the Egyptians is somewhat different in that sense, but as a “well deserved” punishment to the Egyptians.)
Don’t forget that “The Flood” is also an old Mesopotamian legend too.
Meantime, if that is Herod’s tomb, then we can be a little more sure that Josephus wasn’t writing his own history again….
(Which wasn’t all that uncommon until rather recently. Or “right now” in some countries.)
Regards,
Stu.
Textually, the Bible is better preserved (more manuscripts, and older in our possession today) than any other writing of its time period by orders of magnitude. You can argue theology if you like, but where it speaks on history it has repeatedly been shown to be correct. We are much more sure that Jesus taught what we think he did than Plato, Aristotle, ect..
Basically, I’m saying this really doesn’t surprise me.
…and why would we care?
Neither Herod nor Jesus matter in mankind history, and compared to other people , say Einstein… well, there is no comparison at all LOL
I know, religions that sprout from Jesus’ teachings has kept many idiots on a ‘right path’ (so they don’t kill, steal etc etc which they’d probably did if they weren’t religious) so they could go to some ‘heaven’ after they end their ‘righteous’ life, but other than that – what else is there we should thank Jesus for? (or any other religious leader for that matter, obviously)
The “history” of Jesus comes down to Mark, written in about 70 CE. It is nothing more than a running list of miracles and kingdom pronouncements. Nearly every part comes from the OT. Matthew and Luke, who apparently had to crib information from Mark about Jesus’ ministry, somehow discovered minute details about conversations between Herod and the wise men, conversations between angels and Mary, specific actions on the part of shepherds, etc, and then both provide us with inconsistent genealogies.
There is no contemporaneous report on Jesus’ ministry, and Paul shows a remarkable lack of knowledge, or interest, in Jesus’ life.
Jesus was a quasi-heavenly being, who Paul saw as suffering in heaven, and descending to Hell, and reascending to highest heaven. He was celebrated through a mystery styled ceremony. Mark wrote an apocalyptic “history” much like the Martyrdom of Isaiah which was mistakenly taken as history.
And I am aware of all the “In the flesh” and other passages in Paul.