Thoughts on Matthew, Chapter 2   Elder Vanessa Justice

A history note about Herod the Great, compliments of David Guzik's commentary on Matthew, Chapter 2

Herod the Great (one of several Herods mentioned in the Bible, and the ancestor of the others) was famous for both his magnificent public building projects and his ruthless, cruel paranoia.

   i. Herod was not a Jew at all, but an Edomite, and Rome recognized him as a vassal king over Judea. The Jews tempered their great hatred of him with admiration for his building projects, such as the magnificent improvements made to the second temple.

  ii. Motivated by his great paranoia and cruelty, he murdered the members of the Sanhedrien, his wife, his mother in-law, and his three sons.

 iii. When Herod knew that his death was approaching, he had the most distinguished leaders of Jerusalem arrested on false charges. He ordered that as soon as he died, they should all be killed - he knew well no one would mourn his own death, so he was determined that some tears be shed when he died.

     'He was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him'. The fact that all Jerusalem was troubled with Herod is significant. This was due either to the fact that the people of Jerusalem rightly feared what sort of paranoid outburst might come from Herod upon hearing of a rival king being born, or because of the size and dignity of this caravan from the East."   Notes from David Guzik's commentary on Matthew Chapter 2.

  Epiphany--January 6--is the traditional observance of the arrival of the Magi, the Wise Men, to see the young child (ie, toddler) in his home/house most likely in Nazareth. Mat 2:11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.