Althouse: Good King Herod.

February 16, 2013

Good King Herod.

"It was probably very difficult being a local ruler caught between the Roman Empire and the different exigencies of Judaism, but he did it very well. In his time there was prosperity and work for everyone."

27 comments:

Terry said...: Didn't he try to kill Jesus?; 2/16/13, 12:12 PM
Paddy O said...: Not only was he a cruel person but also kept people in line!

So, is this win-win for some?

He really was a fascinating figure, from his rise to power to his death. A bit Qaddafi like, really, in many respects.; 2/16/13, 12:13 PM
Paddy O said...: A great resource on Herod is Josephus.

Click the link soon before copyright laws change yet again to extend even farther back into the past.; 2/16/13, 12:19 PM
George M. Spencer said...: New Year's Day commemorates Christ's circumcision, and Groundhog Day falls on the same day when he was first presented at Temple.

8 days...40 days.

You could look it up.; 2/16/13, 12:19 PM
ricpic said...: Don't blame Herod for ordering that all the baby boys in Bethlehem be killed, blame the intoxication of alliteration.; 2/16/13, 12:27 PM
Oso Negro said...: Oh well. Portrayed in an unflattering light by the early Jewish media cabal.; 2/16/13, 12:32 PM
Shanna said...: Didn't he try to kill Jesus?

At least the trains ran on time!; 2/16/13, 12:49 PM
Revenant said...: Didn't he try to kill Jesus?

Probably not, no.; 2/16/13, 12:52 PM
ken in tx said...: Shanna beat me to it.; 2/16/13, 1:05 PM
Wince said...: You mean to tell me King Herrod wasn't a flabby, overindulgent bisexual in white shorts with a bad singing voice?; 2/16/13, 1:43 PM
Paddy O said...: He tried to kill almost everybody at one time or another!; 2/16/13, 1:54 PM
Paddy O said...: "King Herrod wasn't a flabby, overindulgent bisexual in white shorts with a bad singing voice?"

Well, he wasn't just a flabby, overindulgent bisexual in white shorts with a bad singing voice.; 2/16/13, 1:55 PM
edutcher said...: He sounds like he wanted to be Pharaoh.; 2/16/13, 2:03 PM
traditionalguy said...: Herod the Great rebuilt the Temple of Solomon. It was his son also called Herod that Jesus refused to speak to on Good Friday morning causing Herod to have him beaten with rods and turned over to the Romans. Pontius Pilate then held his own brief and crowd controlled trial, ordered a near death Roman flogging of Jesus, and had Jesus crucified outside of the walls, with all of this done before 9:00 AM.

It is interesting that the Brits suddenly want to glamorize Rome's Bedouin puppet murderer as the best ruler possible in Jerusalem in place of David's tribe of Judah. Talk about timing.; 2/16/13, 2:06 PM
Lydia said...: Yeah, the BBC did chose to include that comment, but it was one made by a curator of the exhibit at the Israel Museum, not by a Brit.

There's a good article in Haaretz about the exhibit that shows some conflicted feelings among those at the museum about Herod.

I found this quote interesting: "We, the archaeologists, like it that he was the king who left the most significant traces behind, with no comparison to other kings.”; 2/16/13, 2:32 PM
James Pawlak said...: The winners write history. This was also true of Richard III whose remains were very recently found.
History has shown him to be a most excellent and just ruler in his Duchy.; 2/16/13, 3:30 PM
Sixty Bricks said...: Herod was a good guy and the jesus story is made up.; 2/16/13, 3:33 PM
traditionalguy said...: Paddy is right about Josephus, His history makes it sound like the Herod family had no time left after continual conspiring the murder and cover up of the murders of each family member by the others.; 2/16/13, 3:41 PM
Paddy O said...: "The winners write history."

Well, except for Josephus...; 2/16/13, 4:41 PM
The Godfather said...: No, rsb, the "Jesus story" was not "made up". No serious scholar supports that.

Now, if you mean the "slaughter of the innocents" was made up, you may have a point. That story is told only in the Gospel of Matthew, and may have been intended even by the writer as a metaphor.; 2/16/13, 4:56 PM
Anonymous said...: Althouse the Predictable.; 2/16/13, 5:36 PM
Anonymous said...: Althouse the Predictable.; 2/16/13, 5:37 PM
Sixty Bricks said...: Yeah Jesus lived and he also died and that was the end of him. Just like everyone else who has ever lived.
Jesus didn't go up to heaven just like Mohammed didn't go up there on a blue horse.; 2/16/13, 6:20 PM
Michael McNeil said...: “The winners write history.”
Well, except for Josephus…

Not to speak of Thucydides (History of the Peloponnesian War — which Athens, whose side he told, thoroughly lost — though its civilization was not extinguished, as sometimes happens when wars are lost). Thucydides, by the way, is one of the principal founding fathers of history as a subject we can read about (the other being Herodotus).; 2/16/13, 6:56 PM
Paul said...: Well it didn't work out so hot for those first born male babies in Bethlehem under Herod's rule, right?; 2/16/13, 7:30 PM
The Godfather said...: Thanks, rsb, for your eyewitness report on the death of Jesus. Now I can skip church tomorrow.; 2/16/13, 9:52 PM
Mitch H. said...: Ms Maayah says Israeli authorities did not consult her department about the exhibition even though it involves joint cultural heritage. "Actually we only heard about it from the media," she says.

The very voice of frustrated corruption, pissed at being cut out of the baksheesh.

You mean to tell me King Herrod wasn't a flabby, overindulgent bisexual in white shorts with a bad singing voice?

Wow, that has to be the worst performance of the King Herod piece I've ever heard. How the hell did they get from the original cast recording to this shit?

BTW, that's the wrong Herod, the one in the song is the tetrarch Herod Antipas, I think he was a son of the great king, who obviously was long dead by the time of the crucifixion, or else how would the family of Joseph ever have returned to Palestine?; 2/17/13, 7:00 AM