Smoodock's Blog

Skeptics are quick to point out that Herod’s slaughter of the innocents isn’t recorded by Josephus, the first century AD Jewish historian. In an earlier study of mine, concerning the Testimonium Flavianum, I concluded that, if we remove the probable Christian additions to Josephus’ account, what is left would have been testimony of the existence of Jesus—giving us an historical Jesus in opposition to the skeptics who conclude Jesus never existed. While an historical Jesus is plausible for skeptics to concede to in Josephus, a miraculous birth would not. If Josephus recorded Herod’s slaughter of the babies in and around Bethlehem, he would have highlighted an event described by Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth and given it some mundane credibility.

Josephus, however, wouldn’t do such a thing. Nonetheless, there is another reason why Josephus never records this event. It is supposed by many scholars that Josephus relied heavily upon Herod’s historian, Nicholas of Damascus for his own account of the deeds of Herod. It is unlikely that Nicholas would have recorded such an embarrassing event for a king to do, slaying babies. Therefore, it is plausible that Josephus simply ignored mentioning the deed, because Nicholas also overlooked it.

Nevertheless, Herod’s evil deed was known and couldn’t be hidden, because it was only a part of Herod’s paranoia and wicked deeds just prior to his death. He slew Mariamne, his wife, and his two sons by her, Alexander and Aristobulus, because he was paranoid over being overthrown as ruler of the Jews. He also slew his eldest son, Antipater, because he suspected him of trying to kill him (Herod). He had to seek permission from Caesar to slay his sons, because all of them were in line to succeed him at some point. A fourth century AD record testifies of the slaughter of the innocents:

“When he [Emperor Augustus] heard that among the boys in Syria under two years old whom Herod, king of the Jews, had ordered to kill, his own son was also killed, he said: it is better to be Herod’s pig, than his son.” [Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius, Saturnalia 2.4.11 (emphasis mine)]

Skeptics want to discount the mention of Herod slaying the babes, due to account’s late authorship, concluding that it is probable that Macrobius obtained his information from Matthew’s Gospel. However, this seems unlikely, because Matthew makes no mention of what Caesar said or the implication that a pig (unclean food for a Jew) could expect to live longer than Herod’s own sons. The mention of the deaths of Herod’s sons is what the makes the comparison with the pig work. The slaughter of the innocent children isn’t necessary to Macrobius’ point, and it also presumes his readers would know of the event and the reason for the deaths of the babies.[1]

Certainly, no one could claim slaying the babies would be something too horrible for Herod to do. The fact of the matter is, knowing that he was dying, he feared that no one would mourn his passing, because he was hated so much by the Jews. Therefore, he had planned to have an undisclosed number of prominent and beloved Jewish figures slain at the announcement of his own death. In so doing, the nation would mourn at the time of his death whether or not they liked. Therefore, just prior to his death he rounded up and imprisoned many highly renowned Jewish men, keeping them in the Hippodrome. He had commanded his sister, Salome and her husband Alexas, making them promise that they should have the men executed at the time of his death, but just prior to its public announcement. His hope was that if the Jews wouldn’t mourn him during the national mourning period, they would certainly mourn the time of his death, like it or not.[2]

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[1] It seems likely that Ambrosius’ information is based upon a different account than Matthew’s Gospel narrative, because Ambrosius’ source is much more detailed. The fact is, the only thing Matthew’s Gospel has in common with Ambrosius’ remark is the event, itself. This is hardly evidence that his remark was dependent upon his knowledge of the New Testament.

[2] See JOSEPHUS; Wars of the Jews; Book 1; chapter 33; section 5; Antiquities of the Jews; Book 17; chapter 6; section 5 (193).