The True Herod

Herod the Great is remembered as one of history’s bogeymen: the paranoid king of Matthew’s Gospel, scared of anyone usurping his rule. On hearing from Magi and priests about the future Messiah’s birth in Bethlehem, he has every child aged two years old and under slaughtered. Herod casts an ominous shadow over the nativity stories seen in primary schools, a pantomime villain.

According to Geza Vermes, who died in May 2013, the so-called Massacre of the Innocents never happened. It is a literary construction: Herod is configured as the pharaoh of the Exodus, the cruel ruler who killed Hebrew infant boys at the time of Moses, with Moses alone saved thanks to a reed basket floated on the Nile. By the time of the Gospel account, this story had evolved into an attested folkloric form, with Pharaoh warned of a future king by a prophetic sacred scribe. Matthew’s story was told for meaning, not for actuality: Jesus is like Moses.

The True Herod re-examines the evidence and offers a fresh telling of the story of Herod. Vermes also notes how Herod is presented over the centuries, including in film. We are confronted with a young man, born around the year 73 BC of an Idumaean Jewish convert father and a Nabataean (Arab) mother, who was thrust into responsibility as governor of Galilee at the age of 25 and embroiled in a fierce struggle within the ruling priestly dynasty of the Hasmoneans. Backed by successive powerful Romans, eventually Augustus, he was the Romans’ golden boy who would help them defeat the rival Parthians in 40 BC and become their loyal King of the Jews.

Clearly, Herod was ruthless and his family intrigues are worthy of a movie. The list of family and friends whom Herod executed included his beloved Hasmonean wife Mariamme and three of his sons. Vermes relishes telling these tales, but ultimately he is interested in what motivated Herod. Using Josephus, he identifies what drove him as a quest for honour. Lack of approval made Herod crave it and, as he gave honour to his mentors and benefactors, he wanted it back. His great buildings were sometimes erected for reasons of security, or architectural brilliance, but often also for honour, as in the case of the cities of Caesarea or Sebaste (for Augustus), with the greatest honour of all given to the God of the Jews: the rebuilt Temple of Jerusalem. In the end Herod would honour himself by building his glorious tomb and theatre at the fortress Herodium.

This beautiful book has been produced with the dedicated skill of Geza Vermes’ widow Margaret and a fine team at Bloomsbury/ T&T Clark. Assembling an array of gorgeous illustrations to match the lively text, they have created a lush product befitting Herod’s aesthetic. This is a rich read, despite its brevity, demonstrating the knowledge and understanding of an author at the peak of his powers, even so close to his death. In this book that honours the complex character of Herod, we have also an honourable tribute to the exceptional historian who wrote it.

Joan E. Taylor is Professor of Christian Origins and Second Temple Judaism at King’s College, London.

http://www.historytoday.com/blog/2014/08/true-herod