In terms of wealth, power, and influence, Herod the Great rivaled King Solomon as the greatest king in the history of the Jews. Most Christians, however, know little more about Herod than what is reported in Matthew 2: his interaction with the Magi and the slaughter of Bethlehemâ??s infant boys. Far beyond the significance of those isolated incidents, Herod powerfully shaped the world in which Jesus and the earliest Christians lived.
The collective historical opinionâ??colored by Matthewâ??s accountâ??has viewed Herod as a paranoid, cruel, and murderous tyrant. Several historians, however, have recently sought to rehabilitate Herodâ??s image. Norman Gelbâ??s Herod the Great: Statesman, Visionary, Tyrant (Rowman and Littlefield, 2013), Geza Vermesâ??s The True Herod (Bloomsbury, 2014), and Adam Kolman Marshakâ??s The Many Faces of Herod the Great (Eerdmans, 2015) all seek to positively reassess his reign. Gelb and Vermes provide accessible accounts of Herodâ??s life, while Marshak provides an academic appraisal of Herodâ??s rule in terms of the ancient political, cultural, and religious expectations of a good king.
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