King Herod's Tomb Found!

Read the news story, with some photos from the excavation site here.

Israeli Archaeologist May Have Found Tomb of King Herod

King Herod the Great was appointed by the Romans to rule in Judea around 37 B.C. When Christ was born, Herod ordered the execution of boys in and near Bethlehem, who were two years old and under (Matthew 2:16). It has been debated whether or not this event actually occurred, since at present the only mention of it in ancient literature is in the gospel of Matthew. Even the Jewish historian Josephus, who recorded the life of Herod, made no mention of the event.

But there are is a simple explanation for why this event wouldn't have been noteworthy in the ancient world, except within Christianity.

Firstly, Bethlehem was a quite a small town of around 300-1000 people. Experts estimate that its population indicate that the number of baby boys two years old and under, at any given time, would have been around. Also, many accounts of King Herod's ruthlessness are recorded. He had a reputation for being willing to do anything to protect his throne and authority. While the infanticide described in the Bible is shocking in our modern context, it is entirely consistent with the types of things Herod did.

So while the Bible mentions historical events that have some relevance to the life of Jesus, other historical records, such as Josephus, give a more general account. For Josephus, whether or not he'd heard of the infanticide at Bethlehem, it wouldn't have been something out of the ordinary in the life of Herod, and there were plenty of other events to record, with more significance for Rome and the region as a whole. Even from the general Jewish perspective, events related to Jesus were not really noteworthy, because they didn't consider him significant. Jews were expecting their messiah to be an earthly king, like King David. A cruel but seemingly isolated event in Bethlehem would be soon forgotten.