3. Although not corroborating the biblical narrative of Herod hunting Jesus, the King of Judea unquestionably existed and ruled, at least at times, in a tyrannical fashion
Herod I, also known as Herod the Great, reigned as the Roman client king of Judea and acts as a key antagonist in the New Testament narrative of the life of Jesus. Claimed in the Gospel of Matthew to have ordered the so-called “Massacre of the Innocents” and the murder of the baby Jesus in response to a prophecy, no historical evidence exists to support or corroborate this alleged event, which is today widely regarded as a fictitious invention by later Christians. However, this untrue insertion does not overrule the existence of Herod as ruler of Judea at the time of Jesus’ birth or his immense influence upon the world in which Jesus grew up.
A controversial ruler, Herod did unquestionably exist and was possessed of murderous proclivities. Responsible for the deaths of his wife, brother-in-law, and three of his sons, in addition to hundreds of others, Matthew’s depiction of Herod as a cruel and authoritarian ruler was not without merit. Dying in 4 BCE, the estimated year of Jesus’ birth, Herod was buried in a gigantic mausoleum complete with a pool more than twice the size of an Olympic swimming pool. Unfortunately, despite recovering his sarcophagus, along with definitive proof corroborating countless Roman sources of Herod’s existence, his body has already been looted.