While it is true that a "slaughter of the innocent" would have been recorded in the works of historians like Josephus had it been all across the region, but Herod knew the village where the purported rival was said to be born, Bethlehem. Demographic clues from first century Palestine reveal that Bethlehem was a small village, with a population between three hundred and a thousand. Experts estimate that, at any given time, the number of babies under the age of two would be only between seven and twenty. So numbers alone may be the reason why Josephus does not mention the murders.
Even further to this, Herod did things regularly of an awful and gruesome nature. He was not a nice man. So, in first century Palestine, in the midst of a hated Roman occupation, it is not surprising that such an event is not reported elsewhere.
This horrible deed done by Herod is recorded in Matthew:
Matthew 2:16-18
16Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying,
18In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. What most don't realize is that by the time the Wise Men got to Herod to ask about Jesus he was nearly two years old. He had already been circumcised. The Wise Men found Christ living in a "house" with his parents...not a stable. We only use that nonsense about the Wise Men for Christmas. In Matthew, Herod checked with the wise men and priests of Israel to note when that new "ruler" had been born and so he ordered the slaughter of all children two years old and under. This also brings us to the wrong assumption that Christ was born the year that Herod the Great died in 4 BCE. Based on events with the children and his own flight to Egypt, Jesus would have to have been born at least 2 -3 or maybe more years earlier, so as to allow for his time in Egypt.
Each of the Gospel writers, told the story for different reasons and by different perspectives. Luke was a detail guy and he told all the story so his is the most chronilogical, but that is not a problem for Matthew's testimony. If most of you out there want to understand The Bible better, you must read critically with a history book by your side.
(The Gospel according to) St. Matthew 2:16.
Jesus. John the Baptist also survived as he and Jesus were about the same age.
AnswerThe Christian tradition that King herod slaughtered 14,000 infants in and around Bethlehem is taught by many religious leaders. But this did not come from history; Matthew's Gospel does not give us this figure; the story of the Slaughter of the Innocents is not even mentioned in Luke's Gospel; and it was unknown to the Jewish historian Josephus. The slaughter of 14,000 boys under 2 years old, in and around the small town of Bethlehem, even defies logic, because it implies the population of a major city. It is more reasonable to say that it comes from a Christian desire to portray Herod as so evil that he killed such an astonishing number of innocents. The facts are that there was no Slaughter of the Innocents.
Another answer from our community:This story appears in only one of the canonical Gospels (Matthew 2:16), and nowhere in secular records. However, that does not make it non-historical. And, we know from secular history that Herod murdered his sons.
he had 2 boys.
King Herod , King of the Jews so he killed all the boys in his land under the age of 2 but Jesus escaped.
Yes it is true that the wise men came to see Jesus . As History states that King Herod ordered all boys below two years to be killed as the wisemen cheated King Herod.
Matthew's Gospel tells us that when King Herod of Palestine heard of Jesus' birth, he declared that all Jewish boys under the age of two years old to be killed. Jesus' estimated time of birth was approximately 4 B.C., so this order was likely carried out up to a year after Jesus' birth.
Herod was the king who ordered all baby boys killed, hoping to get rid of the One he thought was threatening his throne.
Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt with Jesus, so Africa.
King Herod. He killed all the baby boys in Bethlehem to be sure he killed Jesus but he didn't know that The Holy Family had fled to Egypt.In what is referred to as the "Massacre of the Innocents", King Herod (also known as Herod the Great or Herod I), decreed that all young male children in the vicinity of Bethlehem be killed, which would have included Jesus if Mary and Joseph had not fled to Egypt.
The order to kill the firstborn boys in Bethlehem was given by King Herod the Great. Fearing the prophecy of a new king, which he believed referred to the newborn Jesus, Herod sought to eliminate any potential threats to his throne. This event is known as the Massacre of the Innocents and is described in the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.
(The Gospel according to) St. Matthew 2:16.
King Harold
A:In Matthew's Gospel Mary, Joseph and Jesus fled from their home in Bethlehem to Egypt, out of fear that King Herod wished to have Jesus killed. They remained in Egypt until they had heard of Herod's death and then began the return journey to Bethlehem. Warned by an angel that Herod's son, Archelaus, still posed a threat, they turned aside from Bethlehem and travelled to Galilee, where they settled in a town called Nazareth. This is an entirely different nativity story to that in Luke's Gospel, where Nazareth was already the home of Mary and Jospeh, and where they remained at all times under King Herod's rule. There is no evidence that Herod had the boys under two years old killed and the first century Jewish historian Josephus, who willingly wrote everything he knew against Herod, never mentioned this. Scholars say that the author of Matthew's Gospel was simply trying to draw a parallel between Moses and Jesus.
A:We have no historical evidence of any Jewish kings ordering babies to be killed, although human sacrifice does seem to have been practised prior to the seventh-century-BCE reign of King Josiah. Based on one of the gospel accounts, it is possible that King Herod ordered the baby boys under two years old to be killed, when he discovered that the wise men had returned home a different way. If this were the case, we could expect the first-century Jewish historian, Josephus, to have reported on this, but neither he nor any other source even mentions Herod's 'Slaughter of the Innocents'.The Gospel of Matthew records King Herod as ordering the babies to be killed, but John Shelby Spong (Born of a Woman: A Bishop Rethinks the Birth of Jesus) says that the story is 'Christian midrash'.
Jesus. John the Baptist also survived as he and Jesus were about the same age.