Origins and early years
Herod's grandfather Antipater submitted to the Hasmonean Judean state, converted to Judaism, and retained power over Idumea. Herod's father Antipater the Idumean actively supported Roman expansion (culminating in the capture of Jerusalem by Pompey in 63 BC), hoping to weaken the Jews. In 47 BC. e. Herod received Roman citizenship.
Accession
Herod began his political career in 48 BC. e. as the 25-year-old governor (tetrarch) of Galilee (ID book 14, ch. 9: 2), where he became famous for defeating the rebels of Ezekiah (father of Judas Galilean). The defeat and execution of the "Galilean robbers" evoked approval from the Roman governors of Syria and condemnation from conservative Jews.
Having reigned, Herod dealt with 45 active supporters of Antigonus and made sure that the overthrown and captured last Jewish king of the Hasmonean dynasty was executed in Antioch.
31 BC became the “black year” for Herod. e. When, after the Battle of Actium, Mark Anthony was defeated, southern tribes invaded Judea, and in Jerusalem itself there was a major earthquake that claimed 30 thousand lives (ID Book 15, Ch. 5: 1-2). However, Herod got out of this difficult situation with honor: he established contact with the new Roman Caesar Octavian Augustus, expelled the Arabs and launched large-scale construction throughout the country.
Tsar builder
The most important work of Herod the Great was the reconstruction of the Second Temple (Temple of Zerubbabel), which, despite this, did not become known as the Temple of Herod, but retained its name and was still considered the Second Temple, not the Third. Construction began in 22 BC. e. and lasted 9 years. During the work, the services in the Temple did not stop. In 2009, archaeologists discovered quarries where material for the construction of the Temple was mined.
In the suburbs of Jerusalem, Herod built an amphitheater excavated by Israeli scientists. On the arena of this amphitheater, once [a year?] In honor of Caesar, international gladiator fights, competitions of wrestlers and gymnasts, horse races were held (ID book 15, ch.8: 1). Thus, Herod acted as a conductor of Hellenization in Judea, which aroused indignation of the conservative elements of Jewish society, which even attempted to kill the king. In addition to the amphitheater in Jerusalem itself, Herod erected a palace and citadel for Antonia. In honor of his deceased brother Fazael, Herod built a mausoleum with a tower that was not inferior in height to the Pharos lighthouse (ID book 16, ch.5: 2).
Herod also built the Mediterranean port of Caesarea with a theater on the site of the Straton Tower. Samaria underwent a complete reconstruction, renamed in the Greek manner to Sebastia, where Herod built housing for his soldiers. Gaza and Massada were rebuilt, Herodion and Esevon were founded (on the territory of modern Jordan).
The scale of the construction of King Herod went beyond the territory of Judea. As a thank you for the hospitality, he built a Pythian temple on the island of Rhodes. In Antioch, at his own expense, he paved the area of \u200b\u200bthe city (ID book 16, ch.5: 3).
Fight hunger
Around 25 BC. e. The kingdom of Judah suffered a poor harvest and the subsequent famine. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the treasury was depleted by the large-scale construction of the past years. Then Herod collected all the gold in his palace and exchanged it in Egypt for bread (ID Book 15, Ch. 9: 2). The swift and effective fight against hunger won the love of Herod and disarmed his enemies.
End of reign
Last years Herod's reign is marked by particular suspicion, vindictiveness and cruelty. If earlier the danger came only from conservative elements, now he began to suspect of conspiracies his closest circle, including relatives. So, on a denunciation, he ordered the execution of his own sons Alexander and Aristobulus (hanged in Samaria), as well as Antipater.
Death
Herod lived to old age, reigning in Jerusalem for 34 years (ID book 17, ch.8: 1) and living for 70 years. However, before his death, he suffered severely from abdominal pain. After unsuccessful attempts to recover, he came to terms with his death, regretting that after death he would deserve the condemnation of his subjects. Herod paid the salaries of his loyal soldiers. In the will, amended before his death, Herod appointed his eldest son Archelaus as heir to the throne, and his brother Antipas as tetrarch. However, Octavian Augustus, for whose approval Archelaus took his will to Rome, gave him only half of the kingdom (Edom, Judea, Samaria, Caesarea, Joppa and Jerusalem) with the title of ethnarch and a promise to elevate him to the royal dignity, as soon as he shows himself worthy of this. He divided the second half into two tetrarchies, which he gave to the other two sons of Herod: Philip (Batanea, Trachoneus and Avran) and Antipas (Perea and Galilee).
This disaster befell Jerusalem at the consulate of Mark Agrippa and Caninius Gallus, in the third month of the one hundred and eighty-fifth Olympiad, and again on the day of fasting, as if to repeat the misfortune that befell the Jews under Pompey: twenty-seven years ago, on the same day, the city was taken last.
Josephus states that Herod died "reigning thirty-four years after the death of Antigonus [after the conquest of Jerusalem] and thirty-seven years after being proclaimed king by the Romans." This may indicate that the date of his death is 2 BC. e. or early 1 BC e.
He then died, five days after Antipater's execution, reigning thirty-four years after the assassination of Antigonus and thirty-seven years after being proclaimed king by the Romans.
Historians also draw attention to the fact that for the events described, 29 days between the partial eclipse of 4 BC are not enough. e. and subsequent Easter, it would take at least 10 weeks. But on January 10, 1 BC. e., 12.5 weeks before Easter, there was a total lunar eclipse, which was observed in Judea.
The story of beating babies
Title "Great"
Assigned by historians to Herod after his death. They explained it by the dexterity of Herod the politician, the grandiose achievements of Herod the builder, as well as the luxury of the court of Herod the ruler. This title mainly distinguishes Herod from his heirs, who bore the same name, but does not contain a moral assessment of this ruler - vicious, insidious and cruel.
see also
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Notes
- (English)
- ... - Imprimis. - Hillsdale college. - (English)
- Spino Ken (Rabbi). History Crash Course # 31: Herod the Great (online) //. - Targum Press, 2010. - ISBN 978-1-5687-1532-2.
- Tierney, John. , Catholic Encyclopedia (1910): "Herod, surnamed the Great, called by Heinrich Graetz" the evil genius of the Judean nation. "
- at Jewish Encyclopedia: "Above all, he was prepared to commit any crime in order to gratify his unbounded ambition"
- Josephus Flavius. Jewish War. - Minsk: Contemporary Literary, 1999 .-- S. 177, 197.
- Christian-Georges Schwentzel, "Hérode le Grand", Pygmalion, Paris, 2011
- M. SARTRE - D'Alexandre à Zénobie. Histoire du Levant antique Paris 2001 Éd. Arthème Fayard pp. 540,542.
- J.P. MEIER - Un certain juif Jésus Les données de l'histoire I Paris 2004 Éd. Cerf p. 425 note 18.
- Antiquities of the Jews, Book 14, 487, 488
- Antiquities of the Jews, Book 17, 190, 191
- Maier, Paul L. (1998). Herod and the Infants of Bethlehem... Chronos, Kairos, Christos II. Mercer University Press. p. 170.
- Men, Alexander. Son of man, ch. I
- Hagner, Donald A. (1993). Matthew 1-13, Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 33a. Thomas Nelson. p. 35.
- article "Herod (the Great)", Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron
Literature
- Josephus Flavius. .
- A.P. Lopukhin // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
- Blomberg C. Herod the Great. Alien to everyone. - Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, Herzliya, Isradon, 2012 .-- 128 p. - (Mark on history). - 3000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-222-19225-2, 978-5-94467-081-6.
- Vikhnovich V.L. King Herod the Great. The embodiment of the impossible (Rome, Judea, Hellenes). - SPb. : Academy of Cultural Research, 2010. - 424 p. - 1000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-903931-66-8.
- Grant M. Herod the Great. The two-faced ruler of Judea. - M .: Tsentrpoligraf, 2003 .-- 304 p. - (Nomen est Omen). - 7000 copies. - ISBN 5-227-01934-7.
- Lukimson P. King Herod. - M .: Molodaya gvardiya, 2015 .-- 272 p. - (The life of wonderful people). - 3000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-235-03806-6.
Links
- - article from the Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia
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Excerpt from Herod I the Great
What would have seemed difficult and even impossible for another woman never once made Countess Bezukhova ponder, not without reason, apparently, who enjoyed the reputation of being the smartest woman. If she began to hide her actions, to extricate herself from an awkward situation by cunning, she would thereby spoil her business, recognizing herself as guilty; but Helen, on the contrary, immediately, as a truly great person who can do whatever she wants, put herself in a position of righteousness, in which she sincerely believed, and all others in a position of guilt.For the first time, as a young foreign person allowed himself to reproach her, she proudly raised her beautiful head and turned half-turn to him, firmly said:
- Voila l "egoisme et la cruaute des hommes! Je ne m" attendais pas a autre chose. Za femme se sacrifie pour vous, elle souffre, et voila sa recompense. Quel droit avez vous, Monseigneur, de me demander compte de mes amities, de mes affections? C "est un homme qui a ete plus qu" un pere pour moi. [Here is the selfishness and cruelty of men! I didn't expect anything better. The woman sacrifices herself to you; she suffers, and here is her reward. Your Highness, what right do you have to demand from me an account of my affections and friendly feelings? This is a man who was more than a father to me.]
The face wanted to say something. Helene interrupted him.
"Eh bien, oui," she said, "peut etre qu" il a pour moi d "autres sentiments que ceux d" un pere, mais ce n "est; pas une raison pour que je lui ferme ma porte. Je ne suis pas un homme pour etre ingrate. Sachez, Monseigneur, pour tout ce qui a rapport a mes sentiments intimes, je ne rends compte qu "a Dieu et a ma conscience, [Well, yes, maybe the feelings he has for me are not entirely paternal; but for this I should not deny him my house. I am not a man to pay with ingratitude. Let it be known to your Highness that in my sincere feelings I give account only to God and my conscience.] - she finished, touching her hand to the raised high beautiful breasts and looking at the sky.
- Mais ecoutez moi, au nom de Dieu. [But listen to me, for God's sake.]
- Epousez moi, et je serai votre esclave. [Marry me and I'll be your job.]
- Mais c "est impossible. [But this is impossible.]
- Vous ne daignez pas descende jusqu "a moi, vous ... [You don't deign to condescend to marry me, you ...]" Helen said, crying.
Her face began to console her; Helene, through her tears, said (as if forgetting) that nothing could prevent her from getting married, that there were examples (there were still few examples, but she named Napoleon and other high persons), that she had never been the wife of her husband, that she was sacrificed.
- But laws, religion ... - already surrendering, said the face.
- Laws, religion ... What would they have been invented, if they could not do it! Helen said.
The important person was surprised that such a simple reasoning could not have occurred to him, and turned for advice to the holy brothers of the Society of Jesus, with whom he was in close relationship.
A few days after that, on one of the enchanting holidays that Helene gave at her dacha on Kamenny Island, she was introduced to an elderly woman with snow-white hair and black shining eyes, the charming mr de Jobert, un jesuite a robe courte, [Mr. Mr. Jaubert, a Jesuit in a short dress,] who for a long time in the garden, by the light of illumination and the sound of music, talked with Helene about love for God, for Christ, for the heart of the mother of God and about the consolations delivered in this and in the future life by the one true Catholic religion. Helene was touched, and on several occasions she and Mr Jobert had tears in their eyes and a trembling voice. The dance to which the gentleman came to invite Helene upset her conversation with her future directeur de conscience [guardian of conscience]; but the next day mr de Jobert came one evening to Helene, and from that time began to visit her often.
One day he took the countess to a Catholic church, where she knelt in front of the altar to which she was led. A charming middle-aged Frenchman put his hands on her head, and, as she herself later said, she felt something like a breath of fresh wind that went into her soul. It was explained to her that it was la grace.
Then the abbot was brought to her a robe longue [in a long dress], he confessed her and forgave her her sins. The next day, they brought her a box containing the sacrament and left it at home for her to consume. After several days, Helene, to her delight, learned that she had now entered the true catholic church and that one of these days dad himself will find out about her and send her some kind of paper.
Everything that was done during this time around her and with her, all this attention paid to her by so many intelligent people and expressed in such pleasant, sophisticated forms, and the dovish purity in which she was now (she wore all this time white dresses with white ribbons) - all this gave her pleasure; but because of this pleasure she did not miss her goal for a moment. And as always happens that in the matter of cunning a stupid person leads the smarter, she, realizing that the purpose of all these words and troubles consisted mainly in converting her to Catholicism, taking money from her in favor of Jesuit institutions (about which she made hints), Helen, before giving money, insisted that various operations be performed on her that would free her from her husband. In her concepts, the meaning of any religion consisted only in observing certain decencies while satisfying human desires. And for this purpose, in one of her conversations with her confessor, she insistently demanded from him an answer to the question of to what extent her marriage binds her.
They were sitting in the living room by the window. It was dusk. There was a smell of flowers from the window. Helene wore a white dress that shone through her shoulders and chest. The abbot, well-fed, with a plump, smoothly shaved beard, a pleasant strong mouth and white hands folded meekly on his knees, sat close to Helene and with a thin smile on his lips, peacefully - admiring her beauty, he occasionally looked at her face and expounded his view to the question that occupied them. Helen smiled uneasily, looked at his curly hair, clean-shaven, blackened full cheeks, and every minute waited for a new turn of conversation. But the abbot, although obviously enjoying the beauty and intimacy of his companion, was fascinated by the skill of his craft.
The line of reasoning of the head of conscience was as follows. In ignorance of the meaning of what you were undertaking, you made a vow of marital fidelity to a person who, for his part, having married and not believing in the religious significance of marriage, committed blasphemy. This marriage did not have the double meaning that it should have. But in spite of that, your vow bound you. You have stepped back from him. What have you done with this? Peche veniel or peche mortel? [Forgivable sin or mortal sin?] Peche veniel, because you have done an act without evil intent. If you now, in order to have children, entered into a new marriage, then your sin could be forgiven. But the question again falls in two: first ...
“But I think,” Helen, suddenly bored, said with her charming smile, “that, having entered the true religion, I cannot be bound by what the false religion has imposed on me.
The Directeur de conscience [Guardian of Conscience] was amazed at this Columbus egg, ordained before him with such simplicity. He was delighted with the unexpected speed of his student's successes, but he could not give up his mental labors of the building of arguments.
- Entendons nous, comtesse, [Let us examine the case, Countess,] - he said with a smile and began to refute the reasoning of his spiritual daughter.
Helen understood that the matter was very simple and easy from a spiritual point of view, but that her leaders made difficulties only because they feared how the secular authorities would look at this matter.
And as a result of this, Helen decided that it was necessary in society to prepare this matter. She aroused the jealousy of the old nobleman and told him the same as the first seeker, that is, she put the question in such a way that the only way to get the rights to her was to marry her. The old important person for the first minute was just as struck by this proposal to marry a living husband, as the first young person; but Helen's unshakable conviction that it was as simple and natural as the girl's marriage, had an effect on him. If there were even the slightest signs of hesitation, shame or secrecy in Helene herself, then her case would undoubtedly have been lost; but not only were there no these signs of secrecy and shame, but, on the contrary, she, with simplicity and good-natured naivety, told her close friends (and this was all Petersburg) that both the prince and the nobleman had made an offer to her and that she loved both and was afraid to upset that and another.
In St. Petersburg, a rumor instantly spread not that Helene wanted to divorce her husband (if this rumor spread, many would have rebelled against such an illegal intention), but a rumor spread directly that the unfortunate, interesting Helene was perplexed about whom of the two should she marry. The question was no longer to what extent this was possible, but only which party was more profitable and how the court would look at it. There were indeed some inveterate people who did not know how to rise to the height of the question and who saw in this plan a desecration of the sacrament of marriage; but there were few of them, and they were silent, while most were interested in questions about the happiness that befell Helen, and which choice is better. They did not talk about the same, whether it was good or bad to marry a living husband, because this question, obviously, had already been solved for people smarter than you and me (as they said) and to doubt the correctness of the solution of the question meant to risk showing their stupidity and inability live in the light.
Only Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova, who came to St. Petersburg this summer to meet with one of her sons, allowed herself to directly express her opinion, contrary to public opinion. Having met Helen at the ball, Marya Dmitrievna stopped her in the middle of the hall and, in the general silence, said to her in her rough voice:
“You’ve got married here from a living husband. Do you think you’re invented this new thing? Preempted, mother. Long ago invented. In all ... ... they do it. And with these words Marya Dmitrievna with the usual menacing gesture, rolling up her wide sleeves and looking sternly, walked across the room.
Marya Dmitrievna, although they were afraid of her, was looked upon in Petersburg as a joker, and therefore from the words she said, they noticed only a rude word and repeated it to each other in a whisper, assuming that this word was the whole point of what was said.
Prince Vasily, who recently especially often forgot what he was saying, and repeated the same thing a hundred times, said every time he happened to see his daughter.
- Helene, j "ai un mot a vous dire," he said to her, pulling her aside and pulling her hand down. - J "ai eu vent de certains projets relatifs a ... Vous savez. Eh bien, ma chere enfant, vous savez que mon c? Ur de pere se rejouit do vous savoir ... Vous avez tant souffert ... Mais, chere enfant ... ne consultez que votre c? Ur. C "est tout ce que je vous dis. [Helene, I have to tell you something. I heard about some species about ... you know. Well, my dear child, you know that your father's heart is glad that you ... You endured so much ... But, dear child ... Do as your heart tells you. That's my whole advice.] - And, always hiding the same excitement, he pressed his cheek to his daughter's and walked away.
Bilibin, who has not lost his reputation as the smartest person and was a disinterested friend of Helen, one of those friends who always have brilliant women, friends of men who can never go into the role of lovers, Bilibin once expressed to his friend Helen in a petit comite [small intimate circle] your view of the whole matter.
- Ecoutez, Bilibine (Helen always called such friends as Bilibin by their last names), - and she touched his white hand in rings to the sleeve of his coat. - Dites moi comme vous diriez a une s? Ur, que dois je faire? Lequel des deux? [Listen, Bilibin: tell me, how would you tell your sister what to do? Which of the two?]
Bilibin gathered the skin above his eyebrows and pondered with a smile on his lips.
“Vous ne me prenez pas en is bad, vous savez,” he said. - Comme veritable ami j "ai pense et repense a votre affaire. Voyez vous. Si vous epousez le prince (it was a young man), - he bent his finger, - vous perdez pour toujours la chance d" epouser l "autre, et puis vous mecontentez la Cour. (Comme vous savez, il ya une espece de parente.) Mais si vous epousez le vieux comte, vous faites le bonheur de ses derniers jours, et puis comme veuve du grand ... le prince ne fait plus de mesalliance en vous epousant, [You won't take me by surprise, you know. As a true friend, I thought about your case for a long time. You see: if you marry a prince, then you are forever deprived of the opportunity to be the wife of another, and in addition the court will be dissatisfied. (You know, after all, kinship is involved.) And if you marry the old count, then you will make up the happiness of his last days, and then ... the prince will no longer be humiliating to marry the widow of a nobleman.] - and Bilibin loosened his skin.
- Voila un veritable ami! - said Helen, beaming, once again touching the sleeve of Bilibip with her hand. - Mais c "est que j" aime l "un et l" autre, je ne voudrais pas leur faire de chagrin. Je donnerais ma vie pour leur bonheur a tous deux, [Behold a true friend! But I love both, and I would not want to upset anyone. For the happiness of both, I would be ready to sacrifice my life.] - she said.
Bilibin shrugged his shoulders, expressing that even he could no longer help such grief.
“Une maitresse femme! Voila ce qui s "appelle poser carrement la question. Elle voudrait epouser tous les trois a la fois", [“Well done woman! - thought Bilibin.
- But tell me, how will your husband look at this matter? - he said, due to the firmness of his reputation, not afraid to drop himself with such a naive question. - Will he agree?
- Ah! Il m "aime tant!" Said Helene, who for some reason thought that Pierre loved her too. "Il fera tout pour moi. [Ah! He loves me so much! He is ready for anything for me.]
Bilibin tucked up the skin to mark the upcoming mot.
- Meme le divorce, [Even for divorce.] - he said.
Helene laughed.
Among the people who allowed themselves to doubt the legality of the marriage being undertaken was Helen's mother, Princess Kuragin. She was constantly tormented by envy of her daughter, and now, when the object of envy was the closest to the princess's heart, she could not reconcile herself with this thought. She consulted with a Russian priest about the extent to which divorce and marriage with a living husband was possible, and the priest told her that this was impossible, and, to her delight, pointed out to her the Gospel text, in which (the priest seemed) outright rejected the possibility of marriage from a living husband.
Armed with these arguments, which seemed to her irrefutable, the princess early in the morning, in order to find her alone, went to her daughter's.
After listening to her mother's objections, Helen smiled meekly and mockingly.
- Why, it is directly said: who marries a divorced wife ... - said the old princess.
- Ah, maman, ne dites pas de betises. Vous ne comprenez rien. Dans ma position j "ai des devoirs, [Ah, mamma, don't be silly. You don't understand anything. There are responsibilities in my position.] - Helen spoke, translating the conversation into French from Russian, in which she always seemed to have some kind of ambiguity in her case.
- But, my friend ...
- Ah, maman, comment est ce que vous ne comprenez pas que le Saint Pere, qui a le droit de donner des dispenses ... [Ah, mamma, don't you understand that the holy father has the power of absolution ...]
At this time, a lady companion who lived with Helene came to her to report that His Highness was in the hall and wanted to see her.
- Non, dites lui que je ne veux pas le voir, que je suis furieuse contre lui, parce qu "il m" a manque parole. [No, tell him I don’t want to see him, that I’m furious against him because he didn’t keep my word.]
- Comtesse a tout peche misericorde, [Countess, mercy on every sin.] - said, entering, a young blond man with a long face and nose.
The old princess got up respectfully and sat down. The young man who entered did not pay attention to her. The princess nodded her daughter's head and swam to the door.
“No, she is right,” thought the old princess, all of whose convictions had collapsed before the appearance of His Highness. - She's right; but how did we not know this in our irrevocable youth? And it was so simple, ”the old princess thought as she got into the carriage.
At the beginning of August, Helen's case was completely determined, and she wrote a letter to her husband (who loved her very much, as she thought), in which she informed him of her intention to marry NN and that she had entered the one true religion and that she asks him to fulfill all those formalities necessary for divorce, which the person who submitted this letter will give him.
King Herod gave the order to kill the babies of Bethlehem, and Pontius Pilate sent Jesus to King Herod before sending Him to be crucified, and King Herod also killed the Apostle James. Only it was three completely different people... Moreover, in the New Testament, two more Herods are mentioned, so that their total number reaches five, and in total there were seven kings and rulers with this name. Only two of them do not play any role in biblical history (and in world history as well), so they can not be mentioned at all.
It would be worth understanding this, but first you need to understand where these kings came from at all - perhaps the strangest dynasty in the entire Bible.
Less than a hundred years before the birth of Christ, the independent Judean kingdom was ruled by the Hasmonean dynasty, which came to power as a result of the Maccabean uprising. Among their other deeds, the Hasmoneans conquered the neighboring country of Idumea (Edom) at the end of the 2nd century, and then forcibly converted to Judaism all the inhabitants of this country, whom they considered their close relatives (their ancestor Esau was the twin brother of Jacob, the ancestor of the Israelites). Having become co-religionists of the Jews, the Edomites dissolved in their midst, and noble people took their place among the nobility of the Jewish kingdom.
Once the main task of the Maccabees was to defend independence in front of the powerful Hellenistic states, the heirs of Alexander the Great, but by the middle of the 1st century. BC e. the picture has completely changed. The Hellenistic states themselves were rapidly losing their independence under the onslaught of the allied state of Judea - Rome. Until recently, it seemed to the Jews that in the person of the Romans they found ideal helpers and patrons: they themselves live far away, do not interfere in anything, but they instill fear in ancient enemies, the Hellenic dynasty of the Seleucids, and all the surrounding peoples.
But Rome had its own goal - expansion. For them, the Jewish rulers of the Hasmoneans were too unreliable and independent, Rome needed not an independent ruler, but a loyal governor who would owe everything to Roman support and would remember this very well. It is also very desirable that for the Jews he was not entirely his own, so that they could never gather around him and oppose themselves to the power of the Roman legions. And then the Romans caught the eye of a young man named Herod, a descendant of a noble Edomite family, who had already faithfully served them ... Julius Caesar, and then the Senate, decided to put him as ruler in Judea.
The Romans, in fact, did not care exactly what the ruler of this area was called, and they did not object at all when Herod appropriated the title of king. He, of course, had no right to do so, not being a descendant of King David and, in general, a Jew by birth, because the Hasmoneans once took the throne not by law, but by the right of victors. So the dynasty of Herods came to power, whose name will become a common noun in many languages. The name of the founder of the dynasty, Herod, who eventually received the nickname "Great", will become the name for the entire dynasty, a kind of surname for his descendants.
By the way, it should be noted here that the Romans, as conquerors, behaved completely differently than the Assyrians and Babylonians - apparently, this is why their empire stood much longer. They left for the conquered peoples the right to live as they liked, and they themselves only appointed the supreme rulers, collected taxes and strictly monitored loyalty and observance of order. Riots were suppressed with the utmost cruelty, but obedient inhabitants lived quite well. In addition, the Romans provided protection from external enemies, the lands they conquered were included in the single economic and cultural space of the empire.
But all the same, these were foreign invaders, and among the Jews there were always enough people who wanted to expel them from their land. Many associated these expectations with the Messiah, and when, after the solemn entry into Jerusalem, Jesus did not proclaim himself king, did not declare war on the Romans, they turned away from Him. Apparently, this is partly why people shouted to Pilate "Crucify Him!" shortly after having greeted Jesus. In 66, an uprising against Rome will be raised, which will end in disaster.
Before all this in the era of Herod the Great was still far away, but without knowing these facts, we will not understand much in his history. We will talk about it next time.
Herod the Great and his sons
This man is mentioned in the Gospel in connection with one single episode - the extermination of the Bethlehem babies after the Nativity of Jesus, and only Matthew tells about this. He wrote primarily for the Jews, and they already perfectly remembered who Tsar Herod the Great was! It turns out that it was this king who did not stop at an obvious villainy, interrupting many innocent children in order to get rid of an imaginary competitor.
This raises an interesting question: about most of the heroes of the New Testament we do not know anything or almost nothing from historical sources, while historians of antiquity tell us a lot about the famous King Herod. And among these stories there is not even a mention of the Bethlehem villainy! Why?
But before making an assumption, let's talk about what Herod became famous for. He was a truly effective ruler and knew how to get his way. He successfully repelled the attacks of external enemies, Parthians and Arabs with Roman help, and dealt with internal opposition without hesitation. He married the granddaughter of the high priest Hyrcanus II to give legitimacy to his dynasty. But most of all he is known for his construction program: under him new quarters of Jerusalem, reliable fortresses, luxurious palaces, modern theaters were built (theaters, however, insulted the extreme adherents of the Jewish religion).
The most important thing is that the Temple was rebuilt under him. When Herod came to power, on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem stood the same modest building that the settlers from Babylonia erected immediately after their return to Jerusalem. It was a shame before the Romans for this small, dilapidated building ... Herod in 22 BC. e. begins a radical restructuring of the entire temple complex, which lasts nine years - and all this time the services do not stop. The Wailing Wall, which can still be seen in Jerusalem today, is just part of a platform that Herod built to expand the space for the Temple. One can imagine how magnificent its construction was! It is to this Temple that Jesus will then come ... but the Temple will stand for less than a century and will be destroyed by the very Roman legions that brought Herod to power.
Greatness is not always associated with morality, and it often turns out that rulers who have achieved tremendous success shed rivers of blood. In the same way, under Herod the Great, torture and executions for the most insignificant reasons became the norm. He exterminated all the descendants of the previous dynasty, the Hasmoneans. He sentenced his own beloved wife and two sons to execution at various times on suspicion alone. Being seriously ill, a few days before his death, he ordered to gather all the Jewish nobility in the circus and interrupt her without exception - however, this his will was never fulfilled. Against the background of such high-profile atrocities, the quiet murder of unknown babies in the small town of Bethlehem could no longer worry the historians of that time, because Herod's track record included much brighter crimes. And here there are only babies ... But the Christian Church venerates these babies as saints, and not the great king who rebuilt the Temple, and not even his innocently murdered sons - a lesson for future generations who will more than once yearn for earthly greatness and a strong hand.
It is difficult to name the exact date of the beginning of Herod's reign, since he received power over Judea gradually, usually 37 BC is considered the beginning of his sole rule. e. We know the date of his death for sure: it is 4 BC. e. But then it turns out that Herod died before the birth of Christ? Only if we take the 1st year AD as the date of this Christmas. e. (A.D. 1, as previously written). Indeed, "our era" dates back to Christmas, but its estimated date was calculated in the early Middle Ages inaccurately - after all, there is no clear indication of it in the Bible or in any other ancient authoritative sources, and the calculations were very approximate. And now everyone is accustomed to this particular chronology, and even if someone is embarrassed that Christmas took place several years before the beginning of a new era, no one is going to change the chronology system.
The kingdom of Herod did not outlive its ruler. Before his death, with the consent of Rome, he divided it between his sons: Herod Archelaus, Herod Antipas and Herod Philip. That is why they were called tetrarchs, i.e. "Four-rulers". Strictly speaking, there were now four parts in the state, but Archelaus was given control of two at once, such was the wish of the Roman emperor Octavian Augustus. In time, Augustus even promised to make Archelaus king. However, the moods of the rulers are changeable: pretty soon Augustus sent Archelaus into exile, and included the territory subject to him (including Jerusalem) into the Roman province of Syria, now it was ruled by the Roman governors.
Antipas, who inherited Galileo and Transjordan, and Philip, whose area lay east of Lake Galilee, ruled their lands for much longer, although at times they entered into conflicts with each other and with the Roman appointees. The Evangelist Luke even notes that Herod Antipas and the Roman governor Pilate, who were previously at odds with each other, reconciled during the "trial" of Jesus.
But we will talk about these rulers and their heirs mentioned in the book of Acts next time.
Herods: Antipas, Agrippa I, Agrippa II
It is Herod Antipas who is mentioned in the Gospels (except for the story of Christmas) under the name Herod. We are talking about one of the sons of King Herod the Great, who ruled Galilee from 4 to 39 AD. e. He got along with Rome and even named his residence on Lake Galilee Tiberias in honor of the Roman emperor Tiberius (present-day Tiberias in Israel).
His "family chronicle" is also quite typical for the rulers of that time. Herod Antipas took the wife of his half-brother Philip - for exposing this illegal union and paid with his head John the Baptist. But this marriage did not bring happiness to Herod himself. When the extravagant emperor Caligula ascended the Roman throne instead of Tiberius, Herodias forced Herod to go to the emperor in search of new honors and titles. However, Herod's own nephew, Agrippa, immediately sent a denunciation against him, and instead of honors, he was exiled to distant Gaul, where he died, possibly a violent death. Herodias followed into exile along with her husband, and Herod's titles and possessions passed to his nephew Agrippa, who sent the denunciation in time.
But all this will happen after the Gospel story. So far, Herod Antipas was doing well, at least on the surface. He enjoys life (the Gospel mentions how widely he celebrated his birthday), he is not averse to listening to the sermons of John the Baptist, and if it were not for the intrigues of his wife, maybe he would not have ordered him to be executed.
And then the ruler Herod had to decide the fate of another Righteous One. The Roman governor Pilate sent the arrested Jesus to him, since he was from Galilee and was formally subject to him as the ruler of this region. According to the Evangelist Luke, Herod, seeing Jesus, was very happy, for he had long wanted to see Him, because he had heard a lot about Him, and hoped to see some miracle from Him, and offered Him many questions, but He did not answer him. But the chief priests and scribes stood and accused Him. But Herod and his soldiers, humiliating Him and laughing at Him, dressed Him in a light garment and sent Him back to Pilate.
He really wanted Jesus to somehow decorate his endless holiday of life, and when he did not get what he wanted, then at least he had fun with mockery of Him and sent Him out of sight. Pilate at least made a gesture of washing his hands, ostensibly keeping himself away from the decision on the unjust execution - the ruler Herod did not do that either. Everything seemed to him a reason for fun and ridicule, and very soon the new Roman emperor and his own nephew would laugh at him in the same way.
Another ruler, in 37 A.D. e. who replaced his uncle Antipas after a well-written denunciation is mentioned in the book of Acts. His name was Herod Agrippa, and it was on his order that the Apostle James was killed and the Apostle Peter was thrown into prison at the very beginning of the apostolic preaching. The book of Acts also describes his own death: his pagan subjects began to revere him as a god (for a pagan this is a completely normal form of flattery, the Roman emperors were considered gods at all in their office), and he accepted these honors - and the angel of God struck him with a painful illness from which he died. What is allowed to a pagan does not suit a person who professes faith in the One God, and Agrippa considered himself just that.
There is one significant coincidence in his fate: he considered the preaching of the apostles to be blasphemy, but ... when blasphemous praise was heard in his own address, he accepted them without a twinge of conscience. Double standards were not invented yesterday, this is true, but something else is also true: sometimes a person becomes a victim of precisely the sin of which he falsely accuses others. He died in 44 A.D. e.
Another preacher of Christianity, the Apostle Paul, also talked with King Agrippa, and the book of Acts also tells about this. It is already about Herod Agrippa II, the son of Agrippa I and the last ruler from the dynasty of Herods. This meeting took place in the seaside city of Caesarea, apparently in 59 AD. e. Agrippa had just arrived there with his sister Berenice, with whom he was inseparable (many said, and, apparently, not without reason, that they live as spouses) to visit the Roman governor Festus. He told him about a strange prisoner, whom he was to send to the Roman emperor for trial (Paul himself wished so, but this is a special story), but for now it was possible to have fun talking with him.
The book of Acts cites a sermon that Paul preached to Agrippa on this matter and even personally addressed him: “Do you believe, King Agrippa, the prophets? I know that you believe. ”And if so, Paul believed, then the king must admit: in Jesus the most important prophecies given in the Old Testament were fulfilled. Agrippa replied with a grin to Paul that he seemed to be trying to make him a Christian too ... Well, how can you imagine that a king would join some small and persecuted religious group! He has so many philosophical books at his disposal, he has no shortage of either Jewish priests or Greek orators ... Why, why does he also need a new teaching?
Agrippa II, the last in the dynasty of Herods, as far as we know, did not execute any of the Christians, but he also did not prevent them from being persecuted and killed by those who desired it. And most importantly, he did not pay much attention to Paul's speech, which seemed to him an amusing curiosity. And then everything went somehow wrong ... His subjects suddenly did not want to obey him and drove him out together with his sister Berenika in 66, the day before great war with the Romans, in which Jerusalem and the temple built by Herod the Great will be destroyed, and the Jewish people will lose any opportunity to dispose of the land of Canaan until the middle of the 20th century, when the new state of Israel is created. In this war, Agrippa and his detachment participated on the side of the Romans, after its end he lived in Rome with the same Berenice and died around 100 AD. e.
For almost a century and a half, representatives of the Herod dynasty ruled in Judea, gradually losing everything that its founder acquired at such a bloody price, and stubbornly not noticing the main thing that arose in it during this time. Your house is left empty, - Jesus spoke prophetically about the Temple rebuilt by Herod the Great, but the same words can be attributed to the state, which Herods strove with all their might to preserve, the greatness of which they cared so much and which so quickly collapsed to the ground, including through their efforts ...
) - the king of Judah, was the son of Antipater and the ancestor of other kings of the same name, mentioned in N.Z. He ruled over Judea, then a Roman province, in the year of the Lord's birth in Bethlehem of Judea. However, although Herod bore the title of king, he was subordinate to the Roman emperor. He was distinguished by his wild ferocity. A series of atrocities marked his 34-year reign - he even killed his own wife and two sons. In the thirty-third year of Herod's reign, as we noted above, the Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, was born in Bethlehem. Learning about the newborn King of Judah and fearing that He would not take the kingdom from him in time, Herod beat 14 thous. Bethlehem babies, thinking to destroy the Infant Jesus among them; however, shortly thereafter, he himself died a terrible death in Jericho - it was precisely that he was eaten alive by worms. Before his death, he divided the government of the kingdom between his three sons. Over Judea, Samaria, and Edom, he made Archelaus ruler; over Galilee and Perea made Herod Antipas the tetrarch, giving Philip the ruler of the three upper regions in in. from Jordan: Ituria, Avranite and Trachonite (Luke 3: 1). The well-known dictum of Augustus, who, hearing that Herod, among the Bethlehem babies, had killed his own son, exclaimed: better to be Herod's pig than his son! directly proves that the rumor about the beating of the Bethlehem babies, in one form or another, penetrated even the most Rome.
b) Herod Archelaus. cm. .
in) Herod Agrippa II. cm. .
d) Herod Antipas. cm. .
e) Herod Philip I (Mark 6:17) - the son of Herod the Great and Mariamne, daughter of the high priest Simon. He should not be confused with the four-ruler Philip. He was married to Herodias, sister of Agrippa I, with whom he had a daughter, Salome. However, Herodias left Philip and entered into an incestuous marriage with Philip's half-brother Herod Antipoy (Mat.14: 3, Mark 6:17, Luke 3:19). Herod deprived him of his inheritance, and Philip spent his whole life as a private man.
g) Herod Philip II - the son of Herod the Great and the Jerusalem woman Cleopatra. He ruled Vataneia, Trachonita and Avranita, with the title of four-ruler (Luke 3: 1). His reign was distinguished by moderation and justice. It was built on the site of ancient Panea new townnamed Caesarea (Mat.16: 13); im renewed g.Bethsaida in the lower Gavlonite, with its renaming Julia, in which he died in 34 BC R.Kh. was married to Salome, daughter of Philip I and Herodias. The dynasty of Herods reigned in Judea for 140 years.
Bible. Decrepit and New testaments... Synoidal translation. Bible encyclopedia. ... arch. Nikifor. 1891.
Synonyms:See what "Herod" is in other dictionaries:
Great Hebrew. הוֹרדוֹס, lat. Herodus Herod I the Great captures Jerusalem ... Wikipedia
Herod of Chalcis Hebrew. הורדוס ... Wikipedia
- 'Herod a) (Mat.2: 1, 3,7,12,15,16,19; Luke 1: 5) Herod the Great, the second son of the Edomite leader Antipater, the head of the family of kings and rulers of Herods, who ruled in Palestine in 1 c. by RH. In 47 BC, after the death of Antipater, he was appointed by Julius Caesar ... ... Bible. Old and New Testaments. Synodal translation. Biblical encyclopedia arch. Nicephorus.
Herod - 'Herod a) (Mat.2: 1, 3,7,12,15,16,19; Luke 1: 5) Herod the Great, the second son of the Edomite leader Antipater, the head of the family of kings and rulers of Herods, who ruled in Palestine in 1 c. · By RH. In 47 · Before the RC, after the death of Antipater, he was appointed by Julius ... ... Complete and detailed Bible Dictionary to the Russian canonical Bible
Villain, bloodsucker, bloodsucker, slayer, inquisitor, flayer, torturer, asp, rascal, tormentor, fanatic, beast, executioner, monster herod see tormentor Dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language. Practical guide. M .: Russian ... ... Synonym dictionary
- (Great) (Greek. Descendant of the hero), the second son of the Edomite, the procurator of Judea, Antipater and his wife, the Arabian Cypriot. I. only formally belonged to the Jews, but by his adherence to the Greek. culture, incl. to her architecture, and love of luxury he was ... ... Brockhaus Bible Encyclopedia
- (Herodes). 1) The son of Antipater, king of the Jews, called the Great. In the last year of his reign, a Savior was born. 2) Herod Antippa, son of the previous one, tetrarch of Galilee and Perea. He was married to Herodias and executed John the Baptist. Caligula robbed him ... ... Encyclopedia of mythology
From the Bible. The name of the king of Judea Herod became a household name because the authors of the Gospels ascribe to him “the massacre of infants” (see Massacre of infants), which, however, does not correspond to the real chronology, since the king of Judea Herod I (73 4 BC) died ... ... Dictionary of winged words and expressions
The name of several Jewish kings or kings, of Edom origin. Chief among them: 1) Herod the Great, the founder of the Edomite dynasty on the Jewish throne. The son of the Edomite prince Antipater, he possessed outstanding military and political ... Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron
(40 - 1 BC), founder of the Edomite dynasty of Herodias. Known for large-scale construction projects in Jerusalem and other parts of Judea, including the construction of the Second Temple.
Origins and early years
Herod's grandfather Antipater submitted to the Hasmonean Jewish state, converted to Judaism, and retained power over Idumea. Herod's father Antipater the Edomite actively supported Roman expansion (culminating in the capture of Jerusalem by Pompey in 63 BC), hoping to weaken the Jews. In 47 BC. e. Herod received Roman citizenship. In 47 BC. e. the father appointed his son ruler, and Herod brutally suppressed the rebellion against his father there. Fearing the Sanhedrin's death sentence for the illegal execution of the rebels, Herod fled to Syria and was promoted to a Roman official, which secured him immunity in Judea. In 43 BC. e. Antipater II was poisoned, Herod, having enlisted the support of Rome, dealt with the murderers of his father. In 37 BC. e. The Roman Senate approved Herod as king of Judea, but Herod did not have enough of his own strength to capture Jerusalem, and he turned to Mark Antony for help, who agreed to send troops to Judea after the end of the Parthian war. The siege of Jerusalem lasted five months, after which the city fell under the onslaught of the armies of Herod and the Romans. After capturing Jerusalem, Herod ordered the execution of 45 members of the Sanhedrin, supporters, and turned the Sanhedrin into a controlled religious court, where he himself could appoint and remove the high priests. During the reign of Herod, it flourished and practically returned to the borders of the state under King David. Herod carried out large-scale construction throughout the country, palaces, hippodromes, amphitheaters, but the most important object was the construction of the Second Temple. Another gigantic project was Herodion, a fortress built in 23-20 AD. BC. in the place where Herod won an important battle. Herodion was built on a man-made embankment, the height of the structure was 8 floors. Attitude jewish people to Herod was negative, they saw in him a promoted Rome and a man who broke the branch of David. Herod decided to marry Mariamne, the granddaughter of the high priest Hyrcanus II, in order to outwardly restore ties with the House of David. This did not help; opposition arose from the Zealots. Herod, without hesitation, dealt with the opposition and destroyed the entire House of the Hasmoneans, not even sparing his beloved wife Mariamne. At the end of Herod's reign, Jesus Christ appeared to the world. According to the Gospel of Matthew, the wise men who came to worship the newborn Jesus did not tell Herod the whereabouts of the baby.
"Then Herod, seeing himself mocked by the Magi, was very angry, and sent to beat all the babies in Bethlehem and in all its borders, from two years old and below, according to the time that he learned from the Magi." (Matthew 2:16).
The last years of Herod's reign were marked by particular cruelty. The already terminally ill Herod ordered the execution of his heir, the son of his first wife Doris, who had been caught in a conspiracy. It is known that when approving the verdict, the Roman emperor Augustus said:
"Being a pig of such a person is better than being his son!"
Before his death, Herod gave an order on the day of his death to kill many members of the Jewish nobility, but this order was not carried out. Four days before his death, Herod I bequeathed the throne to Archelaus, his son from his Samaritan wife Maltaka, and appointed Herod Antipas and Herod Philip as tetrarchs under him. Nevertheless, according to, Herod was buried magnificently:
“After that, they began to bury the king. Archelaus did everything to make the burial as magnificent as possible: he even took all the royal decorations from the palace to be carried behind the body. The burial stretchers of solid gold were adorned with precious stones and decorated with expensive purple. Herod's body was clothed in fine linen, a diadem rested on his head, and on top of it was a golden crown, a scepter was placed in his right hand. The body was followed by the sons of Herod and all his numerous relatives, followed by the bodyguards, followed by a column of Thracians, Germans and Gauls, all in full military clothing. Further, the army marched in full armor, maintaining the battle formation and led by the military leaders, behind the army - 500 domestic slaves and freedmen, who burned incense. The body was carried at a distance of 70 stades to Herodion, where, in fulfillment of the will of the deceased king, and buried. Thus ends Herod's story. "
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Years of life: 73-74 years. BC e – 1 BC e. (according to other sources 4 A.D.)
Helpful information
Herod I, the name the Great was later given by historians
in Russian - Herod from the traditional Middle Greek transmission
hebrew הוֹרדוֹס
transliteration. Hordos, Hordus
lat. Herodus
greek Ἡρῴδης
transliteration. "Herodos"
Do not confuse
Herod I is often confused with Herod Antipas, his son from the Samaritan woman Maltaki, who ruled Galilee (1 BC - 40) during the time of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ.
Title "Great"
Assigned by historians to Herod after his death. They were due to the dexterity of Herod the politician, the grandiose achievements of Herod the builder, as well as the luxury of the court of Herod the ruler.
This title mainly distinguishes Herod from his heirs, who bore the same name, but does not contain a moral assessment of this ruler - vicious, insidious and cruel.
Many of us met Herod the Great on the pages of Mikhail Bulgakov's immortal novel The Master and Margarita. Rather, not with Herod himself, but only with his palace, into the covered colonnade of which the fifth procurator Pontius Pilate once stepped out. We will return to this historical event in the following articles, but for now we will get acquainted with the owner of the palace, King Herod, one of the greatest rulers of the pre-Christian era.
However, this is not entirely true. Herod ruled Judea in the first year or two after the birth of Jesus. After all, the fifth verse of the Gospel of Luke begins with the words "In the days of Herod, king of Judah ..."... Luke tells us about the birth of John the Baptist, and another evangelist, Saint Matthew, tells us about how Herod the Great, having learned from the Magi about "Born king of the Jews", "He was greatly alarmed, and all Jerusalem with him" (Gospel of Matthew 2: 3). What was the cause of the anxiety of the aged king? Why the ensuing massacre at Bethlehem, known as "massacre of the innocents", was not described in any of the historical documents of that era?
We will try to answer these and other questions still facing historians and biblical scholars in this article. But these will only be hypotheses and assumptions, for the Temple Mount, which acquired its modern appearance under King Herod the Great, still keeps its terrible secrets ...
It is interesting that no one called Herod “great” during his lifetime. It is most likely that in those days one of the nicknames stuck to him, similar to the familiar expression "damned Herod", which has become a common noun in Russian. But the most interesting thing is that he was not called Herod at all. His name in the local dialect was pronounced as Chordos, and he was the son of a major politician and courtier Antipater. It is in honor of his father that he will name one of his sons Herod Antipas. And this second Herod will become even more famous than his father, because he will go down in history as the murderer of John the Baptist. So the Russian "cursed Herod" can be successfully addressed to both father and son.
But let us return to the times when, since the time of the great uprising of Judas Maccabee, little Judea was closely watched by his overseas neighbor - the Roman Republic.
The Republic had its own plans. The Republic did not like the rule of the Ptolemies in Egypt and the Seleucids in Syria. And she saw a small independent Judea as a future political and military partner. Until the Republic of Kazakhstan decides to “play” another political card in Judea. Therefore, in 63 BC. Gnaeus Pompey, a consul in the recent past, and now a general, commander-in-chief of the entire army of the Republic, invades Judea and organizes a terrible massacre in Jerusalem. As befits a pagan, he plunders and defiles the Jerusalem Temple.
Pompey appoints the ruler of Judea, the son of Alexandre Yannai, known in history as Hyrcanus the Younger. No, Hyrcanus was no longer a king like his father. He was a puppet ruler who strictly followed the rules of the game established by the Republic. So Judea falls under the rule of Rome, which will last until the end of the seventh century AD. And then the cunning Antipater, taking advantage of the situation, brings out his four sons. And our hero Khordos, then unknown to anyone, but a promising military leader, marries the granddaughter of Hyrcanus the Younger, the beautiful Miriam. In Russian translations she is known as Mariamne. And the whole further history of Jerusalem will henceforth be inextricably linked with the name of this man, Herod the Great.
But Pompey fell victim to a conspiracy led by his former friend and associate Gaius Julius Caesar. And then Caesar himself was betrayed and killed by his associates. So in 36 BC, with the support of the future emperor Octavian Augustus and his rival Mark Antony, Hordos-Herod becomes the sovereign ruler of Judea.
His path to power, despite the support of Roman patrons, was marked by local civil strife. The assault on Jerusalem, blood and plunder, then the death of his beloved brother Fazael and the overthrow of Antigonus, who was the last ruler of the city, then the execution of forty prominent citizens of the capital - this is not a complete list of calamities and atrocities that led to the power of the greatest despot and builder of Judea.
Traces of construction from the time of Herod can be seen today in many places in Israel, including Jerusalem. The first thing Herod started with was the reconstruction of the entire water supply system of the capital.
In the spurs of the Hebron Highlands south of Jerusalem, a gigantic, at that time, water conduit, about 70 kilometers long, was laid. From it, water flowed to the southern city wall and collected in a large drainage basin located in the Gehenom ravine. Today, this place, known as the Sultanovy Ponds, is the location of a city park and an open-air concert venue.
Further, through the aqueduct system, the water rose up and flowed through the second catchment - Migdalon ("Khizkiyagu basin"). The remains of this pool can be seen from the observation deck. He supplied water to the luxurious royal palace built in the western part of the city. Today there is no water in the pool, but at the end of the 19th century there was water in it. Evidence of this is a study by the famous Russian artist N.A. Yaroshenko. Why the pool was named after a Jewish king who lived in the 8th century BC - we do not know.
Several more pools were built by Herod during the reconstruction of the Temple and Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The largest pool, known as Birkat Yisrael, was located in the northern part of the city, and is currently hidden under the pavement slabs and structures in the Arab Quarter. But nearby are the remains of a pool known as "Sheep Ponds" or Bethesda (Beit Hesda). Built next to the sheep market during the Hasmonean reign, it was originally used to wash livestock brought into the city for sale and for. Subsequently, it was discovered that the waters of the stream that filled this pool had supposedly healing properties, and healing baths were built here in the Roman-Byzantine period.
A few hundred meters from Bethesda are the remains of another Struthion pool. During the time of the Hasmoneans, he supplied water to the fortress of Bira, the one where the guards mistakenly killed Antigonus, the brother of the cruel king Aristobulus. Herod ordered the destruction of the old building, instead of which he placed the fortress of Antonia nearby, in which he placed a garrison. Herod was always afraid of attempts, and in addition, the presence of a large military unit in Jerusalem instilled fear in the inhabitants of the city, and contributed to peace and order on the Temple Mount. For the safety of the fortress, he ordered a deep ditch to be dug in the northern part of it, which crossed the Hasmonean canal, which supplied water to the Temple Mount. In order to prevent water from filling the moat and supplying water to the fortress of Antony, Herod builds a small pool in front of him, which was named “Struthion” after the former Hasmonean “Straton Tower”.
Part of the Srutyon basin is located under the buildings of the Sisters of Zion monastery. The arched vaults over the pool were built in the 2nd century AD. by the Roman emperor Hadrian, since a street was laid over this place. The brickwork was built after the construction of the monastery in order to close the passage on its territory through the pool underground. The second half of the pool is at the end of the Temple Wall Tunnel ("Hasmonean Tunnel").
In addition to large drainage basins, cisterns have been found in various places in the city for storing water in wealthy homes and public buildings. These tanks were usually domed or rectangular with a hole in the ceiling through which a container was lowered into the tank with ropes and filled with water. If the cistern was built deep enough, then steps were cut along its walls, along which it was possible to go down to fetch water or to clean the cistern of accumulated dirt.
Nowadays, due to the current situation on the territory of the Temple Mount, it is impossible to conduct any archaeological excavations and research. However, scientists using remote sensing discovered 37 water tanks there, built during reconstruction work carried out on the orders of Herod the Great. The largest of them with a capacity of 12 thousand cubic meters was filled with water from an aqueduct, which delivered water from the Hebron Highlands.
Remains of a water cistern, found during excavations in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City (top view).
In addition to the water supply, the city had a drainage and sewerage system. During excavations in the "city of David" under Herodian street, underground drainage structures were found leading from the southern wall of the Temple Mount to the Gehennom ravine. There is speculation that the wastewater was used to fertilize and irrigate fields and plantations. During the defeat of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D. here the inhabitants and defenders of the city hid, whom the Roman soldiers found, dragged out and killed. Many of them, as Josephus writes in the book "The Jewish War", not wanting to surrender to the enemy, committed suicide. Not so long ago, in one of these dungeons, a leather belt and a sword of a Roman legionary were found. Among the finds were coins minted by the rebels with the inscription "Freedom of Zion", oil lamps and shards of pottery.
Ancient underground structures found in the "City of David" served as drainage systems for sewage during the Second Temple period. Now this tunnel is open to visitors and it is possible to walk along it from the lowest section of the archaeological park of the "City of David" - the Siloam Basin to the Garbage Gate of the Old City.
The Siloam basin (Shiloah), during the reign of Herod the Great, was expanded, and another water reservoir was added to it, the remains of the steps of which can be seen in the park of the “city of David”. Historians believe that this pool was intended for the ritual ablutions of pilgrims ascending to the Jerusalem Temple. From it, the priests took water for libations on the temple altar on the holiday of Sukkot, praying to the Almighty to send rain to the Land of Israel.
The Shiloah Pool ("Siloam Font") on the model of Herodian Jerusalem in the Israel Museum. The author of the project, Professor Michael Avi-Yona, who worked on the creation of the model in the 60s, could not know what the steps of the pool, found by archaeologists only in 2004, looked like. Therefore, its reconstruction, completed according to the descriptions, differs from the real type of reservoir.
It is difficult even to imagine how the appearance of Jerusalem changed under Herod. New houses and quarters appeared in the city, a theater and a hippodrome were built, luxurious houses of the city nobility were located in the Upper City, while in the Lower City there were quarters of the urban poor and the pagans who lived there.
In the northwestern part of the city, Herod builds a magnificent palace, in the northern part of which there were three watchtowers, "Fatsael", "Hippicus" and "Miriam", named after the king's brother, his friend and beloved wife, who was executed by his order.
One of the distinguishing features of Herod's buildings is the peculiar processing and polishing of the stone blocks used for the outer walls. Today, archaeologists, and not only they, unmistakably identify the stone blocks of Herodian buildings, and if these blocks are also very tightly fitted to each other, then we can talk about the remnants of the original (not destroyed and not rebuilt) walls of the time of Herod. It is interesting that the stone blocks in the Herodian buildings reached truly gigantic sizes, up to 10-13 meters in length, 4-5 meters in thickness and weighing up to 500 tons! How did the workers in the quarries manage to extract and process such blocks?
Scientists have observed the methods of extraction and processing of stones today in primitive artisanal quarries, and came to the conclusion that the technology of the Herodian stonecutters boiled down to the following. from all sides, trimming it with metal tools. It remained to separate the lump from the sole and cut its lower edge. And here nature itself came to their aid.
The fact is that sedimentary rocks, limestones and dolomites lie in and around Jerusalem. These rocks form layers, the thickness of which, as a rule, does not exceed one and a half meters. And at the junction of such layers, the rock is the most fragile and pliable. If you saw through a vertical slit 10-15 cm thick in the block, drive wooden wedges into it, and then fill them with water, then the tree, swelling, increases in volume and tears the block off the sole. Instead of wooden ones, iron wedges were sometimes used, which were driven with a hammer into the gap. In order not to damage the surfaces of the blocks, they were protected with metal plates.
The second task that the Tsar's engineers and architects successfully coped with was the transportation of giant blocks to the construction site. The blocks were laid on carts drawn by four oxen, or dragged along a road lined with round logs. The heaviest and most massive stones were installed as an axis between two giant wooden wheels, and this huge chariot was rolled to the construction site. There the stones were lifted onto the wall using wooden winches.
It must be said that Herod's architects possessed considerable ingenuity and excellent knowledge of the laws of mechanics. The king himself also took part in solving the most difficult engineering problems.
Between the royal palace and the Temple Mount lay the upper city quarters, where the upper strata of society lived. During excavations in the Old City, a section of ancient Jerusalem was discovered with the remains of buildings, among which a building stands out, in which, according to scientists, Cohen ha-Gadol, the temple, could live. A mikveh - a pool for ritual ablutions was considered an invariable attribute of any wealthy house. A large number of mikvah of various sizes can be seen in the remains of the Herodian quarter of the Upper City. It is interesting that small mikvahs were also installed in the children's rooms of rich houses, the floors of which were decorated with mosaics.
Remains of a ritual mikveh pool
Fragment of a children's room with a mosaic floor and a mikveh
Herod considered the main business of his life to be the restructuring of everything, including the very building of the Temple. Built during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, the Second Jerusalem Temple was partially reconstructed during the reign of the Hasmoneans, but by the time Herod the Great came to power, it was already dilapidated and did not correspond to the plans and ambitions of the great builder. And the king would have enough ambitions for several centuries to come. It was as if He challenged the Creator himself to a competition, and built everything contrary to His will. This is how the port city of Caesarea appeared on the deserted seashore, in the inaccessible mountains on the coast of the Dead Sea - the blooming fortress city of Masada, on an artificially piled high hill south of Jerusalem - the Herodion palace. In Jerusalem, Herod decided to surpass King Solomon himself and turn the Temple Mount into an architectural masterpiece that had no equal either in Rome or in other cities of the empire.
In 20 BC. Herod began to implement his plan. He had to solve two main tasks: to turn the ancient hill of Moriah, also called the Temple Mount, into a flat area and to rebuild the building of the Temple. The first problem could be solved by purely engineering techniques, while the second required a special approach. We have already said that there were premises in the Temple itself, to which only the priests-koens had access, and only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, and even then once a year. Knowing all this, Herod ordered to teach construction skills to a thousand kohens. Their task was to build new premises on the site where the Ark of the Covenant was once located. These works were carried out with special precautions and in compliance with all measures of ritual purity. Moreover, the service in the Temple should not have been interrupted even for a day!
The second challenge was to build a retaining wall around the Temple Mount. For this purpose, Herod ordered to level the area adjacent to the Temple and pave it with stone slabs. Mount Moriah was torn down, and in its place was formed an area of \u200b\u200b145 thousand square meters... It can be seen today from the observation deck on the Mount of Olives. The area of \u200b\u200bthe Temple Mount towered over the surrounding area by several tens of meters, in essence, it was an artificial embankment surrounded by massive retaining walls.
Reconstruction of "Robinson's Arch". From the exposition of the Museum of the History of Jerusalem.
Under the slabs that covered the square, Herod ordered the construction of underground rooms, which were used as reservoirs and service spaces.
For the construction of the retaining walls, the most massive stone blocks were used, which were not laid strictly vertically, but at a certain angle. It is believed that this was done in order to strengthen the walls, which withstand the pressure of the huge inner embankment, and, in addition, people passing under them from the outside should feel safe, not fearing that one day this whole structure might fall on their heads. This is clearly seen in the preserved Herodian masonry in the southeastern corner of the present wall of the Old City.
The Romans, who destroyed the Jerusalem Temple in 70 AD, were unable to break through these walls in a number of places. This was facilitated by a powerful embankment, which pressed against the wall from the inside, which prevented their destruction. The surviving part of the walls can be seen today both outside and underground.
On one of the sections of the western wall of the Temple, traces of masonry protrusions are visible. They were discovered and described by the British theologian Edward Robinson in 1838. Since then, this part of the temple complex is known throughout the world as the "Robinson's Arch". But what does the arch have to do with it?
Further archaeological research showed that the masonry ledges found by Robinson were in fact the traces of a large arched bridge built at the southern corner of the western wall. Scholars believe this bridge was built to increase the capacity of the main temple gate during the holidays. At this time, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from all over the Land of Israel came to Jerusalem.
Until recently, it was assumed that the arched bridge was destroyed during the siege of the Temple Mount by Roman legionaries. However, the prominent Israeli historian and archaeologist Meir Ben-Dov believes that it was destroyed by groups of Jewish fanatics, led by Shimon Bar-Giora, who settled on the Temple Mount. These rebels, even before the siege of the city by the Romans, waged internal wars with another group, led by Johanan of Gush Halav (John of Giskhal), who had established themselves in the Upper City. To strengthen their positions, the soldiers of Shimon Bar-Giora destroyed these passages. So the end came to these amazing buildings, which were many centuries ahead of all similar buildings in the world.
On the remains of the southern wall of the temple complex, a walled-up gate was found, the so-called "gate of Hulda", named after an ancient prophetess who, according to legend, lived at the time of the First Temple. Steps led to the gate, along which pilgrims climbed the Temple Mount, having previously bathed in a mikvah and dressed in festive clothes. To avoid crowding and crowding, the pilgrims entered the eastern (triple) gates, and exited the western (double). These steps were of different widths, 40 and 90 centimeters. The Jewish sages explained this by the fact that people who climbed the steps to the Temple should not think about earthly affairs, therefore the rhythm of the ascent, which constantly accelerated and then slowed down, had to remind them of God.
Under Herod, the temple services were held with special solemnity. Josephus Flavius \u200b\u200bwrote that Herod ordered three hundred oxen to be brought to the solemn consecration of the newly rebuilt Temple! And how magnificent were the celebrations on the days of the great Jewish holidays! The number of pilgrims these days reached hundreds of thousands. They went by families, some on foot, some in donkey carts. At the gates of Jerusalem, they bought sacrificial animals: cows, sheep, goats. Those who were poorer bought at the entrance to the Temple of Pigeons - the cheapest sacrifice available even to the poor. During the excavations of the ancient settlements in Judea, columbaria were found - special premises for breeding pigeons, Then they were sold in shopping galleries and in markets located south of the temple complex. The money-changers were also sitting there, exchanging Roman coins with the image of Caesar for Jewish ones. According to the tradition already commanded by Moses, no images were allowed in the Temple.
The immersed "Hulda Gate" and the steps leading to the Temple Mount at Davidson Park Archaeological Reserve (Ophel)
During the numerous, incessant holiday sacrifices, the inner courtyard of the Temple was an eerie sight. It was all splattered with the blood of sacrificial animals, littered with entrails, over which thousands of flies swarmed. It was necessary to periodically clean the area. For these purposes, on the western wall there was a gate called the Water Gate, next to which an aqueduct passed. Water was admitted through a special water conduit into the temple courtyards, and all the remains of the sacrifices were washed away through the Gates of Mercy into the Kidron ravine. Some of the Herodian stones can be seen today in the masonry of the Gate of Mercy, or, as they are called today, the Golden Gate. During the Muslim rule, these gates were walled up, and in front of them was a Muslim cemetery. Tradition tells that Muslims did this on purpose to block the path of the Messiah, who must pass through these gates to the Temple Mount.
On the opposite slope of the Temple of the Kidron Ravine, there is a huge Jewish cemetery. A careful glance can immediately notice that modern burials stand out among the ancient dilapidated graves. The cemetery is active, and today they are buried there either for great services to the state and people of Israel, or for a lot of money. According to an ancient legend, one day, with the first rays of the sun, the Messiah (Messiah) should descend from the top of the Mount of Olives. It is then that the resurrection from the dead and the Last Judgment over the souls of the dead will take place. And the first to rise from their graves, those who are buried on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, near the graves of the pious king Jehoshaphat, who ruled Judea in the 9th century BC. and the prophet Zechariah, who lived during the period of the First Temple. Therefore, the ravine under the slopes of the mountain is called "the valley of Jehoshaphat", whose name is translated from Hebrew as "the Lord is judge".
This area outside the city walls has served as a burial place since the reign of the kings from the house of David. Archaeologists have discovered in these places a very ancient grave, which Muslims consider the tomb of the "Pharaoh's daughter" - the first wife of King Solomon. Scientists refute this legend and date the burial to the 8th century BC. One way or another, but this is one of the most ancient burials found in the "Valley of Jehoshaphat".
Under the foundations of the houses of the Arab settlement of Siluam, located on the western slope of the Kidron ravine, there are numerous ancient cave burials. Locals use these caves as cellars. There are heaps of rubbish around the ancient graves, which causes anger and pain in the souls of Jews, who see this as a direct outrage against ancient graves.
To the north of Siluam, on the western slope of Kidron, several ancient necropolises are visible, which scholars date back to the period of the Second Temple. The most extreme from the south - according to legend, the grave of Zechariah, who lived during the time of King Iehoash. And it is not so important that King Yehoash ruled at the end of the 9th century BC, and the mausoleum was built, as we already wrote, in a clearly Greek style. Beginning in the 15th century, wealthy Jews living in Europe asked in their wills to be buried next to the grave of Zechariah.
The next burial, dating from the 2nd century BC, belongs to the Khezir family - hereditary temple priests, first mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah (10:21) and the Book of Chronicles (24:15). Archaeologists succeeded in identifying the burial in 1854 from a preserved inscription in Hebrew, which mentions the names of six Khezir brothers buried in this family crypt.
A few tens of meters to the north, there is a crypt with a cone-shaped roof, carved from a solid block of stone. This is the so-called "tomb of Absalom", the rebellious son of King David, who died at the hands of the soldiers whom David sent to suppress the rebellion. It is clear that no Absalom was buried there, since he lived and died in the 10th century BC, and the mausoleum, according to historians, was built a thousand years later. The reason for the folk tradition was a passage from the Book of Kings.
Religious Jews, passing by this mausoleum, will not hesitate to throw a stone at it as a sign of contempt for their son, who raised his hand against his father.
At the back of Absalom's tomb, another burial from the Second Temple period was found, the so-called "tomb of Jehoshaphat", which folk tradition associates with the valley, which the prophet Joel speaks of as the place of the Last Judgment.
The surviving monuments-mausoleums of the Second Temple period are the family burial places of very rich and noble citizens of Jerusalem. Less affluent townspeople buried their relatives in burial caves, which were cut in soft rocks in the vicinity of the city. Burial caves, consisting of several compartments, were typical in the time of Herod the Great.
In the central part of the cave there was a stone slab, on which the body of the deceased was laid, wrapping it with funeral ribbons, abundantly saturated with balsam and incense to eliminate the unpleasant odor. Memorial prayers were read over the body, after which the deceased was placed on a shelf in one of the small compartments of the burial cave. The body lay there for about a year and managed to mummify in a hot, dry climate. A year later, the relatives of the deceased entered the tomb, took out the body of the deceased and laid the bones in a stone ossuary box. The box was walled up in a small hole cut through the inside of the cave, and the shelf on which the deceased lay was cleared for a new burial. This method existed in Judea until the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem by the Romans. Today, archaeologists have found a large number of stone ossuary coffins, decorated with rich carvings or simple, smooth ones. Often you can see the names of the dead carved on them or a warning not to open the coffin, so as not to disturb the souls of the dead.
It was in such a luxurious prosperous Jerusalem, in a palace known to us from the magnificent descriptions of Mikhail Bulgakov, and the news of the Magi who had come to the city found the aged Tsar. And what do you think this patient, already suffering from a severe form of paranoia, should have thought, who personally sent masses of the people to the next world, including his closest relatives, sons and beloved wife Miriam?
“What other king of the Jews was born in Bethlehem? Here the Jewish king is me, Herod the Great, and one of my sons will inherit me! And I will order the impostor to be exterminated, even if this requires the extermination of hundreds of innocent babies!
Theologians believe that such actions were very characteristic of the "great" ruler, and they are innumerable, and therefore such an "insignificant" event for the reign of Herod as the "massacre of babies" in Bethlehem and its environs was not included in the historical documents.