The Murder of the Innocents is recognized in the Anglican Church every December 28. It commemorates the biblical story that Matthew describes following the birth of Jesus.
Then Herod, when he saw that he had been deceived by the wise men, became very angry, and he sent soldiers and executed all the children in Bethlehem and in all the region around it from the age of two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined precisely from the wise men. 17 Then what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled, saying, 18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and she did not want to be comforted, because they exist no longer.” — Matt 2:16–18 (LEB)
Some historians claim that this probably didn’t happen because Matthew is the only Gospel writer who mentions it, and no non-biblical sources mention it. While today, with our 24-hour televised news cycle, we would expect coverage an event this horrific to be unavoidable. There are very good reasons for the different perspective in early B.C. Israel.
When the B.C./A.D. distinction in the calendar was developed around A.D. 523, by a Roman abbot, Dionysius Exiguus (Little Dennis), he based his calculations on Clement of Alexandria’s declaration the Jesus was born in he 28th year of Caesar Augustus’ reign.
He apparently forgot that Augustus reigned for four years as Octavian before the Roman Senate gave him the title, “Augustus.” Dionysius also left out a “0” year between 1 B.C. and A.D. 1 (which causes difficulty even today with some people mistakenly believing the year 2000 started a new century and millennium).
Since Herod died in 4 B.C., and with Dionysius’ calculation errors, the date Jesus was born is most likely between 7 and 6 B.C. History recorded Herod’s death in multiple sources (dating it according to the ruling time of other monarchs), as well as Herod’s major events.
When Julius Caesar was killed in 44 B.C., his nephew, Octavian, and his 2nd in command, Mark Antony, hunted the ring leaders of his murder and defeated them (Cassius and Brutus) two years later. Herod had stayed loyal to Antony and was thus made tetrarch (subordinate king) of Galilee.
When Octavian later defeated Antony to become Caesar, Herod quickly changed his allegiance to Octavian, and was allowed to keep his position.
The Israelites, however, didn’t accept Herod as their king despite his appointment by Rome. He was from the wrong ancestry. His father was from the line of Esau, not Jacob (making him an Edomite, not an Israelite), and his mother was Arabian (to be a Jew, one’s mother had to be Jewish). Every Jew knew that their kings had to come from the tribe of Judah (as David had), and through David descendants. Even rebuilding the Temple didn’t get Herod accepted by them.
That rejection didn’t help Herod’s personality; he was a cruel and paranoid ruler. He killed at least three of his own sons whom he saw as competition for the throne, prompting Augustus to joke that it was safer to be Herod’s pig (hus)than Herod’s son (huios)—a great pun in Greek but not noticed in other translations.
Herod knew he was detested by the Israelites, and that they’d be glad when he was gone. So, when he grew close to death, he ordered all the Jewish heads-of-households to appear before him in Jerusalem or face death.
When they arrived, he had them all imprisoned in the horse-racing stadium with orders for them to be killed when he died, ensuring that there would indeed be mourning in Israel following his death, even if it wasn’t for him. Thankfully, that order was canceled by his sister when he died.
This was who Herod was. Those incidents were not out of character; rather, they defined it. Herod was not someone who would be troubled about killing some toddlers in a nearby town. So that’s one reason it wouldn’t be mentioned anywhere.
Another reason is that Bethlehem was a small town with a few hundred residents. At any given time, the number of boys under 2 years old would be no more than a couple dozen. Knowing what we know about other atrocities committed by Herod, a local event involving a small number of deaths would barely have been talked about in other areas of Israel.
Matthew mentions it because of the audience he is writing to. Rachel weeping for her children is an allusion to Jacob’s wife who bore Joseph and later died during childbirth of Benjamin. In Judaism, she is considered the matriarchal figure, or mother, of the nation of Israel. The death of these children, to Matthew, also fulfills a prophecy from Jeremiah (31:15).
Matthew’s Gospel is replete with references to biblical prophecy regarding Jesus to show them the long-awaited Messiah had come as promised, and that Jesus is him.
Matthew is telling this aspect of the Magi’s visit to Herod, not merely to show what a bad guy Herod was, but to show that yet another prophecy given by Yahweh through one of his prophets was being fulfilled.
When Herod was told by the visiting Magi that they have come to worship the new king, He had no intention of relinquishing power to anyone, especially some baby monarch that Herod thought he could easily remove before any talk of regime change could start. He called his chief priests and scribes to determine where the Messiah was supposed to be born.
They showed him the prophecy from Micah.
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, too small to be among the clans of Judah, from you one will go out for me, to be ruler in Israel; and his origins are from of old, from ancient days. — Micah 5:2
So, Herod believed he could interfere with God’s plan by killing all the male babies in the little town next to him. Matthew showed, however, that God sent Joseph with Mary and Jesus to safety in the neighboring province of Egypt (not as refugees or homeless, as they had just received “treasure chests” filled with gold, frankincense, and myrrh).
These events also harken back to those in Moses’ infancy (as shown in Exodus 1-2), in which the monarch of that time (Pharaoh) ordered the murder of all Hebrew infants. Moses’ parents brought him surreptitiously to the safety of Pharaoh’s daughter (in Egypt), foreshadowing Joseph and Mary bringing the baby Jesus to Egypt for safety from a murderous monarch.
Matthew’s Gospel frequently illustrates events involving Moses, comparing them to subsequent events with Jesus at a much higher level, showing the fulfillment of Moses’ prophecy:
“Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your countrymen, and to him you shall listen.” — Deut 18:15
Matthew is using these barely remembered tragedies involving Herod and Pharaoh, coinciding with Jesus’ infancy, to demonstrate the fulfillment of prophecy and the power of Yahweh to overcome any attempted human interference in his divine plan.
The all-powerful Yahweh had just taken on flesh, and his amazing plan for salvation was just getting started. No one, not even the most powerful person in all of Israel, would be able to prevent it.
That’s why we see it in Matthew’s Gospel, and why it was not deemed newsworthy by other contemporary writers. Our king is above all other kings. He is lord over all other lords, the master of all masters. The best efforts of evil fail against the goodness of our Lord.
Our God is an awesome God!
May God continue to bless you throughout this new year.
Grace and Peace,
Fr. Austin