ON FEAR

Did King Herod believe that Jesus was the expected Messiah?

Herod was a Idumean, not a Jew, but had been persuaded to become a Jew, ostensibly to be accepted by the Jews as king. Undoubtedly, he knew scripture. Apparently, he could not quote it but questioned those around him about Christ. 

And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. (Mat 2:4)

 Herod asked them about Christ! He did not question the claim of the wise men; he accepted at face value what they claimed. Herod could see the same thing in the sky that the wise men saw, if he only looked. He never questioned that the heavens had directed them to Judaea. They were in search of God and Herod, paranoid that he was, feared the time had come, perhaps because he had been so evil, killing off his own family members who were in contention with each other for the kingdom.

Herod could appoint his own successor, Whoever, it would be necessitated the approval of Caesar.

This child Jesus had the credentials to be king of the Jews and paid taxes as the heir (son) of David. Caesar was a fair man with civil law and taxation would be the evidence that Jesus was in fact heir to the throne. Not only that, but that Jesus was a Jew who would be a fitting ethnarch for the kingdom of the Jews.

Caesar would, in fact, leave the Judaean throne vacant after Archelaus was deposed by him in 6 A.D. Pontius Pilate would be the “hegemon” (Mat 27:2) — “a legatus Caesaris,’ an officer administering a province in the name and with the authority of the Roman emperor. (Strong 1890).

Pilate, as was the custom, was the “right hand” of Caesar, and in the absence of Caesar was Caesar. That was Roman Law.

Herod was king because of the grace of Caesar who could either appoint or not appoint to the throne anybody he pleased but preferred those with a bonified claim.

Herod seemed to know that Jesus could, if He pleased upon maturity, exert His right. Herod took Jesus seriously and recognized that Jesus is the Christ.

Scripture uses the expression, “should be born.” In the Greek that phrase is one word — “gennao.” It is not “should” but simply “engendered” (ibid). The expectation, or fear, of Herod had become real. The child, Jesus, fit the identity of the Messiah perfectly. Herod understood that Jesus was the expected Christ.

Herod, at that very time was deathly ill. He had recently changed his will, knowing full-well that his days were numbered. Even knowing that he was as well be dead; his concern was not with his own well-being, but who would succeed him. As such, Herod feared the infant Jesus more so than any of his own heirs.

Upon maturity and long after Herod had died, Jesus said, “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Mat 10:28).

Herod killed the bodies of the pretenders to the throne in the Massacre of the Innocents that occurred immediately after he died, according to Josephus. He could not kill their eternal souls, but Herod, even on his death bed, feared that those innocent people were out to kill him in person.

According to the truth that Jesus shared, anybody, even Herod, should fear Him — the Christ — because Jesus had/has the power to destroy both the body and soul in Hell, as He said.

Herod feared the baby Jesus, not because He had power over his eternal destiny, but because Jesus could have his throne, and had the credentials to do so. Everybody recognized Jesus as the “son of David” and of the gens, or family of the legitimate king that God had appointed to the throne so long ago.

The paranoia of the king was not Jesus himself but that he was “born” — gennao — and was of the gens of David.

Gens is Latin for “family.” Herod feared Jesus not because He was the Son of God but because, he was the “son of man,” David, and had the genealogy to validate it.

Why the genealogy in the Book of Matthew? Because it proved that Jesus, through his supposed father, Joseph, was the heir to the Davidic throne and was of the House of David. Herod nor his family were not; they were genetic Arabs (Edomites). Herodians had no legitimate claim to the Judaean throne.

It appears that Herod believed that Jesus was the Christ but only of the House of David. He did not fear Jesus because of His power over his soul but because of his power over the throne. He, perhaps, accepted Jesus as legitimate king contender but not as God Himself who was gennao of a virgin and of God. That Jesus was born in Bethlehem was particularly upsetting because Bethlehem was the place of the birth of David.

Herod had surely read, “David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem-Judah, whose name was Jesse” (1 Sam 17:12) and that the prophet Micah designated David’s heir to come: 

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. (Micah 5:2)

 Ephratah is the place near Bethel, where Rachel died and was buried (Gen 35:16). Jesus was from the very place where Rachel, the ancestor of David was buried. Perhaps Joseph owned the very land that had been in the family since the time of Jacob. Herod feared the genome of Jesus, not the Spirit of God in Him. He feared the “Israel” in the veins of the Christ because Rachel, like Eve long before, who was the mother of all the living, she was the “mother” of all the Israelites.

Herod was king not only of Judaea but much of the kingdom of David. He had hopes that the Herodian Kingdom, through his heirs, might encompass the entire Kingdom of David, and already pretended to that notion. But here came one born of David who was bonified heir to the Davidian Kingdom, causing Herod to fear the little baby!

Herod had them all killed who his soldiers found, but not among them was Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. It was not yet time for Jesus to die until Herod was proven dead, and Himself proven the rightful heir to the throne.

Jesus was crucified, not so much that He claimed to be God in the flesh, for that seemed absurd, but because He was the legitimate heir to the throne and all those factions that screamed for his death were politicians: Hasmoneans, Herodians, Pharisees, Sadducees, and especially both the chief priest representing the inherited (genetic) house of Annas whose current heir was Caiaphas, the son-in-law of Annas after each of Annas’s sons had been chief priests.

Even the priesthood had become political since the time of John Hyrcanus II, the Hasmonean king and high priest. Caiaphas would aspire for the throne in the manner of Hyrcanus.

Jesus was not crucified because He was God but because He was the Good King that they would not follow, after having followed for so many years the wicked King Herod. They would have to change their lifestyles and become holy as He is Holy!

What is the one characteristic in this age which the public dislikes in candidates? Those who are holy. Holy contenders for higher office are rejected because they are holy. Why so? Because then, they fear that they too would need to be holy.

(picture credit: Mayo Clinic News)