The pregnancy and birth of John the Baptist is in the Christmas stories, so are two Herods. The section about John the Baptists death by another Herod is very short and I thought it was interesting. The entire book is only about 30 pages.
Good post and thread.
Both the birth of Jesus and John the Baptist are interesting as is the reigns of King Herod the great and his son.:
Luke is the only Gospel that mentions the great
Arch-Angel Gabriel [mentioned in Daniel] and one of the reasons I like his Gospel so much.
Daniel 9:21 yes, while I
was speaking in prayer,
the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering.
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Both foretold to come in Malachi 3:
Malachi 3:1 Behold! sending messenger of Me, and-he paves way before Me
And suddenly the Lord/0113 'adown shall come to His temple of whom ye are seeking, and/even the Messenger of the Covenant, whom ye ones delighting. Behold! He comes! says Yahweh of Hosts.
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This King Herod during the birth of Jesus and John is said to be the father of Herod the Tetrarch.
[I quote a few commentaries at bottom of post for those interested the history of these 2 Kings since they both involve Jesus and John.........]
Birth of John the Baptist foretold:
Luke 1:
5
There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest, by name Zacharias, of the course of Abijah, and his wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name Elisabeth;
13But the Messenger said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and
you shall call his name John.
19And the messenger answering said to him, ‘I am Gabriel, who have been standing near before God, and I was sent to speak unto thee, and to proclaim these good news to thee,
The Birth of Jesus Foretold
26And in the sixth month was the messenger Gabriel sent by God, to a city of Galilee, the name of which [is] Nazareth,.................
31 “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS.
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Matthew 1:25 and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name JESUS.
Matthew 2:1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea
in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
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Luke 1:5 King Herod the great:
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 5 - chapter Luke 2:52. - THE GOSPEL OF THE INFANCY. The critical reader of the Gospel in the original Greek is here startled by the abrupt change in the style of writing. The first four verses, which constitute the introduction, are written in pure classical language; the sentences are balanced, almost with a rhythmical accuracy. They are the words evidently of a highly cultured mind, well versed in Greek thought.
But in the fifth verse, where the history of the eventful period really begins, all is changed. The narrative flows on clearly with a certain picturesqueness of imagery; the style is simple, easy, vivid; but at once the reader is sensible that he has passed out of the region of Greek and Western thought. The language is evidently a close translation from some Hebrew original; the imagery is exclusively Jewish, and the thoughts belong to the story of the chosen people. It is clear that this section of St. Luke's writing, which ends, however, with chapter 2, is not derived from apostolic tradition, but is the result of his own investigation into the origin of the faith of Christ, gathered probably from the lips of the virgin mother herself, or from one of the holy women belonging to her kinsfolk who had been with her from the beginning of the wondrous events. St. Luke reproduced, as faithfully as he could in a strange tongue, the revelations - some perhaps written, some no doubt oral, communicated to him, we reverently believe, by the blessed mother of Jesus herself. The story of these two chapters is what St. Luke evidently alludes to when, in his short preface (verse 3), he writes of his "perfect understanding in all things from the very first (ἄνωθεν)." Verse 5-25. - The vision of Zacharias in the temple. Verse 5. -
There was in the days of Herod, the King of Judaea. The Herod here alluded to was the one surnamed "the Great." The event here related took place towards the end of his reign. His dominions, besides Judaea, included Samaria, Galilee, and a large district of Peraea. This prince played a conspicuous part in the politics of his day. He was no Hebrew by birth, but an Idumaean, and he owed his position entirely to the favor of Rome, whose vassal he really was during his whole reign. The Roman senate had, on the recommendation of Antony and Octavius, granted to this prince the title of "King of Judaea."
It was a strange, sad state of things. The land of promise was ruled over by an Idumaean adventurer, a creature of the great Italian Republic; the holy and beautiful house on Mount Zion was in the custody of an Edomite usurper; the high priest of the Mighty One of Jacob was raised up or deposed as the officials of Rome thought good. Truly the scepter had departed from Juda.
Matthew 2:1 King Herod the Great
Pulpit Commentary
2:1 In the days of Herod the king. Herod the Great and Herod Agrippa II. (
Acts 25:13) alone held the legal title of "king" for any time (but cf.
Matthew 14:1, note) - the former as King of the Jews (Josephus, 'Bell. Jud.,' 1:14.4), or King "of the Idumaeans and Samaritans" (Appian, 'Civ., 5:75; vide Schurer, 1:1. 340), by a decree of an express meeting of the Roman senate, B.C. 40; the latter by Claudius's appointment, as king first of Chalcis (A.D. 48-53) and afterwards (A.D. 53-100) of the tetrarchies of Philip and Lysanias (Josephus, 'Bell. Jud.,' 2:12. 8; 13. 2), although Herod Antipas was so spoken of by courtesy ( infra,
Matthew 14:9).
As the date of Agrippa II. is quite out of the question, we are almost compelled by this phrase alone to recognize the date of Christ's birth as falling in the lifetime of Herod the Great. Herod the Great died in the spring of A.U.C. 750, our B.C. 4 (Schiirer, 1:1. 466), and as our Lord was born at least forty days earlier, for the purification in the temple must have taken place before Herod's massacre of the innocents, he cannot have been born later than the very beginning of B.C. 4, or the end of B.C. 5.
Indeed, upon the most natural deduction from ver. 16, he must have been born some months earlier. The Church, from the days of Justin Martyr ('Ap.,' 1:32), has loved to see in the abolition by Rome of the kingdom of the Jews at the death of Herod, of its native dynasty by Herod's usurnation (Origen, 'Genesis Hom.,' 17:6), the fulfilment of Jacob's prophecy (
Genesis 49:10).
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King Herod the Tetrarch:
Mark 6:14 Now
King Herod heard
of Him, for His name had become well known. And he said, “John the Baptist is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him.”
Mar 6:16 But when Herod heard, he said, “This is John, whom I beheaded; he has been raised from the dead!”
Luke 9:7 Now
Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by Him; and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead,
Luke 9:9 Herod said, “John I have beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things?” So he sought to see Him.
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Mark 6:14
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 14. -
This Herod is called by St. Matthew (
Matthew 14:1) "
the tetrarch;" and so also by St. Luke (
Luke 9:7); though it should be noticed that St. Matthew, in the same context, at Ver. 9, calls him "king." The word "tetrarch" properly means the sovereign or ruler of the fourth part of a territory.
He is known as Herod Anti-pus, son of Herod the Great, who had appointed him "tetrarch" of Galilee and Peraea. Herod Antipas had married the daughter of Arctas, King of Arabia, but deserted her for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. John the Baptist is risen from the dead; that is, "is risen in the person of Jesus Christ." St. Luke. (
Luke 9:7) says that at first Herod was "much perplexed (διηπόρει)" "about him.
At length, however, as he heard more and more of the fame of Christ's miracles, he came to the conclusion that our Lord was none other than John the Baptist risen again. Such is the opinion of St. Chrysostom, St. Augustine, and others.
At that time the views of Pythagoras respecting the transmigration of souls were generally current, and probably influenced the troubled mind of Herod. He had put to death an innocent and holy man; and it is a high testimony to the worth of the Baptist that, under the reproaches of a guilty conscience, Herod should have come to the conclusion that he had risen from the dead, thus probably giving the lie to his own opinions as a Sadducee; and terrified lest the Baptist should now avenge his own murder. "What a great thing," exclaims St. Chrysostom," is virtue! for Herod fears him, even though dead."
It should not be forgotten that this is the same Herod who set Jesus at nought and mocked him, when Pilate sent him to him, in the hope of relieving himself of the terrible responsibility of condemning one whom he knew to be innocent.
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Luke 9:7
Pulpit Commentary
Verses 7-9. - Herod's terror. Verse 7. - Now
Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by him.
This was Herod Antipas; he was a son of Herod the Great; his mother's name was Malthace. After his father's death he became tetrareh or prince-ruler of Galilee, Peraea, and of a fourth part of the Roman province of Syria. His first wife was daughter of Aretas, a famous Arabian sheik spoken of by St. Paul as "king of the Damascenes" (
2 Corinthians 11:32). This princess he divorced, and contracted a marriage at once incestuous and adulterous with his niece Herodias, the beautiful wife of his half-brother Philip. Philip was not a sovereign prince, and it was probably from motives of ambition that she deserted Philip for the powerful tetrarch Herod Antipas. I
t was owing to his fearless remonstrances against this wicked marriage that John the Baptist incurred the enmity of Herodias, who was only satisfied with the head of the daring preacher who presumed to attack her brilliant wicked life. What Herod now heard was the report of the widespread interest suddenly aroused by the mission of the twelve - a mission, we know, supported by miraculous powers, following close upon the Galilaean ministry of the Lord, which, as far as regarded the numbers who thronged his meetings, and the outward interest his words and works excited, had been so successful.
Rumours of all this at last reached the court circle, wrapped up in its own selfish and often wanton pleasures and false excitement.
