THE YOUNG JESUS
by Charlene & Friedhelm Dohmann

The Murder of the Children

The "Wise Men" ignored Herod's request and returned home. God had commanded them in a dream, not to return to Herod and tell him about the child.

Joseph had another dream. An angel appeared and said, he should get up and flee with Mary and the child to Egypt, because Herod had plans to kill Jesus.

The three left Bethlehem the very same night towards Egypt. Matthew reflects on their stay in that country as a fulfillment of Hosea's prophecy: "From Egypt I called my son."

When Herod realized that the wise men had tricked him, he became angry and gave the order to kill in Bethlehem and in the neighboring area all boys up to the age of two years. This included every male child born since the first appearance of the star. On the basis of population estimates birth rates in Bethlehem, approximately 25 children were killed. Matthew cites Jeremiah: "A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not."

Rachel, Jacob's wife, died at the birth of a son and was traditionally buried nearby Bethlehem. The children, which Rachel mourns in the old testament passage, are the exiles, who descended from their son Joseph. Matthew expands their number and encloses - at least on a mental level - the children killed in Bethlehem.

The history of Herod's reign is well documented but misses the carnage - possible because the murder of the children of Bethlehem was only one of many crimes Herod was guilty of.

Whatever the reason the event was not documented elsewhere, it marked Herod's reputation of an unusually cruel sovereign. The cunning and insidiousness, which Herod utilized to protect himself and to defend the throne, has in the past 2000 years the imagination of people inspired. Interest in Herod culminated in medieval dramas, in which he is presented as one of the worst rogues or villains.

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