Israeli archaeologists unearth Herod family tombs

Reuters ^ | Nov. 19, 2008 | Allyn Fisher-Ilan

[decimon]

BEIT SAHOUR, West Bank (Reuters) – An Israeli archaeologist said on Wednesday he had unearthed what he believed were the 2,000-year-old remains of two tombs which had held a wife and daughter-in-law of the biblical King Herod.

Other findings announced by Ehud Netzer of Jerusalem's Hebrew University provided new evidence of the lavish lifestyle of the Roman-era monarch also known as the "King of the Jews."

Herod, a Roman-anointed king who ruled Judea from 37 BC until his death in 4 BC, has a special place in biblical history. Herod rebuilt the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, making him a focus of study in the Jewish state.

[decimon]

[decimon]

Can of worms ping.

[icwhatudo]

Nice to see the return of BC at Rueters rather than the pc BCE.

[decimon]

Nice to see the return of BC at Rueters rather than the pc BCE.

I'm guessing the author is Israeli. That could be why.

[Sacajaweau]

btt

[SunkenCiv]

wow, wotta coincidence. And, ya beat me.

King Herod Revealed: The Holy Land’s visionary builder
National Geographic | December 2008 | Tom Meuller
Posted on 11/19/2008 4:55:19 PM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2134990/posts

[SunkenCiv]

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[aWolverine]

Christian and Jewish history, backed by archeological evidence, is a myth. Ask any Muslim (preferably not while he's celebrating Muhammad's magical flying horse ride to Jerusalem).

[the_Watchman]

The interesting story here is the location of the Herodium. The article says it is “near Jerusalem”. However, it was about a days march from Jerusalem. You see Herod’s family were from Edom. Edom was south of Israel. Herod was an outsider and considered his reign as tenuous. To protect himself he built several palaces which were designed to protect a possible retreat to Edom should the Jews revolt.

The Herodium was one of those palaces. It stood on top of a large hill at the end of a valley. It was at least five stories high with the highest level intended to house Herod’s family. It was an imposing sight.

Now for the irony. Edomites are descended from Esau while Jews were descended from Jacob. They were twins in the womb, but Esau happened to come out first. The Bible, in the book of Genesis, promised the Jews that the eldest would serve the youngest. The promise was that the Edomites would serve the Jews, but instead, the Jews were serving the Edomites.

Consider that Bethlehem was within that valley. Consider that Jesus was born literally in the shadow of the Herodium. When the shepherds looked up they saw the symbol of Herod the Great, the King, the descendant of Esau. When they looked down, they saw the promised King, our Lord in a manger, the descendant of Jacob. They worshiped the promised King while ignoring the majesty of the earthly king.

This information was included in an archaeological video produced by Focus on the Family. The suggested lesson is that it is easy for us to be dazzled by the imposing world around us and forget to cling to the promise embodied by the King of Kings.

[decimon]

In that account, Herod seems much a Roman. Much a builder but not above a bit of slaughter.

[SunkenCiv]

I highly recommend Michael Grant’s “Jews in the Roman World” (there are a half dozen or more ISBN numbers because it’s been published in very slightly different editions, or by multiple publishers of the same edition) for a pretty big eye-opener about what was going on during that turbulent time in that turbulent place.

[CaribouCrossing]

Isn't it strange that when an archaeologist digs up someone’s tomb or grave, it isn't called desecration or grave robbing?

[bmwcyle]

ping

[SeaWolf]

“Can of worms ping.”

After 2,000 years I think we are well beyond the “can of worms” stage (sorry, sorry I just couldn't resist)

[Campion]

The "died and was eaten by worms" King Herod of Acts was Herod Agrippa, who was the great-nephew of Herod the Great (the Herod of this article).

Herod the Great is the "King Herod" who ordered the slaughter of the Holy Innocents in Bethlehem.

[Coleus]

[Hostage]

Thank you for the history and insight.

[naturalized]

I was at the Herodium in 2006 with Ray Vanderlaan. Your description of this video sounds like it's his.

You can see the square fresh water pool with the circular feature in the middle. While RVL was teaching us, Palestinian kids were pretending to machine gun us for not giving them handouts.

[the_Watchman]

You are right. I just could not remember Ray’s last name. That whole series of videos was really good. Since I was using a library copy of the video in 2006, I guess you probably were not there when they were filming.