{"id":2678,"date":"2008-12-02T21:01:31","date_gmt":"2008-12-03T02:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/2008\/12\/02\/an-astute-and-generous-ruler\/"},"modified":"2008-12-02T21:01:31","modified_gmt":"2008-12-03T02:01:31","slug":"an-astute-and-generous-ruler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/2008\/12\/an-astute-and-generous-ruler\/","title":{"rendered":"An astute and generous ruler"},"content":{"rendered":"

An astute and generous ruler, a brilliant general, and one of the most imaginative
\nand energetic builders of the ancient world, …<\/p>\n

Now who could the National Geographic be talking about? Why of course it is King
\nHerod the Great!<\/p>\n

Herod guided his kingdom to new prosperity and power.<\/p>\n

He was all about hope and change.<\/p>\n

Yet today he is best known as the sly and murderous monarch of Matthew’s Gospel,
\nwho slaughtered every male infant in Bethlehem in an unsuccessful attempt to
\nkill the newborn Jesus, the prophesied King of the Jews. During the Middle
\nAges he became an image of the Antichrist: Illuminated manuscripts and Gothic
\ngargoyles show him tearing his beard in mad fury and brandishing his sword
\nat the luckless infants, with Satan whispering in his ear. Herod is almost
\ncertainly innocent of this crime, of which there is no report apart from Matthew’s
\naccount.<\/p>\n

Wow I guess I can forget about the Holy Innocents. Thanks National Geographic!<\/p>\n

But children he certainly slew, including three of his own sons, along with his
\nwife, his mother-in-law, and numerous other members of his court. Throughout
\nhis life, he blended creativity and cruelty, harmony and chaos, in ways that
\nchallenge the modern imagination. [article<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Now I am confused. We know about how Herod murdered his relatives based on only
\none account by Josephus written around 93 or 94. Yet the account by Matthew
\nwritten earlier and passed on by people living within living memory of King
\nHerod is not credible. National Geographic also calls Josephus a "hostile biographer " So I guess the one source rule can be used selectively
\ndepending on the outcome you want. Besides somebody who murdered many family
\nmembers out of a paranoid feat of being usurped could not possibly react
\nlike the Herod in Matthew’s account – oh wait.<\/p>\n

Just in time for Christmas National Geographic has the television show and a
\ngame called "Herod’s Lost Tomb" available for multiple platforms and even the iPhone\/iPod Touch. Too bad according to them the slaughter of the innocents
\nisn’t true or they could have released a First Person Stabber where you hack at under two year old’s in Bethlehem. Surely next on the History Channel and the Discovery Channel we will soon get titles like "The Real Herod."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An astute and generous ruler, a brilliant general, and one of the most imaginative and energetic builders of the ancient world, … Now who could the National Geographic be talking…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-punditry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}