Herod the Great
      n : king of Judea who (according to the New Testament) tried to
          kill Jesus by ordering the death of all children under
          age two in Bethlehem (73-4 BC) [syn: Herod]


 Herod the Great
    (Matt. 2:1-22; Luke 1:5; Acts 23:35), the son of Antipater, an
    Idumaean, and Cypros, an Arabian of noble descent. In the year
    B.C. 47 Julius Caesar made Antipater, a "wily Idumaean,"
    procurator of Judea, who divided his territories between his
    four sons, Galilee falling to the lot of Herod, who was
    afterwards appointed tetrarch of Judea by Mark Antony (B.C. 40),
    and also king of Judea by the Roman senate.

      He was of a stern and cruel disposition. "He was brutish and a
    stranger to all humanity." Alarmed by the tidings of one "born
    King of the Jews," he sent forth and "slew all the children that
    were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years
    old and under" (Matt. 2:16). He was fond of splendour, and
    lavished great sums in rebuilding and adorning the cities of his
    empire. He rebuilt the city of Caesarea (q.v.) on the coast, and
    also the city of Samaria (q.v.), which he called Sebaste, in
    honour of Augustus. He restored the ruined temple of Jerusalem,
    a work which was begun B.C. 20, but was not finished till after
    Herod's death, probably not till about A.D. 50 (John 2:20).
    After a troubled reign of thirty-seven years, he died at Jericho
    amid great agonies both of body and mind, B.C. 4, i.e.,
    according to the common chronology, in the year in which Jesus
    was born.

      After his death his kingdom was divided among three of his
    sons. Of these, Philip had the land east of Jordan, between
    Caesarea Philippi and Bethabara, Antipas had Galilee and Peraea,
    while Archelaus had Judea and Samaria.