{"id":81,"date":"2014-05-28T12:00:17","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T12:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=81"},"modified":"2014-05-21T22:27:05","modified_gmt":"2014-05-21T22:27:05","slug":"matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-historical-background","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-historical-background.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 2:13-18; The Escape to Egypt (Historical Background)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew reports that “Herod” was the bloodthirsty king who ordered the mass murder of all boys aged two and under in Bethlehem and the surrounding area. (2:16). History knows this king as \u201cHerod the Great,\u201d though \u201cgreat\u201d seems a stretch for this man.<\/p>\n

He reigned as a Roman appointee over the conquered Jewish people from roughly 37 B.C. until his death in 4 B.C. As a politician, he was very astute, avoiding assassination, imposing peace, creating alliances, and overseeing magnificent construction projects that included palaces, fortress Masada, the harbor at Caesarea, and even the temple in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

As a person, Herod the Great was a murderous, emotionally disturbed, manically paranoid, possibly insane man.<\/p>\n

Roman emperor Caesar Augustus once said, it was \u201cbetter to be Herod\u2019s pig than his son,\u201d and he was right. Because the Jewish king didn’t eat pork, pigs in his household were never butchered. The same couldn’t be said for Herod the Great’s family members.<\/p>\n

Herod executed two of his sons for suspected treason, along with his wife and many others in his court and extended family. He brutally tortured and often killed anyone who even hinted at being a threat to him. Worried that people would rejoice at his death, he gave instructions (thankfully unfulfilled) for Jewish leaders in every town to be killed when he died, so people would have to mourn.<\/p>\n

Herod the Great died in 4 B.C., after long illness and in excruciating pain, suffering from internal ulceration and decay.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"Matthew<\/a><\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[WOB, 136-38]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n

About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n

About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew reports that “Herod” was the bloodthirsty king who ordered the mass murder of all boys aged two and under in Bethlehem and the surrounding area. (2:16). History knows this king as \u201cHerod the Great,\u201d though \u201cgreat\u201d seems a stretch for this man. He reigned as a Roman appointee over the conquered Jewish people from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,2],"tags":[46,45,43,44,302],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historicalbackgrounds","category-matthew","tag-bethlehem","tag-caesar-augustus","tag-herod","tag-masada","tag-matthew"],"yoast_head":"\nMatthew 2:13-18; The Escape to Egypt (Historical Background) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-historical-background.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 2:13-18; The Escape to Egypt (Historical Background) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Matthew reports that “Herod” was the bloodthirsty king who ordered the mass murder of all boys aged two and under in Bethlehem and the surrounding area. (2:16). History knows this king as \u201cHerod the Great,\u201d though \u201cgreat\u201d seems a stretch for this man. He reigned as a Roman appointee over the conquered Jewish people from…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-historical-background.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-28T12:00:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-05-21T22:27:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/04\/Pig-225x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Nappa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Matthew 2:13-18; The Escape to Egypt (Historical Background) - For Bible Study Nerds","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-historical-background.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Matthew 2:13-18; The Escape to Egypt (Historical Background) - For Bible Study Nerds","og_description":"Matthew reports that “Herod” was the bloodthirsty king who ordered the mass murder of all boys aged two and under in Bethlehem and the surrounding area. (2:16). History knows this king as \u201cHerod the Great,\u201d though \u201cgreat\u201d seems a stretch for this man. He reigned as a Roman appointee over the conquered Jewish people from…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-historical-background.html","og_site_name":"For Bible Study Nerds","article_published_time":"2014-05-28T12:00:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-05-21T22:27:05+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/04\/Pig-225x300.jpg"}],"author":"Mike Nappa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-historical-background.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-historical-background.html","name":"Matthew 2:13-18; The Escape to Egypt (Historical Background) - For Bible Study Nerds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-historical-background.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-historical-background.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/04\/Pig-225x300.jpg","datePublished":"2014-05-28T12:00:17+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-21T22:27:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-historical-background.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-historical-background.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-historical-background.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/04\/Pig-225x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/files\/2014\/04\/Pig-225x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/05\/matthew-213-18-the-escape-to-egypt-historical-background.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew 2:13-18; The Escape to Egypt (Historical Background)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/","name":"For Bible Study Nerds","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Mike Nappa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575","name":"Mike Nappa","description":"Mike Nappa is an entertainment journalist at FamilyFans.com, a bestselling author\u2014and a notorious Bible Study Nerd. He's a former youth pastor who shepherded kids on staff at Chuck Swindoll's church in Southern California\u2014and he's a bestselling and award-winning author with more than a million copies of his books sold worldwide. Plus, he holds a degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Bible Theology. So, you know, he\u2019s got that going for him. Mike is also a pop culture dork who watches too much TV, reads too many comic books, utters too many bad words, laughs at all the wrong jokes, and often gets in trouble because he says whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment\u2014like quoting an R-rated movie in the middle of a sermon. Yeah, he\u2019s a mess (just like you!), but he kind of likes it that way. Most of all, Mike Nappa loves Jesus, and he figures that covers over a multitude of sins. Learn more at nappaland.com\/mikenappa.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.biblestudynerds.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/author\/mnappa"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/571"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions\/216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}