|
When Christ was born, according to the prophecies, in Bethlehem of
Judea, at the time indicated, Herod was not a little disturbed by
the enquiry of the magi who came from the east, asking where he who was
born King of the Jews was to be found,-for they had seen his star,
and this was their reason for taking so long a journey; for they
earnestly desired to worship the infant as God, - for he imagined
that his kingdom might be endangered; and he enquired therefore of the
doctors of the law, who belonged to the Jewish nation, where they
expected Christ to be born. When he learned that the prophecy of
Micah announced that Bethlehem was to be his birthplace he commanded,
in a single edict, all the male infants in Bethlehem, and all its
borders, that were two years of age or less, according to the time
which he had accurately ascertained from the magi, to be slain,
supposing that Jesus, as wa s indeed likely, would share the same
fate as the others of his own age.
But the child anticipated the snare, being carried into Egypt by his
parents, who had learned from an angel that appeared unto them what was
about to happen, These things are recorded by the Holy Scriptures in
the Gospel.
It is worth while, in addition to this, to observe the reward which
Herod received for his daring crime against Christ and those of the
same age. For immediately, without the least delay, the divine
vengeance overtook him while he was still alive, and gave him a
foretaste of what he was to receive after death.
It is not possible to relate here how he tarnished the supposed
felicity of his reign by successive calamities in his family, by the
murder of wife and children, and others of his nearest relatives and
dearest friends. The account, which casts every other tragic drama
into the shade, is detailed at length in the histories of Josephus.
How, immediately after his crime against our Saviour and the other
infants, the punishment sent by God drove him on to his death, we can
best learn from the words of that historian who, in the seventeenth
book of his Antiquities of the Jews, writes as follows concerning his
end: "
But the disease of Herod grew more severe, God inflicting punishment
for his crimes. For a slow fire burned in him which was not so
apparent to those who touched him, but augmented his internal
distress; for he had a terrible desire for food which it was not
possible to resist. He was affected also with ulceration of the
intestines, and with especially severe pains in the colon, while a
watery and transparent humor settled about his feet.
He suffered also from a similar trouble in his abdomen. Nay more,
his privy member was putrefied and produced worms. He found also
excessive difficulty in breathing, and it was particularly disagreeable
because of the offensiveness of the odor and the rapidity of
respiration.
He had convulsions also in every limb, which gave him uncontrollable
strength. It was said, indeed, by those who possessed the power of
divination and wisdom to explain such events, that God had inflicted
this punishment upon the King on account of his great impiety."
The writer mentioned above recounts these things in the work referred
to. And in the second book of his History he gives a similar account
of the same Herod, which runs as follows: "The disease then seized
upon his whole body and distracted it by various torments. For he had
a slow fever, and the itching of the skin of his whole body was
insupportable. He suffered also from continuous pains in his colon,
and there were swellings on his feet like those of a person suffering
from dropsy, while his abdomen was inflamed and his privy member so
putrefied as to produce worms. Besides this he could breathe only in
an upright posture, and then only with difficulty, and he had
convulsions in all his limbs, so that the diviners said that his
diseases were a punishment.
But he, although wrestling with such sufferings, nevertheless clung
to life and hoped for safety, and devised methods of cure. For
instance, crossing over Jordan he used the warm baths at Callirhoë,
which flow into the Lake Asphaltites, but are themselves sweet enough
to drink.
His physicians here thought that they could warm his whole body again
by means of heated oil. But when they had let him down into a tub
filled with oil, his eyes became weak and turned up like the eyes of a
dead person. But when his attendants raised an outcry, he recovered
at the noise; but finally, despairing of a cure, he commanded about
fifty drachms to be distributed among the soldiers, and great sums to
be given to his generals and friends.
Then returning he came to Jericho, where, being seized with
melancholy, he planned to commit an impious deed, as if challenging
death itself. For, collecting from every town the most illustrious
men of all Judea, he commanded that they be shut up in the so-called
hippodrome.
And having summoned Salome, his sister, and her husband,
Alexander, he said: `I know that the Jews will rejoice at my
death. But I may be lamented by others and have a splendid funeral if
you are willing to perform my commands. When I shall expire surround
these men, who are now under guard, as quickly as possible with
soldiers, and slay them, in order that all Judea and every house may
weep for me even against their will.'"
And after a little Josephus says, "And again he was so tortured by
want of food and by a convulsive cough that, overcome by his pains,he
planned to anticipate his fate. Taking anapple he asked also for a
knife, for he was accustomed to cut apples and eat them. Then looking
round to see that there was no one to hinder, he raised his right hand
as if to stab himself."
In addition to these things the same writer records that he slew
another of his own sons before his death, the third one slain by his
command, and that immediately afterward he breathed his last, not
without excessive pain.
Such was the end of Herod, who suffered a just punishment for his
slaughter of the children of Bethlehem, which was the result of his
plots against our Saviour.
After this an angel appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and
commanded him to go to Judea with the child and its mother, revealing
to him that those who had sought the life of the child were dead. To
this the evangelist adds, "But when he heard that Archelaus did
reign in the room of his father Herod he was afraid to go thither;
notwithstanding being warned of God in a dream he turned aside into the
parts of Galilee."
|
|