(2:3–4) Herod the Great: a bloody tyrant. Secular history records that he murdered many of his own family including his favorite wife (he had ten), her grandfather, her brother, and some of his own children. On one occasion, he had the whole Sanhedrin, the ruling body of Jewish government, assassinated. On another occasion, he had every notable man in Jerusalem murdered. He was very capable of the crime reported here. Christ was born during the latter years of Herod’s reign, and his reign as king had been a long one (37 B.C.–4 A.D.). This fact shows just how much of a bloody tyrant Herod really was. Just imagine! He would not even be around when a child king would inherit the throne, yet he felt threatened by the reports of a child king. He was a man possessed by evil. He was suspicious, savage, and warped. Note that Herod had all the children killed, not only in Bethlehem but “in all the coasts thereof” (v. 16).
