DAILY, WEEKEND, AND HOLIDAY INTERNET EVANGELIZE TO THE WORLD MINISTRY

Herod Luke 1:5 Excerpt From 37 until his death in 4  b.c.,  Herod ruled as king of the Jews, a reign marked by his total loyalty to Rome, his grandiose and sometimes magnificent building programs, his family strife, and his harsh repression of any opposition. Herod showed an uncanny ability to maintain favor with the Roman leadership, managing, for example, to switch his allegiance from Antony to Octavian (later Augustus) after the Battle of Actium in 31  b.c. In honor of Augustus, Herod rebuilt ancient Samaria into the Hellenistic city of Sebaste (Gk., ‘Augustus’ ), and he constructed, on the site of a minor anchorage on the Mediterranean coast called Strato’s Tower, the magnificently planned and constructed city of Caesarea Maritima, a major port and the Roman administrative center for Palestine. There is much to admire in Caesarea, including the enormous blocks of stone with which a breakwater was constructed to make a harbor, the sewers that were designed t...

Herod Luke 1:5  Herod Herod (hairʹuhd), name of a family of Idumean origin with strong connections with the Roman government who, from the time of Queen Alexandra (76-67 B.C.), became centrally involved in the affairs of the Jewish state. Members of the family, under a variety of titles, governed Palestine and adjacent areas from ca. 55 B.C. until near the close of the first century A.D. The name ‘Herod’ is Greek and originated with a shadowy ancestor about whom, even in antiquity, little was known. Two ancient traditions make him either a descendant of a notable Jewish family with a lineage traceable to the Babylonian exile or a slave in the temple of Apollo in the Philistine city of Ashkelon. Neither can be proved.  The first Antipater, the grandfather of Herod the Great, rose to the position of military commander of his native Idumea under the Hasmonean rulers Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 B.C.) and Alexandra. The Idumeans had been forcibly converted to Judaism ...