Who Was Herod the Great?

Herod the Great was a Roman-appointed king who ruled over Judea from 37 BCE until his death in 4 BCE. He is one of the most politically significant and controversial figures tied to the birth story of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. Herod is remembered for two main things: his massive building projects and his brutal reign. He was ethnically Idumaean and came from a family that had been forcibly converted to Judaism a century earlier under John Hyrcanus I. Though he practiced Jewish customs, many in Judea did not view him as a legitimate Jewish king due to his non-Israelite lineage and political ties to Rome. His reign tells us a lot about the Roman control of Judea (modern day Palestine), the political fear of rebellion, and why the Bible narrative paints him the way it does.