Is there any extra-Biblical 'evidence' of Herod's murder of babies?
Upvote:0
From Wikipedia, The first non-Christian reference to the massacre is recorded four centuries later by Macrobius, who writes in his Saturnalia:
When he [emperor Augustus] heard that among the boys in Syria under two years old whom Herod, king of the Jews, had ordered killed, his own son was also killed, he said: it is better to be Herod's pig, than his son.
The above translated from original source:
Cum audisset inter pueros quos in Syria Herodes rex Iudaeorum intra bimatum iussit interfici filium quoque eius occisum, ait: Melius est Herodis porcum esse quam filium. (Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius, Saturnalia, book II, chapter IV:11)
Upvote:4
The short answer is: none known to date. A variety of speculation has arisen on the relationship between how Herod conducted himself and the impact that had on the narrations related to him in scripture.
At the lowest level of detail: the Wikipedia article cites a decent range of sources and still concludes there are no contemporary sources that match one for one with the event reported in scripture. (As Wiki articles go, it's a decent one).
G.J. Goldberg (http://www.josephus.org/ntparallels.htm#innocents) examines NT parallels with Josephus, in detail, arrives at the same conclusion. He cites an example from antiquities having to do with a number of Pharisees being put to death as being possibly related.
The story demonstrates at the least that the actions of Herod and the other people in the nativity story was not unheard of for the time, so that something of the sort {slaughter of innocents} might have occurred but escaped Josephus' notice. Or, the above story itself might have served as the nucleus of a tale that was elaborated over the years and applied to Jesus by his followers.
Herod was rough with a lot of people. From Goldberg:
Incidentally, in Antiquities 17.6.5 174 there is described a forced mass movement of people just before Herod's death. These people the king had planned to have these murdered so the Jews would be mourning when he died, rather than holding joyful festivities to celebrate his passing. This movement could conceivably have contributed both to the story of the slaughter of the innocents and the census of Quirinius ...
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