A Dash of Salt

The Real King Herod?!?

Our family just began subscribing to National Geographic this fall, and so I was excited to see the December issue's cover story on the recent excavation and discovery of King Herod's tomb in Israel.  The magazine does it's usual gold-standard job of providing beautiful photographs, drawings, and diagrams to accompany the article on Herod's architectural accomplishments, but then it flubs it up with a blatant inaccuracy regarding the infamous King of Judea.  Contrary to the gospel account in Matthew 2:16-18, National Geographic claims that "Herod is best known for slaughtering every male infant in Bethlehem in an attempt to kill Jesus.  He is most certainly innocent of this crime."

Has Matthew embellished his account of Jesus's birth by falsely accusing Herod of infanticide?  Professor Craig Blomberg has penned an excellent rebuttal to NatGeo's assertion of Herod's innocence.  His blog post reminds us that the New Testament record is indeed a reliable historical account of Jesus Christ's life and words. (HT: Justin Taylor)

Tomb of Herod the Great Found

From the Bible Blog Archaeology desk: The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that archaeologists have discovered the tomb of Herod the Great while digging in the ruins of Herodium, located about 7.5 miles south of Jerusalem.  This is the King Herod who ruled Judea at the time of Christ's birth. (HT: Justin Taylor)