12 And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.
13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.
14 When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt:
15 And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.
16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.
17 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying,
18 In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. Matthew 2:12-19
No one from that nation, or any other nation, or of that age, or of any other age makes any mention to anything remotely resembling the supposed Herod infanticide. No Rabbinical writers that detailed Herods wicked acts in their writings ever even hinted at such an infanticide. Such a horrible and atrocious act would have been written about far and wide in that region and others.
Most certainly the Historian Josephus, who was related to Herod’s wife, and lived in that country, and professed to write, in detail, every evil act by Herod, ever even comes close to mentioning any infanticide. Josephus devoted 37 chapters to Herod and his evil acts. This type of infanticide would be a bloody deed that would be unmatched in history.
All other historians of that time who wrote about the character of Herod never came close to writing about any thing close to this alleged utterly cruel infanticide. According to best estimates, Herod was not living at the time of this fantasy killing of all male children under the age of two. According to the writings of Josephus, Herod would have been 68 or older when this major act of child genocide occurred.
I’m sure Herod was not a dummy and would have calculated that he would be dead before any an infant would grow up and have the capacity to overthrow him from his throne. Herod would have had a simpler solution of narrowing down the target to the spectacular future child and just killing that one child. This special child had three rich wise men visiting him giving him, among other things, gifts of gold. People talk.
The killing of a huge number of children and breaking the hearts of his loyal subjects would have surely overthrew him more than any other act he could do. The revengeful repercussions would be certain and big. There also would have been some evidence of a population drop. The Christian scholar Rev. Edward Evanson stated it very clearly, “It is an incredible, borrowed fiction.”
Origin
This is a standard element of the theme of the story of a mean King who has prophesy told against him that a born child will grow up and depose him. The King then kills all the male infants to prevent this deposing. This “innocents were slaughtered” myth is found in many religions;
Sargon, Nimrod, Moses, Jason, Krishna, Mordred, Oedipus, Perseus, Romulus, Remus, and Zeus.
And the Hero of the story always escapes and grows to manhood and deposes the King.
Matthew Can’t Read
17 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying,
18 “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” Matthew 2:17-18
This is a quote from Jeremiah 31:15 but the verse is a clear reference to the captivity in Babylon as demonstrated by reading the next two verses;
15 This is what the Lord says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”
16 This is what the Lord says: “Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded,” declares the Lord.
“They will return from the land of the enemy.
17 So there is hope for your descendants,” declares the Lord.
“Your children will return to their own land. Jeremiah 31:16-17
The quoting of Jeremiah by Matthew was to gain believability by alledging that the infanticide was prophesied and happened. In fact the verse is about the many descendants of Rachael, mostly men (but includes women) that that were killed in battle. [Jeremiah chapter 3]
