Rome was, relatively speaking, at peace. As simple as that sounds, it was more than a bit of a relief … for the people of Rome, at least! The Punic Wars – a century of warfare with Carthage that for a time threatened the existence of Rome – had been followed by an expansion (i.e. conquest) into Greece, Asia Minor, the Middle East, Gaul (France) and Britain. And then by a time of civil war and civil strife, as the republic broke down, splintering into factions competing for power. A degree of unity came, briefly, with Julius Caesar, but then he was assassinated, and civil war again ensued. The civil war ended with Rome being united by Julius Caesar's nephew, Octavian, who overcame the other factions (at first, the assassins, and afterward, his partners in punishing the assassins) – taking over Palestine and conquering Egypt in the process – and became emperor, with the title Augustus. Rome was yet ambitious, definitely a brutal exploitative conqueror, but the reign of Augustus brought respite from two and a half centuries of Rome being attacked and being ripped apart by civil war and strife.
Judea had likewise had a very stormy history. Starting with the conquest by Babylon in the early 6th Century BC: the Jewish people had been slaughtered and driven into exile in Babylon; reconquered by Persia; allowed by Persian emperor Cyrus to return to Judea; became a pawn in Persian imperial politics and semi-internecine strife' faced the prospect of a proto-Holocaust in the intrigues of a certain Haman; reconquered by Alexander the Great; became an area contested between Antiochan Syria and Ptolemaic Egypt; oppressed by and revolted against (successfully) the megalomaniac Antiochus Epiphanes; somewhat independent for a time, albeit riven with factions and subject to foreign influence and interference (Syria, Egypt and Rome); became a vassal state of Rome; conquered by the Parthian Empire; reconquered by Rome; made a vassal kingdom under Herod the Great; reduced to a very restive province at the death of Herod. How's that for a summary of 6 very eventful centuries?! Several aspects from that history contributed to happenings at Jesus birth and in His life.
The hatred and strife between the Jews and the Samaritans – mentioned at times in the Gospels – came from the time after the return from exile under the Persians. The Samaritans were, then, a “mixed race” people – part Israeli, part Medo-Persian – who had then been in Samaria for 2 or 3 centuries. Depending on one's point of view, the Samaritans wanted to rejoin their fellow Israelis (Jews) or wanted to muscle in, co-opt the Jews' return, take over their land (Judea), and hybridize their religion. By Jesus' time, this hatred had festered for 4 or 5 centuries – unlike wine, hatreds get worse with age.
The rebellion against Antiochus Epiphanes and tempestuous time of independence were the genesis of the various religio-socio-political factions of Jesus' time, and helped make post-Herodian Judea and Galilee very restless provinces. On the other hand, Roman arrogance and brutality made matters worse, inevitably leading to further – and in the event, disastrous – rebellion. This social turbidity was the context of Pontius Pilate's cowardly surrender to the mob's demands to crucify Jesus.
More relevant to the theme of this series of meditations is Herod, his becoming king, and aspects of his reign and character. Herod was of Idumaean (Edomite) ancestry and at least nominally of the Jewish religion. His family had come into power during the turbulent independence of Judea. Herod himself had given valuable service to Octavian (Augustus) in the civil war following the assassination of Julius Caesar, and again in the reconquest of Judea from the Parthians. For these services, Herod was given the rule of Judea, Idumea, Samaria and Galilee with the title of king.
Herod is called “the Great” for several reasons. His reign was long – more than 30 years – and he was, in that context, a capable and effective ruler. Because of his family's long involvement in Jewish politics, he was able to maintain some semblance of peace. Herod constructed an artificial harbor at Caesaria and began a massive and magnificent reconstruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem as well as other large-scale building projects.
Herod was also a great paranoid monster. The works of Josephus, specifically The Jewish War, give considerable detail regarding Herod killing several of his relatives (including a wife and a son) whom he suspected of plotting against him. Josephus does not mention the Slaughter of the Innocents at Bethlehem (Matthew Chapter 1) but it is entirely consistent with Herod's paranoid, ruthless, character. That the slaughter at Bethlehem wasn't mentioned is not unusual, in my opinion. Bethlehem was a small town, and probably “only” a couple dozen children, if that many, were killed. This killing was “just” one “small” act of brutality in Herod's reign of brutality.
It's easy to think of Christmas as a just-so story, set in an imaginary land with plastic puppet people acting out the too familiar events. Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, Joseph and Herod were real people, living in a real Galilee and Judea, with real feelings that grew out of real experiences and motivated real deeds. It is valuable to pause in our storytelling, slow down a little, and think about the people in our Christmas story – the good people and the monsters.
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