Herod The 'Great' Angry Tot
Herod The ‘Great’ Angry Tot
The Gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth contain a wealth of mysterious theological insights, worthy of long pondering and adoration. They also contain some pretty entertaining scenes. One that I had not uncovered until recently lies in the middle of Matthew 2, which centers on the child Christ.
Herod the ‘Great’
Before we get into the passage’s humorous twist, let’s take a brief detour on what came to people’s mind when they thought of Herod the “Great.”
- Herod promoted Greek and Roman culture.
- Herod renovated the temple, built the port city of Caesarea, and implemented very successful economic development policies.
- Herod was terrified of attacks from the East because of previous invasions (Arnold 2002, 15).
- And, most pertinent to this story, Herod secured and maintained his power through savvy political maneuvering and great bloodshed—filling Jerusalem’s streets with the blood of his (perceived) adversaries. When a revolt broke out in Jerusalem early in his career, he besieged the city, brutally suppressed the rebellion, and left the city in ruins. Herod’s own household was one of the most dangerous places to be. Because he feared harm from his wife, Mariamne, two sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, and brother-in-law the High Priest Aristobulus III, he had all of them executed (France 2007, 84).
In short, Herod was known for killing anyone of whom he was suspicious. Matthew’s audience would have passed on stories about Herod’s actions similar to the way modern American audiences hear about the atrocities of WWII and the political intrigue that took place during the Cold War.
Hidden, Holy Humor in Matthew 2
The Greek word for child appears 9 times in Matthew 2, always as a noun, in three sets of three. In the part of the story where this word does NOT appear, a very similar-sounding verb occurs. In the following passage, I have highlighted each occurrence of the noun [παιδίον] and the one verb [ἐμπαίζω]. Read the passage to see if you get the point the author makes through using the verb form instead of the noun:
Matthew 2 in the GOD’S WORD translation
1 Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea when Herod was king. After Jesus’ birth wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem. 2 They asked, “Where is the one who was born to be the king of the Jews? We saw his star rising and have come to worship him.” 3 When King Herod and all Jerusalem heard about this, they became disturbed. 4 He called together all the chief priests and the experts in the Scriptures and tried to find out from them where the Messiah was supposed to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem in Judea. The prophet wrote about this:
Bethlehem in the land of Judah, you are by no means least among the leaders of Judah. A leader will come from you. He will shepherd my people Israel.”
7 Then Herod secretly called the wise men and found out from them exactly when the star had appeared. 8 As he sent them to Bethlehem, he said, “Go and search carefully for the child. When you have found him, report to me so that I may go and worship him too.” 9 After they had heard the king, they started out. The star they had seen rising led them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 They were overwhelmed with joy to see the star. 11 When they entered the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary. So they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 God warned them in a dream not to go back to Herod. So they left for their country by another road.
13 After they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. The angel said to him, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and kill him.” 14 Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and left for Egypt that night. 15 He stayed there until Herod died. What the Lord had spoken through the prophet came true: “I have called my son out of Egypt.”
16 When Herod saw that the wise men had tricked him, he became furious. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys two years old and younger in or near Bethlehem. This matched the exact time he had learned from the wise men. 17 Then the words spoken through the prophet Jeremiah came true:
18 “A sound was heard in Ramah, the sound of crying in bitter grief. Rachel was crying for her children. She refused to be comforted because they were dead.”
19 After Herod was dead, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. 20 The angel said to him, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to Israel. Those who tried to kill the child are dead.” 21 Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as king of Judea, Joseph was afraid to go there. Warned in a dream, he left for Galilee 23 and made his home in a city called Nazareth. So what the prophets had said came true: “He will be called a Nazarene.”
Holy Humor
As a primarily oral culture, the original hearers of the Bible were highly tuned into the way things sounded (Lee and Bernard 2022; Seal 2021). The fact that the most repeated word in the whole story, παιδίον [child], sounds very similar to what happened to Herod, ἐνεπαίχθη [tricked], would have immediately caught their attention. Moreover, Matthew could have used half a dozen other verbs to denote that Herod was deceived (Richards 1999, 212-214; Bianche 2014). In fact, this is the only passage in the NT in which the verb is used to indicate someone was “tricked.” Given the historic fondness of Ancient Near Eastern people to use such “wordplay” and “soundplay” in satire (Noegel 2021, 70-79; cf. Alter 2019, chapter 3), it appears that Matthew intentionally used this verb for a rhetorical purpose. I believe it was for humor.
How could they laugh at such a dark moment? Yes, the passage is a dark one. But, As Steven Walker notes in Illuminating the Humor of the Bible (2013), the Scriptures frequently lighten the darkest moments of human history with humorous depictions of those who commit its most despicable atrocities. Friedman and Friedman assert that Jewish people from biblical times to the present have possessed this brand of humor, especially in the face of hardships, calling it the lingua franca of Jewish people (2009). Commenting on Judges, Walker says, “Even the tragedies of Judges, gruesome to the point of the grotesque, are backlit by a kind of quizzical comedy” (2013, Chapter 1; cf. Robinson 2019). Skilled Ehud’s path to victory, powerless Jael’s execution of the Assyrian general Sisera, and hulk-like Samson’s gross foibles all invite God’s people to laugh. We are invited to savor the irony. Though humans bear God’s image and a divine calling, they also demonstrate a surprising capacity for ignorance and foolishness.
Savoring the irony of passages leads to more than just chuckles. It can often lead to the heart of the passage’s meaning. Walker asserts that we must “alert ourselves to humor in the Bible not because we need to laugh more, though we do, but because the humor matters, pulsing at the heart of the meaning” (ibid). The passages are funny because something about that doesn’t make sense. The incongruity of the message is often precisely what the Author wants us to remember.
Such is the case with Matthew 2. Many in Matthew’s Jewish audience may have been directly affected by Herod’s bloody reign—if they themselves did not have family members killed by his orders, they knew people who did. Herod seemed to hold all the power in Israel at that time. God’s Word, though, provides a different view on history. The Spirit-breathed commentary on Herod’s actions is that he, in trying to kill the promised Child-king, is as foolishly tricked as a child. The One who directed the Magi to the Messiah had complete control over saving his Son from Herod’s fear-filled, murderous tantrum. The humor in this passage constitutes the heart of its message: God’s child(ren) will be kept safe and the powers of this world who attack them will end up looking as foolish as children.
Seeing the humor in the passage has given me a new appreciation for God’s sovereignty and His penchant for irony—I will never read this Christmas passage the same way again.
TL;DR
If the email was too long to read, here are the main points:
- Herod was known for killing people who could interfere with his political career.
- Matthew intentionally uses soundplay to link παιδίον [child, referring to Christ] with what happened to Herod when the Magi didn’t return, ἐνεπαίχθη [tricked].
- The link made Herod the butt of a joke: though he killed thousands, he couldn’t kill this child and was instead tricked (like a child).
Challenge for You
Find and share other humorous Bible passages. If you have trouble thinking of funny Bible passages, this Oxford essay on humor in the New Testament is a great place to start!
References
- Alter, Robert. 2019. The Art of Bible Translation. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
- Arnold, Clinton E. 2002. Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke. Vol. 1. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
- Bianchi, Francesco. 2014. “Deception.” In Lexham Theological Wordbook, edited by Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown, Rachel Klippenstein, and Rebekah Hurst. Lexham Bible Reference Series. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
- France, R. T. 2007. The Gospel of Matthew. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co..
- Friedman, Linda Weiser, and Hershey H. Friedman. 2009. “Jewish? You Must Be Joking! The Jewish Take on Humor.” SSRN Scholarly Paper. Rochester, NY. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1439936.
- Lee, Margaret E., and Brandon Scott Bernard. 2022. Sound Mapping the New Testament,. 2nd ed. CASCADE BOOKS. https://www.christianbook.com/sound-mapping-new-testament-2nd-edition/9781532681752/pd/681752.
- Noegel, Scott B. 2021. “Wordplay” In Ancient Near Eastern Texts. Ancient Near East Monographs, Number 26. Society of Biblical Literature.
- Richards, Lawrence O. 1999. New International Encyclopedia of Bible Words: Based on the NIV and the NASB. Zondervan’s Understand the Bible Reference Series. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
- Robinson, Billie. 2019. “Laughing In The Face of Violence: Theological Implications of the Inter-Relationships between Violence and Humour in the Book of Judges.” Doctor of Theology, University of Trinity. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Laughing-In-The-Face-of-Violence%3A-Theological-of-in-Robinson/4a2044ad395df97873dfa7793fcaa6f5d52c0b7c.
- Seal, David. 2021. Jude: An Oral and Performance Commentary.
- Walker, Steven C. 2013. Illuminating Humor of the Bible. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books.