A good video from Ray Van Der Laan on Jesus vs. Herod below.
I often show this in Bible classes to show how much can be loaded into one verse that we gloss over, as it looks like just a boring historical marker.
But Matt. 2:1, "In the days of Herod, Jesus was born" is quite loaded, once we get the historical context.
Nobody has that verse on a bumper sticker or T-shirt, but it is full of meaning.
On our last trip to Israel, right outside our hotel window, we could see not only Bethlehem, but the Herodian,,,as you can see in this clip, every morning when we opened the blinds, we inevitably saw (as he would have wanted it) Herod's Herodian.
Once you
have seen the Van Der Laan video below, you'll get how powerful and prophetic object lesson that was.Ray Van Der Laan Video, "In the Shadow of Herod,
view in two parts here:
Alternate version, more Christmas-themed
"The True Christmas Story:"
The phrase, "in the shadow of Herod the King" does not appear in any of the Bible translations I checked. However, to live "in the days of Herod" -- a phrase that does appear in Matthew 2:1, can also mean to live under the "influence" or "in the shadow" of Herod. We can add to this the geography and archaeology of that area, where as the sun set in the west, the actual shadow of the Herodian fortress would sweep over the landscape, and even cover parts of Bethlehem. And, add the added height of the fortress tower that once was there, and that shadow was even greater in its effect.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the comments, Anonymous.
ReplyDelete1)No one ever claimed (me in the post or Ray in the video) that the verse was phrased that way.
It's just the title of the video
2)Your comments on "living :in the days" are extremely well-written and insightful.
Blessings!