Herod the Great

Herod the Great was king of the Roman province of Judea from 37 to 4 BC. He was a clever governor who carried out major building projects. However, he was also violent and vengeful.
According to Matthew 2:1-22, Herod had all the new-born boys in Bethlehem murdered, for fear of the new king that was supposed to have been born there.

Judea together with Samaria and Idumea had been a Roman province since 63 BC. In 40 BC Antigonus, who was of Hasmonean lineage, revolted against the Romans to restore the kingdom of the Hasmoneans. The Romans appointed Herod as king to combat Antigonus.
With the support of the Romans, Herod defeated Antigonus in 37 BC and seized power.
Because he was not Jewish, was politically pro-Roman and had cruelly taken the throne, Herod was hated by the Jewish people.

Herod is also called Herod “the Builder” by historians, as he carried out various large building projects. He built the port city of Caesarea in the Roman style. He also strengthened the fortress of Masada. In order to keep on good terms with his Jewish subjects, he had the Temple in Jerusalem renovated and extended.

Herod the Great is the first of three Roman rulers with the name “Herod”, who are mentioned in the New Testament. Herod the Great was king at the time of Jesus’ birth (Matthew 2:1; Luke 1:5). His son, Herod Antipas, had John the Baptist beheaded (Matthew 14:1-12), and his grandson, Herod Agrippa, had the apostle James put to death (Acts 12:1-2). According to Matthew 2, Herod heard from the visitors from the east that a new king had been born in Bethlehem. Fearful of losing power, he had all the boys two years old and younger in the region of Bethlehem killed.

According to the historian Flavius Josephus, Herod the Great died in 4 BC. That would mean that Jesus was born earlier than we assume on the grounds of the chronology of the Christian Era. It is very possible that the Christian Era was based on inadequate information about the birth year of Jesus, as this method of calculating the year only came into existence in the sixth century AD.