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Who was Herod Archelaus and Why were Joseph and Mary Afraid of Him?

    
                                                        

     While putting my Matthew blog together, I hit brick wall after brick wall. To be completely honest, the end result of my research on this blog topic is, partially, supposition. However, the facts that I did find, are truly fascinating.
      To begin, we must first delve into a quick background of Herod Archelaus. Archelaus was the first son of Herod the Great and the principal heir to the throne of Judea. After the, possibly very gruesome, death of his father, Archelaus had to travel to Rome to defend his birthright. His brothers, Antipas and Philip, both made equal claims to the Judean throne. Emperor Augustus, however, recognized that he should receive the largest portion of the inheritance, but he did not go as far as to name him king. Instead, Archelaus had to settle for the lesser title of ethnarch, which is equal to the governor of a specific region. This emphasized his dependence on the Roman Empire. His brothers, according to JewishEncyclopedia.com, were merely made tetrarchs, which are basically joint rulers over a region. Eventually, because of his bloodline and the complaints against his tyranny, Archelaus was banished to Gaul, where he died several years later. 

      Now, Herod the Great was no saint. In fact, he is the reason Joseph and Mary escaped to Bethlehem before the birth of Jesus. Herod had ordered the death of all infant boys in Bethlehem, trying to find and slay Jesus, the prophesied future king of the Jews. After Jesus was safely born, however, Joseph learned that Herod the Great had died, only to be replaced by his equally tyrannical son, Herod Archelaus. Because of this, Joseph and Mary do not return to Bethlehem with Jesus(Matthew 2:12). Instead, they returned to their home in Nazareth. One can only assume that stories of Archelaus' tyrannical nature reached the new parents and made them nervous to return to Bethlehem. Of course, there are no written records of their fear being their main motivation, but the assumption is easy to make when looking at Archelaus' history. 
      While Archelaus was awaiting word from Augustus concerning his inheritance, several uprisings began in Palestine, whose population was stirred into a frenzy because of the massacres brought about by Herod the Great and Archelaus. These uprisings were most likely instigated by the extreme oppression Sabinus placed on the people in Palestine. Sabinus was placed in a position of command until a decision on the inheritance was made. Disorders broke out all over the province and it took the Roman army to eventually regain a level of peace. However, this modicum of peace did not come cheap. Many people were lost on both sides. The Jewish community was devastated and even the Roman Army lost several thousand troops.

       Again, my assumption that Joseph did not want to return to Bethlehem because of the danger to his family and the lasting effects of Archelaus' tyrannical reign are purely conjecture. However, I believe it is a fairly solid argument to make, considering the political atmosphere of the region back then. 

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