Talk:Herod the Great

Dates should be in the historically accurate AD/BC format rather than the vague and obscure CE/BCE format (common to what?) - RDDN 16 Mar. 2026

Herod’s use of “spies” to gather information was asserted in Zora Neale Hurston’s posthumous book “Herod the Great” (Amistad 2025).

Here are sections that we might use in a new Wikipedia page, "Chronology of the Herodians". There are several Wikipedia pages that bear on this issue, that is, the issue of the chronological dates of Herod and his successors. Therefore, rather than presenting all the research related to the dating of Herod and his successors anew on every related page, I think it would be better to have a discussion on a page that is devoted to just this topic: The chronology of Herod and the Herodians. There are then several pages that, in their attempts to assign dates to their selected topic, could refer to the specific new page that is the place where discussions on this matter could take place. Topics that should be addressed on this new page should include:

1. Date of appointment of Herod as king of Judea by the Roman Senate
2. Date of capture of Jerusalem by Herod and the Roman general Sossius
3. The Sabbatical year associated with the investiture of Jerusalem by Herod and Sossius: 37 BC or 36 BC?
4. Did Herod (and Josephus) use Nisan or Tishri years for Judean rulers?
5. Did Herod (and Josephus) use inclusive (non-accession) or non-inclusive (accession) years for Judean rulers?
6. What is the testimony of the dated Herodian coins? What light do they shed on how the Herodians counted their years of reign?
7. Date of Herod's death

Here are some current Wikipedia pages where the same question occurs, namely the question of the chronology of the Herodians: Herod the Great, Herod Archelaus, Philip the Tetrarch, Herod Antipas, Herod Agrippa I, Herod Agrippa II, Publius Ventidius, Pact of Misenum, Herodian coinage, Nativity of Jesus (section "Date and Place of Birth"). In each of these pages, and possibly others, the same question arises: When did these events take place? And in each of them, the chronology of the Herodians takes central place. Therefore it seems that, rather than going through the various opinions on Herodian chronology all over again one each page, there should be one central place that we can discuss the pertinent scholarship related to this question, namely the chronology of the Herodians. Please give your comments on the possible usefulness of such a page, and, if you agree that we need it, what its title should be. (User:Chronic2 7 January 2024)

This might be a good idea. Frankly, I'm of the opinion that the Schürer chronology is ludicrous, and that Andrew Steinmann is clearly correct that Herod died in 1 BC, was crowned in 39 BC, conquered Judea in 36 BC, etc. Any article that lays out all the evidence objectively will make it pretty clear to the reader that Steinmann and colleagues are right. Montgolfière (talk) 08:18, 14 February 2026 (UTC)

Except... Wikipedians are not entitled to evaluate the evidence. We follow the WP:RS/AC, and mention minority views as minority views. I'm not against minority views, just don't pass them for the mainstream academic view.

E.g., scholars of the historical Jesus work with the death of Herod in 4 BCE. If that would change, also the dating of the birth of Jesus in 1st century BCE would have to change as well. tgeorgescu (talk) 22:25, 14 February 2026 (UTC)

I understand that we can't evaluate the evidence ourselves. But we can and should report the evidence.

We currently list the Filmer/Steinmann date in the infobox, which is good. I've changed the intro sentence accordingly. I hope that's okay. Montgolfière (talk) 04:30, 16 February 2026 (UTC)

"Recent findings suggest that the Temple Mount walls and Robinson's Arch may not have been completed until at least 20 years after his death, during the reign of Herod Agrippa II."

Agrippa II didn't rule until around 50 years after Herod's death; is this possibly a typo? Deliusfan (talk) 18:30, 9 July 2025 (UTC)

Someone has completely rewritten history here. Herod's name was not followed by "the great" and he was just a client to the Romans. His ethnicity is Arab, not jewish. These are all basic facts about harod in consensus since antiquity. The online references referring to herod as 'the great' are almost entirely derived from this Wikipedia article. Absolutely bizarre that someone has rewritten history here and many related articles without scrutiny and now locked the articles to prevent editors from correcting the silly revisionist additions. Xopis (talk) 06:55, 23 July 2025 (UTC)

His ethnicity gets described in detail. I don't know why you claim that the article says he was of Jewish ethnicity. tgeorgescu (talk) 07:21, 23 July 2025 (UTC)

Who was executed, here? ~2025-41172-56 (talk) 03:06, 17 December 2025 (UTC)

"Among these works are the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and the expansion of its base" ...

the implication is that he rebuilt the second Temple when it was in fact rebuilt in 520-515 BC. Perhaps this needs to be reworded. Mkchngs (talk) 08:40, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

please note that the dates of Herod's reign are wrong. They were created by a woke atheist editor and should read B.C. instead of B.C.E. It's no wonder wikipedia it's bankrupt. Please see grokipedia for more truthful content. ~2025-41526-97 (talk) 16:52, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

You know those mean the same thing right?—-Ermenrich (talk) 17:16, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

King Herod was alive in AD. He did not die in BC as Herod was alive when and after Jesus was born. The birth of Jesus ends the BC period and the AD period begins. Herod died sometime in AD 1. ~2025-42567-00 (talk) 23:15, 25 December 2025 (UTC)

There was an eclipse in 4 BC. However, according to Josephus—There was also an eclipse in the period 1BC-AD1 transition. King Herod died shortly after Jesus was born in 1 BC. This makes Herod’s death in AD1. This dating also will make the calculation correctly for Jesus’ death in AD33 as Jesus was about 33 years old at his crucifixion . The family of 3 flees to Egypt after 40 days in their temporary abode in Bethlehem. After Herod dies, a few months later in AD1, they return to Nazareth. Josephus does not create the BC/AD division. The birth of Jesus creates this division about 400 years later by Dionysius Exiguus. His arguments in Latin establish March 25 as the date of conception, on the Spring Equinox, and December 25 as the date of Jesus’ birth on the Winter Solstice. Eight days after his birth Jesus is circumcised and officially named “Jesus” in the Jewish and Roman record. This day begins the AD1 time period. All actions after this day of circumcision occur in AD1 and following…according to the Scripture and verified by the calculations made by Dionysius Exiguus in AD400. ~2025-42567-00 (talk) 14:35, 28 December 2025 (UTC)

We don't follow your musings. We WP:CITE WP:RS for WP:V purposes. tgeorgescu (talk) 15:00, 28 December 2025 (UTC)

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Change the wikilink Tetrarchy (which currently links to the Roman Tetrarchy of 293–324 CE) in the third paragraph describing the division of Herod’s kingdom after his death in 4 BCE to tetrarchy, so that the link points to the Herodian system of government established among his successors rather than the much later, unrelated Roman institution. KwentiTwinkel (talk) 20:46, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

I don't see where that link would be. tgeorgescu (talk) 21:11, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

Control + F "tetrarchy" and "tetrarchs". First occurrence towards the end of the third paragraph of the overall presentation. Second occurrence in the first line of the third paragraph of the Biography. Both wikilinks bring to the completely unrelated, much later Roman Tetrarchy (293-324, when there were 4 Emperors of Rome, the "Augusti" and "Caesares" of the West and of the East). The first occurrence could link to the wiki article on the Herodian tetrarchy (that started in 4 CE), as it is what is being referenced in that sentence. The second occurrence should not have a link, as the tetrarchy mentioned there seems to be a previous one (date mentioned is 41 BCE) and doesn't seem to have a wiki (I've only vaguely heard of it), but in any case is certainly not the Roman Tetrarchy of 293-324. KwentiTwinkel (talk) 23:11, 8 January 2026 (UTC)

Can you please use this X and Y format so it's easy for others to understand where the wanted changed should be. SimmeD (talk) 12:12, 9 January 2026 (UTC)

'However, he generally respected traditional Jewish observances in his public life.'

'While it has been proven that Herod showed a great amount of disrespect toward the Jewish religion...'

Which is it? Anonymous44 (talk) 13:43, 26 April 2026 (UTC)