Innocents, Slaughter of the

Herod the Great’s massacre of all the boys under two years old in Bethlehem and its vicinity (Mt 2:16-18). Herod slaughtered “the holy innocents” in an effort to destroy the child about whom the Magi had told him.

Although Matthew does not specify Herod’s motive, secular historians record ample evidence of Herod’s jealousy for his throne. He feared his own family as rivals of his power to such an extent that he put his wife and several of his sons to death. His kingdom, rife with messianic hopes and speculations, did produce some claimants. Herod himself made that association with the Magi’s quest for one born “King of the Jews” (Mt 2:2). Adding to his instability, a painful form of arteriosclerosis made the king subject to fits of delirium and rage.

Matthew probably had several reasons for including the story in his Gospel. For one thing, its use follows Matthew’s pattern of citing OT prophecies (in this case, Jer 31:15). Also, the incident accounts for the sojourn of Jesus’ family to Egypt and their subsequent settling in Nazareth (Mt 2:13-15, 19-23).