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Home , Herodians, Herod Agrippa, Herod Archelaus

HEROD DYNASTY

The First Villains of the The Kings Who Would Kill

All coins in each set are protected in an archival capsule and beautifully displayed in a mahogany-like box. The box set is accompanied with a story card, certificate of authenticity, and a black gift box.

Order Code: HERODDYNASTYBOX Box measures: 4 3/8” x 5 3/8” x 1.25”

With the exception of Judas of Iscariot, no figure in the Christian Gospels is as antithetical to the teachings of as King Herod. “Herod” is not just one person; the uses the name interchangeably to indicate any of the kings who ruled the Holy Land from 40 BC to 92 AD. The Herods were all Roman client kings—Herod I was installed in Judaea by his friend Mark Antony—and their supporters, known in the Bible as the , were loyal to above all. The first mention of them in the Gospels is :6: “Then the went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.”

A collection of three genuine two-thousand-year-old coins issued in the Holy Land by the infamous dynasty that sought to destroy the Son of God.

th Herod I the Great 37-4 BCE

Country

Year of issue 37-4th BCE

Ruler Herod I the Great

Denomination Prutah

Material Bronze

Weight 1.2-1.9 g

Diameter 12-13.5 mm

Thickness 1.5-1.8 mm

Obverse Anchor Coin images are for illustration purpose, and not true to

scale. Coin grade may vary somewhat from image. Reverse Dbl. cornucopia

Herod I is one of the Bible’s most complex figures. A brilliant politician and the greatest builder in , he was also a paranoid madman who ruthlessly executed anyone he deemed a threat to his absolute power, whether legitimate rivals, family members, or innocent babies. Crowned King of the by the Roman Senate, Herod ruled from 40 BC until his disease- ridden death 36 years later. A prodigious builder, Herod expanded the in , of which only the famed Western Wall remains. He constructed fortresses at Masada, Antonia, and ; the port city of ; the huge edifice atop the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron; and massive fortifications around Jerusalem, as well as three towers at the city’s entrance.

When Herod was in his , he was visited by “wise men from the East” who came in search of the —the King of the Jews. Fearful of a coup, Herod divined from his priests that this Messiah would be born in , as prophesized in Micah 5:2. As a precautionary measure, he ordered the so-called “Massacre of the Innocents,” in which all male children in the Bethlehem area under the age of two were put to death. This was both brutal and unsuccessful, as Mary and Joseph secreted the infant Jesus to Egypt for safety, only returning after Herod’s death.

Modern historians are divided on what illness claimed Herod’s life. Some suggest chronic kidney disease and Fournier’s gangrene, others scabies. What we do know is that the king suffered horribly. Colloquially, the malady that killed him is known as Herod’s Evil.

rd th 23 BCE -18 CE

Country Judea

th Year of issue 23 BCE- 18 CE

Ruler Herod Archelaus

Denomination Prutah

Material Bronze

1 Weight 0.8-1.8 g

Or Diameter 12-14.5 mm

Thickness 1.4-2 mm

Obverse 1. Helmet / 2. Bow of ship

Reverse 1. Grapes / 2. Laurel wreath

Coin images are for illustration purpose, and not true to scale. Coin grade may vary somewhat 2 from image.

Herod Archelaus was next in line, ruling Judaea until 6 AD. :13-23 reports that Joseph of Arimethea, who had fled with his wife Mary and the baby Jesus to Egypt to escape the Massacre of the Innocents, was told by an to return to Israel after the death of Herod I. Upon hearing that Archelaus was the new king—he had a well-deserved reputation for cruelty and bloodlust—Joseph “was afraid to go thither” and was subsequently instructed to go to . This explains why Jesus was born in Bethlehem but grew up in . Herod Archelaus was deposed by order of Roman Emperor in 6 AD and banished to Gaul.

th I 41-44 CE

Country Judea

Year of issue 41-44th CE

Ruler Herod Agrippa I

Denomination Prutah

Material Bronze

Weight 1.5-2.7 g

Diameter 16.5-18.5 mm

Thickness 1.5-2.2 mm

Coin images are for illustration purpose, and not true to Obverse Umbrella & inscription scale. Coin grade may vary somewhat from image. Reverse 3 Barley ears-w/ date

The third King Herod, Herod Agrippa, was ’s grandson. He was friends with the dreaded Roman Emperor Caligula, and it was Agrippa who ordered the death of James, son of —the first Apostle to be martyred. At Caesarea in 44 AD, while presiding over public games, an owl appeared over Agrippa’s head. He immediately keeled over; suffering from severe abdominal pains, and was dead five days later. explains that he was struck down by God for accepting the hollow praise of sycophants, and eaten by worms.