History of King Herod: Why was he called Great?

Bill Petro
6 min readDec 11, 2020
King Herod the Great

The Wise men asked Herod the King:

“Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?”

While this seems an unlikely question to ask a client king of the great Roman Empire, they were not asking in a complete vacuum. During the century around Jesus’ birth, there had been hints.

Historical Context of King Herod

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Bill Petro

Writer, historian, technologist. Former Silicon Valley tech exec. Author of fascinating articles on history, tech, pop culture, & travel. https://billpetro.com