JESUS BEFORE HEROD
It was still early morning when Jesus, guarded by Roman soldiers and
surrounded by a jeering, scoffing, raging multitude of Jews, was
conducted to the palace of the Maccabees on the slope of Zion, the
official residence of Herod when he came to Jerusalem to attend the
sacred festivals. This place was to the northeast of the palace of Herod
and only a few streets distant from it. The journey must have lasted
therefore only a few minutes.
But who was this Herod before whom Jesus now appeared in chains? History
mentions many Herods, the greatest and meanest of whom was Herod I,
surnamed the Great, who ordered the massacre of the Innocents at
Bethlehem. At his death, he bequeathed his kingdom to his sons. But
being a client-prince, a _rex socius_, he could not finally dispose of
his realm without the consent of Rome. Herod had made several wills,
and, at his death, contests arose between his sons for the vacant throne
of the father. Several embassies were sent to Rome to argue the rights
of the different claimants. Augustus granted the petitioners many
audiences; and, after long delay, finally confirmed practically the last
will of Herod. This decision gave Judea, Samaria, and Idumea, with a
tribute of six hundred talents, to Archelaus. Philip received the
regions of Gaulanitis, Auranitis, Trachonitis, Batanea, and Iturea, with
an income of one hundred talents. Herod Antipas was given the provinces
of Galilee and Perea, with an annual tribute of two hundred talents and
the title of Tetrarch. The title of Ethnarch was conferred upon
Archelaus.
Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee, was the man before whom Jesus, his
subject, was now led to be judged. The pages of sacred history mention
the name of no more shallow and contemptible character than this petty
princeling, this dissolute Idumæan Sadducee. Compared with him, Judas is
eminently respectable. Judas had a conscience which, when smitten with
remorse, drove him to suicide. It is doubtful whether Herod had a spark
of that celestial fire which we call conscience. He was a typical
Oriental prince whose chief aim in life was the gratification of his
passions. The worthlessness of his character was so pronounced that it
excited a nauseating disgust in the mind of Jesus, and disturbed for a
moment that serene and lofty magnanimity which characterized His whole
life and conduct. To Herod is addressed the only purely contemptuous
epithet that the Master is ever recorded to have used. "And he said unto
them, Go ye, and tell _that fox_, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do
cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected."[87]
The son of a father who was ten times married and had murdered many of
his wives; the murderer himself of John the Baptist; the slave of a lewd
and wicked woman--what better could be expected than a cruel, crafty,
worthless character, whose attributes were those of the fox?
But why was Jesus sent to Herod? Doubtless because Pilate wished to
shift the responsibility from his own shoulders, as a Roman judge, to
those of the Galilean Tetrarch. A subsidiary purpose may have been to
conciliate Herod, with whom, history says, he had had a quarrel. The
cause of the trouble between them is not known. Many believe that the
murder of the Galileans while sacrificing in the Temple was the origin
of the unpleasantness. Others contend that this occurrence was the
result and not the cause of the quarrel between Pilate and Herod. Still
others believe that the question of the occupancy of the magnificent
palace of Herod engendered ill feeling between the rival potentates.
Herod had all the love of gorgeous architecture and luxurious living
that characterized the whole Herodian family. And, besides, he doubtless
felt that he should be permitted to occupy the palace of his ancestors
on the occasion of his visits to Jerusalem. But Pilate would naturally
object to this, as he was the representative of almighty Rome in a
conquered province and could not afford to give way, in a matter of
palatial residence, to a petty local prince. But, whatever the cause,
the unfriendliness between them undoubtedly had much to do with the
transfer of Jesus from the Prætorium to the palace of the Maccabees.
"And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad: for he was desirous to
see him for a long season, because he had heard many things of him; and
he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him."[88]
This passage of Scripture throws much light upon Herod's opinion and
estimate of Jesus. Fearing that he was the successor and imitator of
Judas the Gaulonite, Herod at first sought to drive Him from his
province by sending spies to warn Him to flee. The courageous and
contemptuous reply of Jesus, in which he styled Herod "that fox," put an
end to further attempts at intimidation.
The notions of the Galilean Tetrarch concerning the Galilean Prophet
seem to have changed from time to time. Herod had once regarded Jesus
with feelings of superstitious dread and awe, as the risen Baptist. But
these apprehensions had now partially passed away, and he had come to
look upon the Christ as a clever impostor whose claims to kingship and
Messiahship were mere vulgar dreams. For three years, Galilee had been
ringing with the fame of the Miracle-worker; but Herod had never seen
his famous subject. Now was his chance. And he anticipated a rare
occasion of magic and merriment. He doubtless regarded Jesus as a clever
magician whose performance would make a rich and racy programme for an
hour's amusement of his court. This was no doubt his dominant feeling
regarding the Nazarene. But it is nevertheless very probable that his
Idumæan cowardice and superstition still conjured images of a drunken
debauch, the dance of death, and the bloody head; and connected them
with the strange man now before him.
No doubt he felt highly pleased and gratified to have Jesus sent to him.
The petty and obsequious vassal king was caught in Pilate's snare of
flattery. The sending of a noted prisoner to his judgment seat by a
Roman procurator was no ordinary compliment. But Herod was at once too
serious and too frivolous to assume jurisdiction of any charges against
this prisoner, who had offended both the religious and secular powers of
Palestine. To condemn Jesus would be to incur the ill will and
resentment of his many followers in his own province of Galilee.
Besides, he had already suffered keenly from dread and apprehension,
caused by the association of the names of John and Jesus, and he had
learned that from the blood of one murdered prophet would spring the
message and mission of another still more powerful and majestic. He was,
therefore, unwilling to embroil himself and his dominions with the
heavenly powers by condemning their earthly representatives.
Again, though weak, crafty and vacillating, he still had enough of the
cunning of the fox not to wish to excite the enmity of Cæsar by a false
judgment upon a noted character whose devoted followers might, at any
moment, send an embassy to Rome to make serious and successful charges
to the Emperor. He afterwards lost his place as Tetrarch through the
suspicions of Caligula, who received news from Galilee that Herod was
conspiring against him.[89] The premonitions of that unhappy day
probably now filled the mind of the Idumæan.
On the other hand, Herod was too frivolous to conduct from beginning to
end a solemn judicial proceeding. He evidently intended to ignore the
pretensions of Jesus, and to convert the occasion of His coming into a
festive hour in which languor and drowsiness would be banished from his
court. He had heard much of the miracles of the prisoner in his
presence. Rumor had wafted to his ears strange accounts of marvelous
feats. One messenger had brought news that the Prophet of Nazareth had
raised from the dead a man named Lazarus from Bethany, and also the son
of the widow of Nain. Another had declared that the laws of nature
suspended themselves on occasion at His behest; that when He walked out
on the sea, He did not sink; and that He stilled the tempests with a
mere motion of His hand. Still another reported that the mighty magician
could take mud from the pool and restore sight; that a woman, ill for
many months, need only touch the hem of His garment to be made whole
again; and that if He but touched the flesh of a leper, it would become
as tender and beautiful as that of a new-born babe. These reports had
doubtless been received by Herod with sneers and mocking. But he
gathered from them that Jesus was a clever juggler whose powers of
entertainment were very fine; and this was sufficient for him and his
court.
"Then he questioned with him in many words; but he answered him
nothing."[90]
Herod thus opened the examination of Jesus by interrogating Him at
length. The Master treated his insolent questions with contemptuous
scorn and withering silence. No doubt this conduct of the lowly Nazarene
greatly surprised and nettled the supercilious Idumæan. He had imagined
that Jesus would be delighted to give an exhibition of His skill amidst
royal surroundings. He could not conceive that a peasant would observe
the contempt of silence in the presence of a prince. He found it
difficult, therefore, to explain this silence. He probably mistook it
for stupidity, and construed it to mean that the pretensions of Jesus
were fraudulent. He doubtless believed that his captive would not work a
miracle because He could not; and that in His failure to do so were
exploded His claims to kingship and Messiahship. At all events, he was
evidently deeply perplexed; and this perplexity of the Tetrarch, in its
turn, only served to anger the accusing priests who stood by.
"And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused
him."[91]
This verse from St. Luke clearly reveals the difference in the temper
and purposes of the Sanhedrists on the one hand, and of Herod on the
other. The latter merely intended to make of the case of Jesus a
farcical proceeding in which the jugglery of the prisoner would break
the monotony of a day and banish all care during an idle hour. The
priests, on the other hand, were desperately bent upon a serious outcome
of the affair, as the words "vehemently accused" suggest. In the face of
their repeated accusations, Jesus continued to maintain a noble and
majestic silence.
Modern criticism has sought to analyze and to explain the behavior of
Christ at the court of Herod. "How comes it," asks Strauss, "that Jesus,
not only the Jesus without sin of the orthodox school, but also the
Jesus who bowed to the constituted authorities, who says 'Give unto
Cæsar that which is Cæsar's'--how comes it that he refuses the answer
due to Herod?" The trouble with this question is that it falsely assumes
that there was an "answer due to Herod." In the first place, it must be
considered that Herod was not Cæsar. In the next place, we must remember
that St. Luke, the sole Evangelist who records the event, does not
explain the character of the questions asked by Herod. Strauss himself
says that they "displayed simple curiosity." Admitting that Jesus
acknowledged the jurisdiction of Herod, was He compelled to answer
irrelevant and impertinent questions? We do not know what these
questions were. But we have reason to believe that, coming from Herod,
they were not such as Jesus was called upon to answer. It is very
probable that the prisoner knew His legal rights; and that He did not
believe that Herod, sitting at Jerusalem, a place without his province,
was judicially empowered to examine Him. If He was not legally compelled
to answer, we are not surprised that Jesus refused to do so as a matter
of graciousness and accommodation; for we must not forget that the
Man-God felt that He was being questioned by a vulgar animal of the most
cunning type.
But what is certain from the Scriptural context is that Herod felt
chagrined and mortified at his failure to evoke from Jesus any response.
He was enraged that his plans had been foiled by one of his own
subjects, a simple Galilean peasant. To show his resentment, he then
resorted to mockery and abuse.
"And Herod with his men of war set him at nought, and mocked him, and
arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate."[92]
We are not informed by St. Luke what special charge the priests brought
against Jesus at the judgment seat of Herod. He simply says that they
"stood and vehemently accused him." But we are justified in inferring
that they repeated substantially the same accusations which had been
made before Pilate, that He had claimed to be Christ a King. This
conclusion best explains the mockery which they sought to heap upon Him;
for in ancient times, when men became candidates for office, they put on
white gowns to notify the people of their candidacy. Again, Tacitus
assures us that white garments were the peculiar dress of illustrious
persons; and that the tribunes and consuls wore them when marching
before the eagles of the legions into battle.[93]
The meaning of the mockery of Herod was simply this: Behold O Pilate,
the illustrious candidate for the kingship of the Jews! Behold the
imperial gown of the royal peasant pretender!
The appearance before Herod resulted only in the humiliation of Jesus
and the reconciliation of Pilate and Herod.
"And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together: for
before they were at enmity between themselves."[94]