Description

Herod succeeded to the throne after his father Antipater I, chief minister of Judea. He eventually made his son Herod the Governor of Galilee. He was later appointed puppet king of Judea by Rome. He liked the Greek culture and was a man of violent jealousies and passions. He built the second Temple in Jerusalem. It was near the end of his reign that Jesus was born. After hearing of a King of the Jews being born in Bethlehem, Herod ordered the death of all male children in that town up to 2 years of age, so Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt to save the life of Jesus. The obverse shows a Macedonian helmet. On the reverse is a tripod used to demonstrate Herod’s pagan spirit and was possibly copied from Greek coins. “… he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.” Matthew 2:16.
BC-4