Bible Synapse
Herodium and Herod's tomb
Site · c. 23–15 BC · Time of Jesus · also called Herodion
See it on the map and timeline
- Date
- c. 23–15 BC (Herod's building of the palace-fortress)
- Found
- Herodium, south-east of Bethlehem, West Bank, 2007. Virgilio Corbo dug the hilltop fortress in 1962–67. Ehud Netzer of the Hebrew University worked at the site from 1972, and in 2007 his team found the tomb they identified as Herod's, half-way up the slope.
- Now
- At the site (the reddish sarcophagus is in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem)
- Passages
- Matthew 2:1–3, Matthew 2:16–19, Luke 1:5
What it is
A hill some 5 km south-east of Bethlehem that Herod the Great raised by hand into a steep cone and made a palace-fortress, with a round fortified palace on the summit and a large palace complex at its foot. Josephus wrote that Herod's funeral procession went to Herodium. In 2007 Ehud Netzer's team found, on the slope, the remains of a mausoleum and the smashed pieces of a finely made reddish stone sarcophagus, which they identified as Herod's.
How it connects to the Bible
Herod the Great is the king of Matthew 2 and Luke 1, in whose reign Jesus was born at Bethlehem, a few kilometres away. Herodium is one of the grandest works of his building programme. If the tomb is his, Matthew's note that the family came back from Egypt “when Herod was dead” refers to the king buried here.
What scholars debate
The tomb's identification is debated. In 2013–15 Joseph Patrich and Benjamin Arubas argued that it is too modest to be Herod's; the excavation team stands by it.