Massacre of the Holy Innocents

Massacre of the Innocents after Gustave Doré (1832-1883)

In the Gospel, the massacre of the innocents is reported only by Matthew in his second chapter. He links the birth of Jesus "in Bethlehem" with the arrival of the magi in Jerusalem. They were looking for the king of the Jews whose star they had observed. Learning this, King Herod the Great – called Herod the Great – questioned them to learn more. It was in Bethlehem in Judah that he must be born, according to the ancient prophecy. Herod sent them "in secret" to identify the exact place where the child was born. As soon as they left Jerusalem, the star guided them to the "house" where Jesus, Mary and Joseph were staying. They worshiped the Savior child, but warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

Joseph, at the same time, was also warned in a dream by an angel, who told him to flee to Egypt with Mary and the child. Indeed, Herod was going to seek him to kill him. Joseph departed hurriedly during the night.

It was then that Herod's fury broke out as he did not see the magi return and did not know where the child was. He then ordered to kill all the children of "Bethlehem and throughout the region" according to the birth date he had obtained from the magi.

Joseph, Mary, and the child remained in Egypt until the death of Herod the Great, but learning that Archelaus, Herod's son, succeeded him and ruled Judea, they returned to Galilee, to Nazareth.

We learn from the gospel narrative that:

• Jesus was in a house and no longer in the manger where he was born, as indicated in Luke 2:7.
• The magi had been traveling for a long time, as they date the appearance of the star to about two years earlier.
• They do not know the exact place: the town of Bethlehem or its surrounding region. Only the star knows.
• That Herod the Great wanted to kill a future rival.

In “The Gospel as It Was Revealed to Me”

Maria Valtorta does not have the direct vision of this massacre. She only has the vision of the ADoration of the magi, Joseph's dream, and the stay of the holy Family in Egypt. All the information she gives about this massacre comes from testimonies.

The extent of the massacre

When Jesus as an adult returns incognito to Bethlehem, he meets a resident who remembers that bloodbath of children slain by the sword. In his memory, he exaggerates it: "More than a thousand little ones in the town, another thousand in the countryside." Mainly boys, but also little girls, collateral victims of the sicarii. He holds an unrelenting resentment against the shepherds who had announced to them the Savior of Israel. They had believed in that false messiah to their misfortune! He no longer wants to hear about it. It is because of him that all these children died! Poor Anne, who hosted them in her "house", died by the sword as did two other shepherds among the twelve.

In a dictation of February 28, 1947, Jesus corrects the extent of the massacre:

"Between those of Bethlehem and those of the countryside, their number amounts to three hundred and twenty (320). And I further specify that among them, those of Bethlehem were one hundred eighty-eight (188), while those of the countryside, combed through a wide radius by the emissaries of Herod to exterminate the newborns, were one hundred thirty-two (132). Among those killed, there were sixty-four (64) little girls, whom the sicarii did not identify as such, for they killed in darkness, confusion, and frenzy to act quickly before anything could intervene to stop the massacre."

It is enough to look at the impact of attacks like those on November 13, 2015 in Paris (130 deaths at the Bataclan and Saint Denis) or that of July 14 in Nice (86 deaths) to grasp the authenticity of the trauma in a town that probably had between 800 and 2,000 inhabitants according to contemporary experts and where information did not exist. It was therefore a monumental slaughter, aggravated by the fact that it concerned infants.

The cruelty of King Herod

In , Jesus discusses with Roman aristocrats. They refer to the poet Virgil who prophesied the coming of the Messiah. They also know the "massacre that horrified Rome."

Indeed, according to what Macrobius, a Roman historian and chronicler of the reign of Augustus, upon hearing reports about the empire's events, commented: "Having learned that, among the children two years old and under, whom Herod, king of the Jews, had massacred in Syria, was included the king's own son, he said – 'It is better to be the pig (hys) of Herod than his son (huios).'" The pun is in Greek, the cultivated language of the time. Macrobius's text depicts an emperor who, upon hearing reports on the events of the empire, makes this comment.

We can see that two events are mixed in this empire report: the assassination of Herod the Great's son and the massacre of the children. It is summarized in this pun on the pig, since this animal was not eaten, it was spared, at least.

Certainly, it is not the assassination of Herod's son that could have caused this reflection that runs through history, as Herod the Great, a paranoid king, was accustomed to killing his Family and his children, not to mention those of the population.  

Conclusion

In Maria Valtorta, the extreme coherence of the facts as well as of the psychologies involved are the best proofs of the authenticity of the account of Matthew. As for this massacre of innocents which the population of Bethlehem held responsible on this "false Messiah" born among them, it manifests the rage of Darkness against the Light of Salvation, recalls the Church. But "in The Limbo, the saint innocents are the joy of the patriarchs and the righteous." confides the Virgin Mary to the young Marziam eager to know everything.

Points under debate

In Scripture

As Matthew recalls in his Gospel (2:17-18), this massacre had been announced by the prophet Jeremiah 31:15:

Thus says the Lord: A voice is heard in Ramah (Judea), lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted, because they are no more.

To console her, the oracle announces that there will be a reward for her pain: the return of her children from the land of the enemy and their return to their land: verses 16 and 17, where one reads the symbolic announcement of the Redemption inaugurated by this rage of the Enemy.

The Protoevangelium and Ein Karem

The Protoevangelium of James, an apocryphal text from the 2nd century mixing historical information and embellished stories, says that Elizabeth, fleeing Jerusalem to save her son John the Baptist (6 months older than Jesus), hid him in the mountain.

In , Mary of Alphaeus tells Jesus and Mary how her husband, Joseph's older brother, descended from Galilee to look for them after learning of the massacre:

Then you left... What anguish not to know anything about you after the massacre! Alphaeus went to Bethlehem... "Gone," they said. But how to believe when you are hated to death in a town still red with innocent blood and where the ruins smoked, and where they accused you of having caused that bloodshed? He went to Hebron, then to the Temple, for Zacharias was on duty. Elizabeth gave him only tears, Zacharias words of comfort. Both, anguished for John, fearing new atrocities, had hidden him and trembled for him. They knew nothing about you and Zacharias told Alphaeus: "If they are dead, their blood is on me, for I persuaded them to stay in Bethlehem."

The Church of Ein Karem preserves the memory of John the Baptist and the massacre of the innocents. If Elizabeth and Zacharias lived there, it must have been a base for weeks of service at the Temple, as their home, in Maria Valtorta, is in good Hebron, the city of the Patriarchs.

The tradition of the massacre of the Innocents that would have struck Ein Karem was reinforced by the discovery in 1885 of two Roman burial pits revered in Byzantine times with an inscription in Greek: "Hail! martyrs of God!"

If the town of Ein Karem was affected by the massacres, they must be linked to this indication from Jesus, in Maria Valtorta: "countryside combed through a wide radius by Herod's emissaries," for there are no other indications than these.

In the Golden Legend

A certain Methodius supposedly confirmed this massacre in his chronicle. This source is cited by the Blessed Jacques de Voragine in his "Golden Legend". This very famous 13th-century work is a compilation of numerous sources of the time. This unknown Methodius is cited after Macrobius.

Voltaire's Challenge to Macrobius    

Voltaire, in a note of his History of the Establishment of Christianity, Chapter VI, On the Personality of Jesus, contests the authenticity of this source falsified by "Some weak minds, or false, or ignorant, or deceitful"!!!

"Some weak minds, or false, or ignorant, or deceitful, have claimed to find in antiquity testimonies of the massacre of the children supposedly slaughtered by order of Herod, for fear that one of these children born in Bethlehem might take the kingdom from this Herod, aged seventy and suffering from a mortal disease. These defenders of such a strange cause found a passage by Macrobius in which it is said: 'When Augustus learned that Herod, king of the Jews in Syria, had included his own son among the children under two years whom he had killed, he said – "It is better," he said, "to be the pig of Herod than his son."' Those who misuse this passage do not notice that Macrobius is a 5th-century author, and therefore could not have been regarded by Christians of that time as ancient. They do not realize that the Roman Empire was then Christian, and that the public error could easily deceive Macrobius, who only amused himself telling old tales. They should have noticed that Herod had no two-year-old child then.

They could also observe that Augustus could not have said that it was better to be Herod's pig than his son, since Herod had no pig.

Finally, one could easily suspect a falsification in Macrobius's text, since these words, pueros quos infra binatuns Herodes jussit interfici (the children under two years that Herod ordered to be killed), are not in the ancient manuscripts.

It is well known how Christians allowed themselves to be forgers for a good cause. They forged, and clumsily, the text of Flavius Josephus; they made this determined Pharisee speak as if he had recognized Jesus as Messiah. They forged letters of Pilate, letters of Paul to Seneca and of Seneca to Paul, writings of the Apostles, verses of the Sibyls. They supposed more than two hundred volumes. There have been through the centuries a succession of forgers. All educated men know and say this, and yet the proven imposture predominates. They are thieves caught red-handed, to whom what they stole is left."

Name given to characters of the Old Testament who had a long life and numerous descendants: Ex: Abraham. By extension: Elderly man having great authority over his people and inspiring deep respect.

Name given to characters of the Old Testament who had a long life and numerous descendants: Ex: Abraham. By extension: Elderly man having great authority over his people and inspiring deep respect.