People needed to be entertained, lulled with security, excitement and pleasured into pacification.

"...In 20-19 B.C.E. Herod the Great set in motion plans to make the Jerusalem Temple the largest and most magnificent religious building in the world. The platform on which it stood, built with huge blocks of stone, stretched a quarter of a mile long by a fifth of a mile wide. Gleaming god plates were set up in the inner courts. From its ramparts silver trumpets heralded each dawn. Twenty thousand functionaries were employed in its servicing, and a further sixteen thousand craftsmen and laborers were drilled as construction and refurbishing teams that would be kept occupied for three quarters of a century. 3

Most people did fine under Herod as most people do fine under existing governments of the world today. Business was good, money flowed and success and prosperity was common if not just around the corner.

"Outside Palestine he [Herod] subsidized games and festivals. And everywhere he provided water; his palaces were supplied by aqueducts, as were Caesarea and Jerusalem (impressive remains are still visible at both). Not only cities, but also the countryside benefited from improved water supplies; thanks to improved irrigation, the kingdom became much more productive agriculturally. And when famine struck at home, Herod supplied grain from his own funds."4

Success was good for everyone. These massive building projects financed by contributions and pledges collected from its ever growing membership brought prosperity and prestige. Harbors and roads expanded and those employed in the task prospered with the stimulating expenditures of great wealth flowing through the heart of Judaism, the city of Jerusalem.

Herod had his enemies but they were quickly dispatched, condemned as antigovernment conspirators or generally frightened into silence. Herod's Kingdom was not yet conquered by Rome but was merely a "client Kingdom" of its Pax Romana. Herod continued to enforce a separation between the religious hierarchy and the political power encouraged by Roman ideology. This was popular with the priesthood which had become increasingly corrupt as long as the privilege of exemption allowed them a comfortable affluence. It was during this time that a violent coup had taken place which caused the death of Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist.

Herod was a god and so was Pontius Pilate.

There are gods many

Pilate was god because he was appointed by the Apo Theos of Rome. Herod was a god because he was the ruling judge of the system of corban, tribute and corvee he and his predecessors had created. Those who believed they were faithful to God by being baptized into obedience under the state religious order of Herod and Rome were actually 'Making the word of God of none effect through their tradition' [Mark 7:13].

Love it or leave it

The Love of Caesar

"Augustus was sensible that mankind is governed by names; nor was he deceived in his expectation, that the senate and people would submit to slavery, provided they were respectfully assured that they still enjoyed their ancient freedom."5

To some Caesar was a great Father of society, the founding father of a new system where society prospered with liberty and justice for all. His promise of returning to the Constitutional Republic, his advocacy of family values, his pledge of welfare reform constantly raised the hopes of the masses. Rome's military success, its system of justice and its golden eagle heralding it as the greatest nation in the world won him great popularity and unquestioning loyalty.

"The year 2 B.C. marked the 25th anniversary of Caesar Augustus's rule and the 750th anniversary of the founding of Rome. Huge celebrations were planned. The whole empire was at peace. The doors of the temple of Janus were closed for only the third time in Roman history. To honor their emperor, the people were to rise as one and name him pater patriae, or Father of the Country. This enrollment, described in the Book of Luke, which brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, has always been a mystery since no regular census occurred at this time. But the pater patriae enrollment fits perfectly."6

Even the benevolent benefactor of Augustus Caesar was impressive to the people of Judea. He was not the hated tyrant with occupying army. Things were good or getting better. Taxes were getting higher but so were profits as the concept of inflation began to insidiously creep into their lives. Eventually a series of devastating recessions would bring down the economy of Rome and all those who were plugged into its flow of power and affluence but for now things were good.

All Jews did not hate the Emperor (Emperator,7 the commander in chief ) of the mighty multinational military force that kept the peace throughout the world.

"The annual Temple-tribute was allowed to be transported to Jerusalem, and the alienation of these funds by the civil magistrates treated as sacrilege. As the Jews objected to bear arms, or march, on the Sabbath, they were freed from military service. On similar grounds, they were not obliged to appear in courts of law on their holy days. Augustus even ordered that, when the public distribution of corn or of money among the citizens fell on a Sabbath, the Jews were to receive their share on the following day. In a similar spirit the Roman authorities confirmed a decree by which the founder of Antioch, Seleucus I. (Nicator),[d Ob.280 B.C.] had granted the Jews the right of citizenship in all the cities of Asia Minor and Syria which he had built, and the privilege of receiving, instead of the oil that was distributed, which their religion forbade them to use, [e Ab. Sar ii. 6] an equivalent in money. [Jos.Ant. xii. 3. 1] These rights were maintained by Vespasian and Titus even after the last Jewish war, not with standing the earnest remonstrances of these cities. No wonder, that at the death of Caesar [g 44 B.C.] the Jews of Rome gathered for many nights, waking strange feelings of awe in the city, as they chanted in mournful melodies their Psalms around the pyre on which the body of their benefactor had been burnt, and raised their pathetic dirges."8

Jews did not hate Rome for the most part. Many loved and desired their protection, generosity and social security, besides they were good for business. There were rebels, as always, malcontents and doomsdayers. There were tax protesters, religious zealots and extreme fundamentalists who spoke of moral declines. The Roman system was prepared for these rabble. As long as the people were generally comfortable and busy and divided the local courts and their judges and centurions could handle the riffraff and rebels that resist the progress of society and liberal morals.

The Rulers and Caesars were the protector of the peace, the benefactor of their welfare.

There was corruption, as always with a balancing distribution of reform. But as mires will do the more the people struggled the deeper they sank.

2 Peter 2:22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog [is] turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

"His reign gave them a third of a century of peace and prosperity and the new harbor at Caesarea increased trade. But Herod's lavish building programs cost immense sums of money and taxes were necessarily high. By the standards of the time he was not a bad ruler. He was brutal but far less so than the Hasmonaeans. Herod's greatest asset was in fact the very thing for which Jews most criticized him - his half-hearted attitude towards Judaism. Augustus had realized Herod's true value when he gave him Samaria and the coastal strip for although Herod was careful not to offend the Jews he did not oppress the Samaritans and non-Jews. A Hasmonaean ruler would certainly have persecuted them and similarly a non-Jewish ruler would have had little sympathy with the Jews.

"Herod's greatest fault was his ungovernable passion both in love and hate. This coupled with his constant fear of losing this throne led to most of his 'crimes' especially those committed within his own family."9

Herod entertained and cultivated his relationship to Essene prophet, like Menahem, who had predicted his rise to power when he was a boy. There are reports that Herod had even agreed to divide his dominion with the Messiah whose arrival was also expected and prophesied. Herod's popularity, though great, was not universal and as economies stumbled the people look for scapegoats real or imagined.