You must understand something about Herod the Great before you can understand what caused him to kill all the baby boys in Bethlehem and the surrounding area.

In the thousand years that lay between King David in Old Testament times and King Herod, no king of Israel wanted to be loved by his people more than Herod the Great. It was a consuming passion for him.

He played the political game withh consummate skill. Althougha member of the royal family by birth, Herod ruled at the pleasure of the Roman emperor, and his story includes intrigues with Anthony and Cleopatra and friendship with Octavius who later was called Caesar Augustus. Herod's task was to balance the needs and demands of Rome with the hopes and desires of his own people. The truth is that that was an impossible task. The vas…