Similarities Between Onias III To Herod

As the audience digs deeper and deeper into this fascinating journey to the past before christ or before the common era, the readers of Matthew begin to realize the significant changes and similarities in terms of leadership and values of the many high priests and the king of that time. After reading from the time of Onias III to Herod, the reader can already tell what kind of changes happened to the usual idea of a “high priest” and “king.” The good natured high priest is longer looked at the same way as they were originally. The same can be said about the king of that time as well. His qualifications as a king were not customary. Onias III to Herod was the beginning of the breakdown of stable, “legitimate,” patterns of leadership. When one

They were expected to observe his covenant and laws, to defend the nation and take part in hostile war when esteemed essential, and to manage the general population with justice and righteousness. This was not seen in Herod the Great. The reality of the matter is that Herod was a ruler who conveyed wealth to Judea, making the nation more acculturated and unquestionably more delightful because of the majority of the developments. Despite the great things he had done, he was a man of indiscriminate cruelty, with an ungovernable temper and a contempt of justice. His qualifications as a king did not meet what the old testament had desired, a king who had to be of that nation and divinely chosen by the people and God. Herod’s throne was given to him by the Romans. Herod the Great suffered greatly from paranoia, which lead him to murder his wife and son, all because of a false accusation that they were planning to overthrow him. Not only did he murder his family, but massacred all the infants age two and under to prevent a heir to the throne. Such was an act against god, because he attempted to kill baby Jesus as soon as he found out that he was the true king of Jews. Unlike other kings, who follow the word and will of God, Herod wanted to replace God. The obsession of the kingdom lead him to stray off the path of serving the Lord