Matt. ii. 16, 17.INNOCENTS. By this name the Church calls those infants which were massacred by Herod’s order at Bethlehem and within its liberties, from the age of two years old and under, with a design of including the new king of the Jews in this slaughter, whose birth he was informed of by the wise men, who came from the east. See the articles Herod the Great, and Magi. Herod concealing his wicked intentions, desired the Magi to search with care for the new king, and when they had found him, to come and give him an account of it. But they being warned by an angel in a dream, secretly retired out of Judea, and returned another way into their own country. Herod observing that he had been deceived by them, sent to Bethlehem1, and throughout the liberties thereof, and commanded all the children to be killed there, from two years old and under, a bimatu & infra; according to the time, when, as the wise men told him, the star first appeared to them. The Greeks in their Menology, and the Ethiopians in their Liturgy, affirm, that the number of the children massacred at Bethlehem, and the places round about, amounted to fourteen thousand; which is not at all credible. But the worship of these Innocents is certainly very ancient in the Church, which has always looked upon them as the first fruits and bloom of the martyrs2. Their relicks are shewn in several places. The Latin Church celebrates their Festival upon the 28th of December, and the Greeks on the 29th.
It is very surprizing, that Josephus the historian should say nothing of this massacre. This makes people think, that the number of children, who were thus put to death, was not so large as the Greeks, Ethiopians, and Muscovites will have it. Some assert, that it was upon this occasion that Augustus declared, it was better to be Herod’s hog than his son. Augustus being informed, says Macrobius, that Herod king of Macrob. l. 2. c. 4. Saturnal.the Jews had put to death his own son, among the children whom he had caused to be executed in Syria, said, that a man had better be this Prince’s hog, than his son. It is probable enough that the Emperor might at the same time learn the death of the Innocents, and that of Antipater, whom his father Herod ordered to be dispatched five days before his own death; and that upon this occasion, he used the expression related by Macrobius. There was not above six weeks difference between the death of the Innocents and that of Antipater. We have spoken of the flight of Jesus Christ into Egypt in our Saviour’s life, and in the article, Flight into Egypt. As to what S. Matthew says, that at the time when these Innocents were massacred, the accomplishment was seen of this prophecy by Jeremiah: A voice was heard from Ramah, &c. It is our opinion, that the Jerem. xxxii. 15.primary sense of this prophecy relates to the carrying away the ten tribes into captivity; and that S. Matthew accommodated it to the circumstances in question. See Ramah.
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