How Many Babies Did King Herod Kill?

by Stephen Otto

According to the Greek Orthodox tradition, King Herod ordered the killing of 14,000 baby boys. The Syrian church claims the number was as high as 64,000, and later medieval authors went as far as 144,000. Interestingly, though, there are no references to the mass murder of children in any sources other than Matthew. Some scholars conclude that since the first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus does not reference the massacre in his writings, the story may be a myth. 

In reality, Bethlehem, the place where Yeshua was born, was a small village with a population of between 300 and 1000. Experts estimate that at any given time, the number of babies under the age of two would have been between seven and twenty. Thus, the claim that Herod murdered thousands of male children under the age of two is not likely.