The Fourth Day of Christmas, December 28, is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, also called Childermas. On this day people remember the baby boys which King Herod killed when he was trying to find and kill the Baby Jesus. These children are considered by some to be the first Christian martyrs, even if unwitting.
In his last years, Herod was in great mental and physical distress. He finally disinherited and killed his firstborn. This massacre of the infants, which occurred just before his death, was wholly consistent with the chaos of his life at the time.[bctt tweet=”How many babies did Herod kill? Not the 1000’s most people think of. And why did he murder boys up to two years old?” username=”@CaroleTowriss”]
Bethlehem was a very small town at the time, probably 300-600 people. The number of children involved was probably between five and thirty.
The wise men could not have arrived until at least 50 days after the birth. When Mary performed the ritual of purification for her firstborn in the Temple she offered two turtledoves, the offering of the poor. If the wise men had already arrived with their gold, frankincense and myrrh, Mary could have afforded a lamb and would have been obligated to do so.
Herod inquired of the wise men when the star first appeared and instructed them to go and find the “King of the Jews” and return and tell him so he could go and worship the young child as well. He realized he was tricked when the wise men returned home another way after they were warned in a dream of Herod’s evil intentions. Herod reckoned Jesus’s age based on the testimony of the wise men as to when the star first appeared, and then ordered the killing of all boys in Bethlehem two years old and younger.
