Nadav Sharon, «Herod's Age When Appointed Strategos of Galilee: Scribal Error or Literary Motif?», Vol. 95 (2014) 49-63
In Antiquities Josephus says that Herod was only fifteen-years-old when appointed strategos of Galilee in 47 BCE. This is often dismissed as scribal error and corrected to twenty-five, because it contradicts other Herodian biographical information. However, this unattested emendation does not fit the immediate context, whereas 'fifteen' does. This paper suggests that rather than a scribal error, this is a literary motif, presenting Herod as a particularly young military hero. The specific age of fifteen may have had a deeper intention, fictively linking Herod's birth to the year 63, the year of Augustus' birth and Pompey's conquest of the Temple.
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HEROD’S AGE WHEN APPOINTED STRATEGOS OF GALILEE
IV. A Literary Motif
Obviously this does not mean that Herod was in fact only fifteen
years old at the time. It seems rather likely that the emphasis on his
young age is in fact a case of the very common literary motif of the
“wonder child†or “child prodigyâ€. There are numerous examples
of this motif; note especially the cases of Josephus himself (Life 8-
10) and of Jesus (Luke 2,42-47) 17. The employment of such a motif
in order to glorify Herod originated, in all likelihood, from a pro-
Herodian source, namely Nicolaus of Damascus, who, as men-
tioned above, is, in any case, commonly assumed to have been
Josephus’ main source for the time of Herod 18. Josephus tells us
that Nicolaus emended and embellished Herod’s biography for
apologetic reasons (Ant. 14.9; 16.183-185). The case at hand ap-
pears to be another example of such embellishment. It certainly
does not seem likely that Josephus himself would have made up
this datum and added it onto his source material, even if he was
not, as often presumed, anti-Herodian 19.
Yet we should note that neither Josephus nor Jesus nor the other
examples of such wonder children are said to have been military he-
roes in youth; the motif rather emphasizes their genius. The motif of
17
For more examples in contemporary Jewish and non-Jewish literature
see S.J.D. COHEN, Josephus in Galilee and Rome. His Vita and Development
as a Historian (Leiden 1979) 105-106 and n. 23; S. MASON, Flavius Josephus.
Life of Josephus (Flavius Josephus Translation and Commentary 9; Leiden
2001) 14-15 n. 66.
18
See above, n. 9. It does not seem likely that Josephus’ source here was
Herod’s memoirs, which Josephus mentions only once (Ant. 15.174) and
which he may have known only via Nicolaus (see Marcus’ n. c ad loc. in the
Loeb edition).
19
For the view that Josephus was more critical of Herod in Antiquities
than in War see R.A. LAQUEUR, Der jüdische Historiker Flavius Josephus.
Ein biographischer Versuch auf neuer quellenkritischer Grundlage (Giessen
1920) 128-221; M. STERN, Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism
(Jerusalem 1976-1984) I, 229-230; J. SIEVERS, “Herod, Josephus and
Laqueur: A Reconsiderationâ€, Herod and Augustus. Papers Presented at the
IJS Conference, 21st-23rd June 2005 (eds. D.M. JACOBSON – N. KOKKINOS)
(IJS Studies in Judaica 6; Leiden 2009) 83-112; J.W. VAN HENTEN, “Con-
structing Herod as a Tyrant: Assessing Josephus’ Parallel Passagesâ€, Flavius
Josephus. Interpretation and History (eds. J. PASTOR – P. STERN – M. MOR)
(JSJSup 146; Leiden 2011) 193-216.
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