The Catholic Biblical Quarterly

Prior to completing this volume, the Roman historian Adam Marshak, who teaches at Gann Academy, Waltham, Massachusetts, had already written extensively on Herod the Great. In this volume he seeks to "push aside the curtain of negative opinion and clear the mists of collective memory" (p. xxii) about the Herod of the NT, that is, his portrayal therein as the archetype of evil. Instead, M. wishes to analyze the Herod of history, that "astute and adept political player who skillfully manipulated the system to enhance his own position and power" (p. xxii). Without denying the ruthlessness and cruelty of Herod, but also noting, for example, that the murder of wives and sons was common practice among ancient kings, M. presents what he terms "a new analytical approach to politics" (p. xxiii), an approach he defines as a focus on Herod's self-presentation. Because Herod ruled at the intersection of three cultures, the Roman, eastern Hellenistic, and Judean, M. observes that Herod's political self-presentation as a king incorporated aspects of all three. It is M.'s view that, as Herod's political needs evolved, his self-presentation shifted. Further, M. attributes Herod's survival in power for over thirty-five years not to his consistent use of oppression and suppression but precisely to his adapting self-presentation.

Marshak first surveys general information on kingship from each of the three cultural perspectives. The emphasis in the Roman material is on client kings. With respect to Hellenistic monarchy, M. discusses kings as virtuous rulers, lawgivers, accumulators of wealth and power, protectors and defenders of subjects, and those expected to exhibit pious [End Page 529] behavior toward the gods. With regard to Judean kings, M. concentrates primarily on the Hasmoneans and their political ideology. He then offers chapters that treat the rise to power and reign of Herod chronologically. In a section entitled "From Hasmonean to Antonian," M. analyzes Herod's need to legitimate himself first with the Judeans as a non-Hasmonean; he then discusses how eventually, having stabilized his position, Herod gave greater emphasis to his functioning as an Antonian vis-à-vis the Romans. In a subsequent section, M. outlines the self-presentation of Herod as an Augustan client king. Here M. observes that, with the defeat of Antony, Herod was no longer "cowed into submission by fear of Cleopatra" (p. 165) and had been freed to become "Augustus's man in the East" (p. 165), with the result that Herod could embark on building massive urban structures in honor of his new patron. M. describes what he perceives as the Romanization of both Herod himself and his building projects, but he couples this with what he observes as Herod's nevertheless sustained Hellenistic self-presentation especially through the virtue of euergetism (patronage and benefactions). M. concludes this volume with material about Herod as melek hāyĕhûdím, King of the Jews in the line of David and Solomon and as a king of all Jews. M. regards Herod's advocacy for Jews in the Diaspora as indicative of Herod's being their benevolent patron and defender. Nevertheless, he observes that Herod's relationship with his Jewish subjects was "his most ambivalent and complicated" (p. 276). As M. sees it, nevertheless, by the end of his reign "this Idumaean usurper, a commoner who had married into a royal and high priestly family, had been transformed into the most visible and powerful representative of ancient Jewry … a position unrealized by any other ancient Jew after him" (p. 277).

M.'s text is rounded out with an interesting analysis of the temple as reflecting the culmination of Herod's political ideology. Two appendixes treat Herodian numismatics, a material source from which M. derives a great deal of information regarding Herod's self-presentation throughout his text. An example of one theory he posits from coins concerns a number of undated exemplars M. labels "inscription-anchor" coins. He regards these as minted early in Herod...