Page "Massacre of the Innocents" Paragraph 17

The story assumed an important place in later Christian tradition ; Byzantine liturgy estimated 14, 000 Holy Innocents while an early Syrian list of saints stated the number at 64, 000.

Coptic sources raise the number to 144, 000 and place the event on 29 December.

Taking the narrative literally and judging from the estimated population of Bethlehem, the Catholic Encyclopedia ( 1910 ) more soberly suggested that these numbers were inflated, and that probably only between six and twenty children were killed in the town, with a dozen or so more in the surrounding areas.