Page "Massacre of the Innocents" Paragraph 9

Modern liberal scholarship, says Marcus Borg, regards the biblical accounts of the birth of Jesus as symbolic narratives rather than factual history.

Thus, according to Paul L. Maier, the majority of Herod biographers and theologians hold that the Massacre of the Innocents is " legend and not historical ": Geza Vermes and E. P. Sanders, for example, regard the story as part of a creative hagiography.

Robert Eisenman argues that the story may have its origins in Herod's murder of his own sons, an act which made a deep impression at the time and which was recorded by Josephus.

Other arguments against historicity include the silence of Josephus ( who does record several other examples of Herod ’ s willingness to commit such acts to protect his power, noting that he " never stopped avenging and punishing every day those who had chosen to be of the party of his enemies ") and the views that the story is an apologetic device or a constructed fulfilment of prophesy.