Did the Slaughter of the Innocents Occur?
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The Catholic Church commemorates the Slaughter of the Holy Innocents on the 28 th December. The Slaughter of the Innocents is the biblical account of the infanticide committed by Herod the Great. In the Gospel according to Matthew, Herod ordered the execution of all male children, below the age of two, in the vicinity of Bethlehem, to secure his throne from the infant “King of the Jews”. Matthew 2:16-18 16 Meanwhile, when he found that the wise men had played him false, Herod was angry beyond measure; he sent and made away with all the male children in Bethlehem and in all its neighbourhood, of two years old and less, reckoning the time by the careful enquiry which he had made of the wise men. 17 It was then that the word spoken by the prophet Jeremy was fulfilled: 18 “A voice was heard in Rama, lamentation and great mourning; it was Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be comforted, becaus...