would this politically accepted today?  the massacre (or slaughter) of the innocents is a story in which herod the great, jewish king of judea, orders the execution of all male children who are two years old and under in the vicinity of bethlehem. herod's jewish identity was always a sore point; he was simply not jewish enough for most of his reluctant subjects. on his fathers side he was an idumean-jew, from a family of idumean converts; on his mothers side, he was nabatean. he had a jewish upbringing. while the literary sources debate herods jewishness, much of this debate stems from the ideological stance of the author and not a dispassionate look at herods life and behavior.
European