HEROD THE GREAT – THE LAST HASMONEAN KING Part 1 (Audio)

King Herod the Great is one of Jewish History’s most controversial kings. On the throne of Judea for almost four decades, his rule coincided with the rise of the Roman Empire and the ubiquitous might of Rome. Although he was born an Idumean, he married a descendant of the Hasmonean dynasty, and assumed the monarchy with Roman support, along with reluctant Jewish support.

In the first of two lectures examining Herod and his era, Rabbi Dunner describes the extraordinary rise to power of Herod’s family during a period of turbulent decline for the Hasmonean monarchy, and the violent civil war between rival sects of Jews vying for religious and political superiority in the late Second Temple period.