The Twice-Told Tale of a Despot’s Death

“When I Die, Kill Those Elders”

According to Josephus Flavius, as King Herod neared the end of his life, he was worried that the Jewish people would celebrate his demise, so he secretly ordered trustworthy relatives to execute a large group of elders on the very day he died, thereby giving the people good reason to mourn on that day. Rabbinic literature has preserved an alternative version of this story. We will hope to show how these different versions are connected to each other