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Title: Herod's Age When Appointed Strategos of Galilee
Subtitle: Scribal Error or Literary Motif?
Author(s): SHARON, Nadav
Journal: Biblica
Volume: 95    Issue: 1   Date: 2014   
Pages: 49-63
DOI: 10.2143/BIB.95.1.3186100

Abstract :
In Antiquities Josephus says that Herod was only fifteen-years-old when appointed strategos of Galilee in 47 BCE. This is often dismissed as scribal error and corrected to twenty-five, because it contradicts other Herodian biographical information. However, this unattested emendation does not fit the immediate context, whereas 'fifteen' does. This paper suggests that rather than a scribal error, this is a literary motif, presenting Herod as a particularly young military hero. The specific age of fifteen may have had a deeper intention, fictively linking Herod's birth to the year 63, the year of Augustus' birth and Pompey's conquest of the Temple.


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