You must have all heard about Herod the Great.
He wanted to kill Jesus, so instructed to kill the babies in Bethlehem.
He also was the one to expand the Second Temple in Jerusalem,
that big giant temple, the great and glorious temple.
But what you might not know
is that Herod the Great also constructed three temples for Caesar,
what Jews would consider an idol-worshiping temple.
(Sergio)
where the ruins of a pagan temple believed to be built by Herod the Great
remain to this day.
(Rhoda) It has just something on it, on that rock.
(Sergio)
who was appointed as King of the Jews,
who expanded the Second Temple to an unprecedented size and glory,
why would a seemingly pious Jew build a pagan temple?
You must think he must be a really pious Jew,
very sided with the Jews.
Well, actually he also sided with the Romans.
He played on both sides,
and today we're going to explore
one of those idol-worshiping temples for Caesar,
up at the north of Israel called Horvat Omrit.
(Sergio)
What was Herod's motivation to order the massacre
of all the infants in Bethlehem in order to kill Jesus?
And could this temple be the missing clue in discovering the answer?
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Okay, it's time for a short history mystery lesson.
Ready? Let's go.
King Herod the Great was born and raised Jewish,
and he lived in the first century BC.
Herod is very famous for his grand architectural projects.
He was the one who expanded the Second Temple in Jerusalem
to an unprecedented size and marvel of architecture.
In fact, today his architecture style is so famous
that we even have a name for it, the Herodian architecture.
But if you haven't heard about his architecture,
you surely heard about his persecution of Jesus.
According to the Gospel of Matthew,
King Herod was the one who wanted newborn baby Jesus dead.
He wanted him dead so badly
that when he heard that Jesus was born in Bethlehem
and he could not find him without the wise men help,
he ordered all of the male children in Bethlehem,
two years and younger to be killed.
Most of my life I thought Herod was a pious Jew
simply following his piousness,
constructing this extraordinary Jewish temple and persecuting Jesus.
But no, recently we found out
that he was trying to find favor with the Romans,
and he constructed three pagan temples.
And here is the mystery.
(Sergio)
writes that King Herod the Great
constructed three magnificent temples in honor of the Roman emperor Augustus.
Two temples have been found, and their ruins can still be seen today,
one in Caesarea Maritima and another one in the ancient city of Samaria.
However, the third temple, Josephus writes, was located up north,
near Banias, a city also known as Caesarea Philippi.
But some archaeologists were puzzled
because there's just not enough archaeological evidence
to support the writings of Josephus,
at least not until 1998.
At the end of the 90s,
a team of archaeologists excavated two miles away from Banias
at a site called Horvat Omrit.
They found the foundation of an enormous structure
that they thought to be the very temple that Josephus wrote about.
Could this be the missing temple that Herod had built?
And if it, is how is it all related to Herod's plot to kill Jesus?
To find the answers we decided to drive up north
and examine the site for ourselves.
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The snow is right at the top of the Mount Hermon,
but just at the peak.
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(Anna) Let's see about turning around up here, maybe park up here.
(Sergio) Yeah.
(Rhoda)
She is a walking encyclopedia, first of all,
so she had a lot of good insight about these places.
She has been to Israel, she's lived here, she studied here,
so she's incredible.
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(Sergio) She was actually the one who introduced us to the site.
If she didn't tell us about it, we would have never found out
that King Herod built pagan temples.
So it is really cool that she is here and now taking us to this location.
(Sergio) I can see it's right over there.
(Anna) Yeah.
(Rhoda) Oh, should we cross like that?
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(Sergio) I don't suppose this is a very touristic place
or tourist accessible.
(Rhoda) No, I don't think they set it up for visitors.
I think we are here in the wrong season.
This is not going to be easy.
Oh, your poor shoes.
(Rhoda) The mud is sticking to my shoes,
and my feet are becoming heavier and heavier as I walk,
and it's just not very comfortable.
It's so beautiful though.
You can see the split hoofs for the cows, that means they're kosher
because you can see also the plants they were chewing on.
So they chew the cud and have a split hoof.
We can definitely eat one.
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I think we have a problem.
It's been raining a lot.
(Rhoda) We can go from there.
(Sergio)
but it's going to get your shoes wet,
and you don't want that in the beginning of the hike.
(Rhoda) Is it doable on the sides?
Like on the green stuff.
(Sergio)
I'm saying, all right, let me engineer a bridge,
I can go look for wood, we can cross this,
or us thinking, okay, meanwhile you do that,
I'm going to see their spots that we can jump over
and just cross it this way, great, and we start planning and thinking,
then we look around and we see Anna without her shoes,
just easily walking right through it,
and she just makes it look like it's a walk in a park.
What do you think?
I'm not taking off my shoes, that's for sure.
That's the only way.
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It's nice and fresh.
Next time I'm taking fishing boots, the ones that get up to your waist.
Thank you.
(Rhoda)
I don't know what I would do without him.
(Sergio) Wait.
We have to do this on the way back too.
Ugh.
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(Sergio)
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I can't believe how massive the platform is.
Look at just those stairs. Wow!
In the report of the excavations
I remember seeing that there are two excavation sites here,
and one is for the temple, and the other one--
they found a later periods of occupation here
but we came here to examine the temple, not the later centuries.
(Sergio) Beautiful steps. Was this like an altar?
The [inaudible] report says that this temple was 40 meters tall.
That's very tall.
Especially standing here in this area, where there's nothing else high around,
this being so tall would have really stood out in this entire area.
- (Rhoda) Oh, there are stairs here. - How convenient.
Look.
It says something on it.
(Sergio)
It looks Greek to me.
But I don't speak or read Greek,
but if somebody's watching this who reads and speaks Greek,
it will be cool,
if they could know what it says.
(Rhoda) Go, go, see inside in there.
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This is just awesome, look at these guys.
Plaster from 2,000 years ago, structure.
(Sergio)
from somewhere afar off,
because in this area you can't find any limestone.
It's all basalt.
Wow, this blaster is 2,000 years old, and it is so preserved well.
I've never seen it preserved so well.
Incredible.
(Anna) No wonder Josephus would have described it as being built of marble,
even though it's made of limestone,
it was plastered and maybe even painted to look like marble.
(Rhoda) Guys, I'm going to show you how it looks like.
(Sergio) Rock preserved from rain and damage,
but you can see there the original plaster and the fixture that it had
Look how beautiful.
Like with many archaeological sites in Israel,
there's usually more than one theory.
And this one in particular has archaeologists split into two groups.
One group believes the temple was built
inside the old city of Banias, Caesarea Philippi,
while the other group believes it was built here, in Horvat Omrit,
and there are two wonderful BAR articles written on this subject
dating back to 2003 that are written by the archaeologists themselves.
One of them presents a lot of evidence
in support for this place being the true location,
while the other tries to refute these claims.
Let's put the location of the temple aside for a moment
and ask these questions:
Why did Herod build it in the first place?
And what does this have to do with Jesus?
(Sergio)
that Herod wanted to find favor with the Roman emperor
so that he may stay in power,
that he may stay the King over Judea.
It seems like if you truly follow the law of the Jews
you wouldn't dare to build a pagan temple.
But he did, which means
that politics and power were more important for him
than the Law of Moses.
And this sheds a lot of light on his character
and could be the reason why he persecuted Jesus.
According to Matthew chapter 2 a few wise men came to Jerusalem
and started asking, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews,
for we saw His star in the East and have come to worship Him."
King of the Jews? Herod is the King of the Jews.
It must have been such a tough pill for him to swallow
that he immediately summoned all of the chief priests and scribes
and inquired them where the Messiah was to be born,
and they gave him the answers straight from the Scriptures:
The Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem.
Herod knew that the greatest prophecy of all times
is being fulfilled right in front of his eyes.
The Jews, they were waiting for the Messiah to come,
and according to the Gospel of Matthew he has indeed come.
And Herod knew it.
If he didn't believe Jesus to be the Messiah,
then he wouldn't have cared to go after him
or kill the entire male toddler population of Bethlehem.
Could it be that Herod wanted to kill Jesus
because he knew he is the King of the Jews
and he did not want to step down from his throne
and give it to Christ?
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There's a river!
If there's a river, Sergio's there.
(purl of water)
(Sergio)
If there is fresh water, I'm going there.
It's source of life, it's refreshing, it's incredible.
(Rhoda) Is it cold?
Oh, it's freezing.
(Rhoda)
If it was a little warmer, I bet he swam in it too.
Did you zoom in?
- (Rhoda) Yeah. - (Sergio) Awesome.
(Rhoda) I'm zooming out.
(Sergio) I don't know how to get back.
That was fantastic. What a soft, cold, fresh water.