When Did Herod the Great Reign?

For about 100 years there has been a consensus among scholars that Herod the Great reigned from 37 to 4 BCE. However, there have been several challenges to this consensus over the past four decades, the most notable being the objection raised by W.E. Filmer. This paper argues that Herod most likely reigned from late 39 BCE to early 4 BCE, and that this reconstruction of his reign can account for all of the surviving historical references to the events of Herod's reign more logically than the current consensus can. Moreover, the reconstruction of Herods reign proposed in this paper accounts for all of the datable evidence relating to Herods reign, whereas the current consensus is unable to explain some of the evidence that it dismisses as ancient errors or that it simply ignores.