6.
In a final act of total humiliation and control, Herod took the High Priest’s Holy
Garments and locked them up in the Fortress of Antonia (the Roman military
barracks). The High Priest could not even perform the Day of Atonement unless the Edomite King gave him the keys to the closet. The Priest was no longer a servant of YAH; he was a Roman-Herodian puppet.
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Herod didn’t just occupy the throne; he flooded the nation with his own people to drown out the voice of the “Old Guard” and the legitimate Israelites. [Citation: Antiquity of the Jews, Book 15, Chapter 6, Section 6].
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This is where the term “Idumean” (the Greek word for Edomite) becomes central to the historical record. Herod knew the Judeans in the countryside would never accept an Edomite King, so he came fully prepared with an army. [Citation: Antiquity of the Jews, Book 14, Chapter 14, continuing directly from Section 4 into Section 5].
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He built entirely new cities, such as Caesarea, Maritima, and Sebaste (Samaria), and populated them with a mix of Greeks, Syrians, and “converted” Idumaeans, and he granted these foreigners equal citizenship to the Judeans.
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Over time, the line between a “Judean” (by blood) and a “Judean” (by Herodian citizenship) became blurred. [Citation: Antiquities of the Jews, Book 20, Chapter 8, Section 7].
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This is how the Edomites began to “pass” as the people of the covenant. Even his contemporaries knew what was happening. Historical records show that the people called Herod a “Half-Jew”—not because he was half-Israelite, but because he was an Edomite convert.
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Herod’s rival, Antigonus, mocked Herod before the Roman legions, shouting “…they would not do justly, if they gave the kingdom to Herod, who was no more than a private man, and an Idumean, i.e. a half Jew, whereas they ought to bestow it on one of the royal family..”[Citation: Antiquities of the Jews, Book 14, Chapter 14, Section 3].
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When you read the New Testament, you see The “People of the Curse” (the Herodian citizens and imported elites). The House of Judah were the ones