There was a gentle fever upon him, and an intolerable itching over all the surface of his body, and continual pains in his colon, and dropsical turnouts about his feet, and an inflammation of the abdomen, and a putrefaction of his privy member, that produced worms," wrote the Jewish historian Josephus about Herod the Great (cf. Matt. 2).
"Besides which he … could not breathe but when he sat upright, and had a convulsion of all his members, insomuch that the diviners said those diseases were a punishment upon him."
After 2,000 years, University of Washington physician Jan Hirschmann finally has a diagnosis: "His chronic kidney disease was complicated by an unusual infection of the male genitalia called Fournier's gangrene."
Hirschmann notes that Herod also suffered mental disorders, and failed at a suicide attempt. "These may be part of the disease, or they may be extensions of what he was like before," he says.
Copyright © 2002 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
Related Elsewhere
Earlier this year, Samson and Ezekiel were diagnosed as well.
Other news coverage includes:
What Disease Killed King Herod? - National Geographic Today (Jan. 28, 2002)
Herod's grisly death probed by doctors - BBC (Jan. 26, 2002)
Scientists Blame Kidney Disease on 2,000-Year-Old Mystery - WebMD (Jan. 25, 2002)
King Herod Death Mystery Solved? - Discovery News (Jan. 25, 2002)
Expert: Kidney disease, gangrene killed Herod - CNN (Jan. 25, 2002)
He was a ruthless man who died a miserable death - ABC News (Jan. 25, 2002)
Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.
Our digital archives are a work in progress. Let us know if corrections need to be made.
Annual & Monthly subscriptions available.
- Print & Digital Issues of CT magazine
- Complete access to every article on ChristianityToday.com
- Unlimited access to 65+ years of CT’s online archives
- Member-only special issues
- Learn more
More from this Issue
Read These Next
- TrendingAmerican Christians Should Stand with Israel under AttackWhile we pray for peace, we need moral clarity about this war.
- From the MagazineShould the Bible Sound Like the Language in the Streets?Controversy over Bibles in Jamaica, the Philippines, and Germany reveal the divide between the sacred and the relatable.
- Editor's PickA Theologian’s Vision of ‘Peasant’ Politics Is Surprisingly Lordly in ScopeEphraim Radner’s “narrow” concern for protecting the mundane goods of earthly life isn’t so narrow after all.