By Fr. Kevin Drew, Catholic Exchange - Herod the Great, the King of the Jews—was neither a king nor a Jew. His mother was an Arab, the daughter of a sheik, and his father was an Idumean (Edomite) from south of Israel. The name “Herod” isn’t even Jewish, it’s Greek. It’s a name from Greek mythology... How did Herod, who ruled in Israel from 40 BC – 4 BC, become king then? Well, he had good political instincts—sort of like a weasel or a hyena has instincts. He, as they say, “played the game” with whoever happened to be in charge in Rome, the master of the world at the time... Herod, as tyrannical governments do today, spied on his own people.