Obituaries for Ehud Netzer

OBITUARIES FOR EHUD NETZER have been published in the New York Times, the LA Times and the Telegraph. From the Telegraph:

Ehud Netzer

Ehud Netzer, who died on October 28 aged 76, was an Israeli archaeologist who spent his career in pursuit of one of the Bible's most reviled figures; having at last discovered his quarry's tomb, however, Netzer concluded that Herod the Great was not so much a monster as a man of "outstanding talent".

Published: 5:45PM GMT 05 Nov 2010

It was a dramatic reappraisal of Herod, Rome's gore-soaked client king who ruled Judaea from about 37BC and is thought to have butchered a host of adversaries and rivals, including several members of his own family. He is infamous for the Massacre of the Innocents – the murder of newborns in Bethlehem which Matthew's Gospel records was ordered by Herod to eliminate Jesus.

The fact that Herod is thought to have died in 4BC, well before the usually claimed birth date of Christ, has not helped to clear his name or rescue his reputation. But Netzer, in excavating a series of monumental sites in the Holy Land, was central in shedding light on a less bloody aspect of Herod's rule – presenting him as a visionary "builder-king" who was able to marshal resources and men both to negotiate the political intrigues of his day and leave an architectural legacy that has endured for 2,000 years.

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Background here and here.