Posted: 01/04/07

The Sanctity of Human Life:

Massacre of the Innocents by Giotto

Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337) is widely regarded as the father of the Italian Renaissance. Commissioned by the wealthy Scrovengi family in Padua, Giotti filled the walls of their family chapel with beautiful depictions of Biblical scenes. Giotto painted the fresco Massacre of the Innocents around 1302, making it one of the very earliest works of art depicting this particular Bible event. 

The story itself is found in Matthew 2:16-18: Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: "A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more."

Giotto paints nearly twenty dead babies in a pile, with two more about to be slain.  On one hand, the picture lacks the modern shock-value depiction of the blood that certainly would have accompanied the murders. On the other hand, there is no getting around the fact that all the young boys have puncture wounds, and there is at least one recognizable decapitation. This is a grotesque and nauseating scene that demands a response.

We see King Herod up on the balcony giving his command and consent to the killing.  He even seems to be pointing out something – perhaps a baby that the soldiers have missed in the slaughter? 

Herod's placement above the rest of the crew reminds us of his legal authority over the lives of others. His malevolent power was even used to kill three of his own sons, prompting Augustus Caesar to say about him, "I would rather be his sow than his son."  State-sanctioned murder of babies is not a modern invention.

Scholars say the total number of boys in Bethlehem at the time would have been around thirty. In the despotic career of Herod, such a small number of deaths would be a drop in his bucket of brutality.  Herod was guilty of many murderous acts during his reign, and yet this atrocity upon Bethlehem is his most famous because of its significance in the life of Christ. This descendent of Esau sought to kill the descendent of Jacob.

One particularly troubling aspect of Giotto's painting is that every man is a predatory menace and every woman and child is a powerless victim.  There are two reasons why this bothers me greatly.

First, Bethlehem may be the hometown of heroic King David, but in Giotto's picture there is not a single man standing against the slaughter. In truth, some men may have fought in vain against the soldiers, losing their own lives in an attempt to thwart the murders. We don't know, for the Bible is silent on this point. Giotto's painting is haunting nonetheless, for it depicts the complete abdication of patriarchal protection. Where are the fathers giving their lives for the children?  Men, may it not be so in our day!  In the words of Josiah Holland:

            Give us Men!
            Men who, when tempest gathers,
            Grasp the standard of their fathers
            In the thickest fight;
            Men who strike for home and altar,
            (Let the coward cringe and falter),
            God defend the right!

The second reason why this bothers me is because the God-given maternal instinct these mothers display seems to have now been vanquished in the hearts of women who abort their own children.  The maternal instinct of child-protection should not be thought to be a grace given only to the Christian.  These instincts are part of the common grace of God extending to all humanity. Only where a culture has supplanted the infant-preservation instinct with a self-interest-preservation instinct do we find mothers and fathers too embracing the destruction of the life that comes from a mother's own womb. 

I find The Massacre of the Innocents to be a damning indictment against our own so-called Christian culture. The Herodian evil runs right through the heartland – "red" and "blue" states alike.  Laws may one day change, and to that end we pray and hope and work. However, political parties cannot change culture-wide anti-natalism.

So, we cry out to God for the change of hearts that only He can bring. We pray that the millions of women who have aborted a child (and the fathers who urged the decision to abort) would find their hearts burdened down until they are driven to repentance and faith through the free grace of God found in the saving death of Jesus Christ. Let us go forth preaching the gospel in confidence that the God who said "Thou shalt not kill" also sent us His son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

And let us repent of our own apathy in regards to pro-life issues. Do we weep for the lost children? Do we refuse to be comforted because they are no more? Or have we made peace with Herod?

By Scott Lamb Click here for bio and archived articles