Villain of the Christmas story, King Herod realized a bold new vision of a Roman Judaea.

In Hurston’s novel, she reimagines Herod not for his "villainous" portrayal in the New Testament, but as an adventurous “forerunner of Christ,” per the book’s description.

Herod was condemned in the New Testament as a bloodthirsty tyrant who ordered the massacre of infants in Bethlehem to prevent the prophesied birth of a new king of the Jews. He was described by ...