Expert: Kidney disease, gangrene killed Herod

BALTIMORE, Maryland (CNN) -- It took nearly 2,000 years, but doctors say they have finally have found out what's wrong with King Herod.

After sifting through a detailed account from a Jewish historian, Dr. Jan Hirschmann said the King of Judea -- vilified in the New Testament for his murderous orders following the birth of Jesus -- died of chronic kidney disease complicated by gangrene.

Hirschmann, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington and clinician at the Puget Sound Veterans Affairs hospital, announced his findings Friday as part of a "historical autopsy" -- an annual medical forum intended not to save lives, but resolve deaths.

This year's Clinico-Pathologic Conference was held in Baltimore, Maryland, and hosted by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

In previous years, the conferees have probed the deaths of historical and cultural icons from all ages, including Edgar Allen Poe, Beethoven, Alexander the Great, George Custer, the ancient Greek leader Pericles, Mozart and the Roman emperor Claudius.

Once again, pathologists and clinicians attending this year's conference were asked to tackle historical texts to determine what killed their famous, albeit very deceased "patient."

While it is impossible for anyone to ultimately prove or disprove Hirschmann's new theory, largely because there are no remains to examine, previous "historical autopsies" have been published in the American Journal of Medicine and the New England Journal of Medicine.

Ordered 'slaughtering of the innocents'

A classic "bad boy" of the Bible, scholars believe the headstrong Herod died in 4 B.C. -- shortly after ordering the so-called "Slaughter of the Innocents" recorded in the New Testament.

After hearing of the birth of Jesus, called the newborn King of the Jews by the three visiting wise men, Herod became enraged and tried to kill him off.

"Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry," the book of Matthew recounts. "He sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under."

But while biblical scholars could explain these deaths, historians had no clear explanation as to what killed Herod -- except for a few details laid out by Jewish scholar Flavius Josephus.

According to Josephus, Herod suffered from intense itching, intestinal pain, shortness of breath, convulsions and gangrene of the genitalia.

"When I first looked at the general diseases that cause itching, it became clear that most of them couldn't explain a majority of the features of Herod's illness," said Hirschmann. After considering Hodgkin's and liver disease, Hirschmann concluded that the infection of the genitalia -- known as Fournier's -- had complicated his chronic kidney disease.

The kidney disease, gonorrhea or excessive scratching may have caused the gangrene. While it's unclear how long Herod suffered from his kidney ailment, he likely died within days or weeks of contracting the Fournier's gangrene, said Hirschmann.