John’s Execution
John’s Execution
The accounts of John’s martyrdom in Josephus and the Gospels are clearly independent, and their overlap is limited. Where they overlap, however, they mutually attest that Herod Antipas imprisoned and subsequently executed this popular prophet.84 Indeed, they agree even in their portrayal of Herodias’ character, though this portrayal appears in a different connection in the two sources.85
Views vary concerning the historicity of Mark’s account of John’s execution. Even John Meier is skeptical of the account, citing Mark’s “legendary tone” plus differences with Josephus.86 But “legendary” is a tricky category; if we allow the Gospels to tell a story about the Herodian court to begin with, many items will support historical verisimilitude (including the character of Herodias in Mark), though some details of the account87 appear more questionable. By contrast, Gerd Theissen thinks that the story behind Mark was a popular account, originally not preserved just among Christians, a tradition also standing behind Josephus.88
Rather than either of these alternatives, however, I believe that Josephus and Mark depend on different traditions of a common event. Josephus’ sources are probably more Herodian, Mark’s perhaps from Christians who once circulated among the Baptist’s disciples (cf. e.g., Acts 19:3-5), who may have received explanation from contacts within the Herodian court. The source for Mark’s story of John’s martyrdom could also easily come from within Antipas’ household via Joanna or Manaen, who became disciples (possibly also among Luke’s sources — Lk 8:3; 24:10; Acts 13:1).89 From a purely historical standpoint, we can be fairly certain that Antipas had John executed for preaching what he took as undermining his honor.
Antipas, son of Herod the Great and a Samaritan wife, had functioned as “tetrarch” over Galilee and Perea since about 4 BCE (not a “king” as in Mark).90 He had engaged in a politically prudent marriage with a Nabatean princess, perhaps seeking to secure further loyalty from Nabatean subjects within his territory of Perea.91 Yet Antipas’s lust undercut his political prudence. When Antipas divorced his first wife to take his brother’s wife Herodias,92 he violated the Mosaic law concerning incest (Lev 18:16; 20:21), as Josephus also points out.93
These were fresh issues in the time when John the Baptist was arrested, not when the Gospels were written. Mark’s account that the prophet publicly reproached a public example of immorality is thus quite plausible. Josephus’ portrayal of Antipas suggests that he was doubtless little concerned about Jewish morality,94 but what John viewed in moral terms, Antipas undoubtedly saw as a potential political threat, undermining the security of his people’s allegiance.95 The political threat was particularly acute because it was his very affair with Herodias that was already destabilizing his kingdom; Antipas’ plans to divorce his first wife had provoked trouble with her father, the powerful Nabatean king Aretas IV. This trouble later led to war and public humiliation for Antipas, which his own people then attributed to divine judgment for executing John.96 That many Nabateans in Perea presumably remained loyal to Aretas rather than Herod Antipas the tetrarch further extended the embarrassing political implications of the affair.
According to Josephus’ briefer account of John’s execution, it must have occurred at Herod’s famous fortress Machaerus in Perea,97 where Antipas’ first wife had escaped to her father,98 where many Nabateans lived, and near where John had often preached.99 This fortress included a dungeon where John was kept, and apparently separate dining facilities for men and women (thus Mark notifies us that Herodias’ daughter “went out” to confer with her mother).100
Josephus says nothing of the dance of Herodias’ daughter (presumably the one he calls Salome), mentioned in Mark, but it is not as implausible as some contend.101 According to some accounts the girl, Salome, may have been between six and eight years old; more likely, she was a virgin of marriageable age (twelve to fourteen), but possibly already betrothed or married to Philip the tetrarch. 102 Apart from Antipas’ drunkenness, one would hardly expect him to invite another member of the royal family to engage in a sensuous Hellenistic dance.103 Her dance is, as one commentator notes, “an improbably bizarre touch, which could forthwith be dismissed as fictional, were it not a known fact that the excesses of the Herodian court were in most respects quite notorious.” 104 Ancient historical literature is sufficiently replete with such scenes — even the display of freshly severed heads during banquets — to warn against facile assumptions of what is possible.105
If Mark knew of it, he relinquishes the opportunity to report the eventual outcome of Antipas’ marriage to Herodias. Josephus, however, cannot be accused of the same neglect. He recounts that when Antipas, prompted by his wife Herodias, later sought the title “king” that had been granted to her brother Herod Agrippa I,106 he was deposed and banished to Gaul for his arrogance.107
Historically, John’s execution must have affected Jesus and his movement. John’s execution cast a shadow over Jesus’ ministry: if the elite could silence one prophet, they could silence others. In fact, most prophetic figures of the era were suppressed or killed, according to Josephus (who counts as false prophets most of them, excluding John, Jesus, Joshua ben Ananiah and a few others). In such a context, that Jesus would challenge the temple authorities in Jerusalem without an armed following could suggest that, contrary to many scholars’ views, he too expected martyrdom.