The Martyrdom Of John The Baptist
THE MARTYRDOM OF JOHN THE BAPTIST
MARK 6:14-29
Someone can have great respect for a good person but still remain bad.
Among those who were talking about Jesus at this time was Herod, “King Herod” as he styled himself, although he was not entitled to this rank (cf. Luke 9:7). Of the various popular explanations of who Jesus was which were current, Herod’s bad conscience inclined him to accept the one which identified him with John the Baptist risen from the dead. John had done no mighty works in his lifetime (John 10:41), but if he were risen from the dead, he could be expected to have supernatural powers.
In explanation of Herod’s allusion to his beheading of John we are now given a “flash-back.” The event had taken place only a short time before (cf. Matthew 14:12-21). Josephus tells us that John was imprisoned at Machaerus, a grim fortress near the Dead Sea with magnificently spacious and beautiful apartments. John had criticized Herod regarding his second marriage. Herod, who was the son of Herod the Great and Malthace, had first married a daughter of King Aretas of Arabia. Then he fell for his own half-niece Herodias, the grand-daughter of Herod the Great and Mariamne; she had been married to Herod’s half-brother Philip (who was probably the son of Herod the Great and another Mariamne!). Herod the Great had been the archetypal Bluebeard, and his family were not much better as far as morality was concerned. John attacked Herod on the grounds of Jewish law (Leviticus 18:16; 20:21). Herod had some respect for John, but Herodias had no such scruples and when she obtained a suitable opportunity put a scheme into action. Her own daughter, Salome, performed a dance at the birthday party which was sufficiently provocative to lead the king to make his rash offer. Those critics who allege that such a dance—it would have been on the level of a strip-tease act in a night club—would have been impossible for a princess are forgetting the moral (or rather, immoral) quality of Herod’s family. In his half-drunk state the tetrarch was perfectly willing to part with a kingdom which he did not even possess (cf. Esther 5:3,6), but the girl, primed by her mother, asked for less: “Please may I have the head of John the Baptizer on a plate, and please can I have it now.” The voice of John was silenced, but his condemnation of the king still stood, sealed by his blood. From now on a deep shadow hangs over the ministry of Jesus (cf. 9:12f.).