Death Of John The Baptist
DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST
MATTHEW 14:1-12
It’s foolish to make a promise you can’t limit; when the cost is to someone else’s neck, it’s grotesque.
“Herod the Tetrarch” was Herod Antipas, the youngest and politically ablest son of Herod the Great and the full brother of Archelaus (cf. 2:22); after his father’s death in 4 BC he became ruler of Galilee and Peraea and retained this position until he was deposed by the Roman emperor in AD 39. Herodias was not only the wife of his half-brother Philip (a private Roman citizen, not “Philip the tetrarch” of Luke 3:1) but also the daughter of his half-brother Aristobulus. Marriage with a brother’s wife was forbidden by Leviticus 18:16 (apart from the “levirate marriage” of Deuteronomy 25:5ff.); it was the more heinous when (as in this case) the brother was still alive. John’s denunciation of this illicit match was quite in the Old Testament prophetic tradition, and his influence with the people was such that Herodias could not feel her position secure while he was alive. Herodias’ daughter (14:6) was probably not Salome, who by this time was the wife of Philip the tetrarch, but a younger daughter, otherwise unrecorded—“girl” in 14:11 is a diminutive (“little girl”). The “prison” where John was held (cf. 11:2) was the fortress of Machaerus, east of the Dead Sea, as we learn from Josephus, whose narrative of John’s imprisonment and death supplements the Gospel account (Antiquities 18:116-119).
The events of 14:3-12 took place some months before those of their context; they are recorded here to explain Herod’s reference to John’s death in 14:2. The account of Jesus’ activity, and no doubt of his disciples’ Galilean mission (10:1ff.), made him feel that this was John the Baptist all over again; the “powers” of which he spoke were the supernatural powers by which Jesus’ mighty works were performed (cf. 12:28).