This is a super strange episode–even considering the fact that there are a ton of really strange things in the Bible. For starters, Yeshua/Jesus never even makes an appearance in this account, nor do His disciples. What we have is an incredibly detailed account of John the Baptist’s Passion in light of Herod Antipas’s horror over the thought that Yeshua is actually John the Baptist raised from the dead and therefore vindicated by God after his murder. We’ll be talking about Josephus, the book of Esther, the Esther Rabbah midrash, and the sordid history of the Herods. It’s enough to make even Jerry Springer or Geraldo Rivera blush. Someone needs to call Judge Judy to deal with this family drama.
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Transcript:
The death of John the Baptist at the hands of Herod Antipas is a very strange account for a number of reasons—the most significant being that Yeshua/Jesus isn’t a character in the account at all! Nor are any of the disciples, and John the Baptist himself hardly even makes an appearance. The main characters are Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, his wife Herodias, and her daughter Salome. In a way, it reminds me more of Daniel four than anything else because we have an account from a bad guy, even though it is not written in the first person like Nebuchadnezzar’s personal account of being judged by Yahweh. This account, on the other hand, isn’t about a prideful king being cut down to size for few seasons but about Herodian injustice. We have a brand new theme this week for Mark because this is the very first passion narrative in this Gospel. It is included to give us a clue as to the future fate of Yeshua at the hands of the chief priests and Romans. So we can call this new theme “the fate of God’s messenger.” John the Baptist is the forerunner and so we would expect them to share similar fates and we will see quite a few parallels. Let’s read the account—this is Mark chapter 6:
14 King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some said, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.” 15 But others said, “He is Elijah.” And others said, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” 16 But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.” 17 For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because he had married her. 18 For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” 19 And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, 20 for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.21 But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. 22 For when Herodias’s daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.” 23 And he vowed to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.” 24 And she went out and said to her mother, “For what should I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.” 25 And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” 26 And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. 27 And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison 28 and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. 29 When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
Hi, I am Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, and welcome to Character in Context, where I teach the historical and ancient sociological context of Scripture with an eye to developing the character of the Messiah. If you prefer written material, I have five years’ worth of blog at theancientbridge.com as well as my six books available on amazon—including a four-volume curriculum series dedicated to teaching Scriptural context in a way that even kids can understand it, called Context for Kids—and I have two video channels on YouTube with free Bible teachings for both adults and kids. You can find the link for those on my website. Past broadcasts of this program can be found at characterincontext.podbean.com and transcripts can be had for most broadcasts at theancientbridge.com. All Scripture this week comes courtesy of the ESV, the English Standard Version but you can follow along with whatever Bible you want. A list of my resources can be found attached to the transcript for Part two of this series at theancientbridge.com.
First, I want to give the backstory on this particular Herod. This man was already an adult when Yeshua was born, sometime around 4 BCE when Herod the Great died. His mother was the Samaritan Malthace. Herod Archelaus was given half of his father’s Kingdom and Antipas and Philip were given quarters. Herod the Great wanted Archelaus to be named king of Judea but the Roman Senate would not name him anything except an ethnarch. Really, it was a fancy term for governor. Archaelaus’s brothers, Antipas and Philip, were named tetrarchs because Herod’s holdings were divided into four parts and they were each given one—Antipas over the Galilee and Philip over the remaining land east of the Sea of Galilee. Archelaus was given two of those shares, having Judea/Idumea and Samaria. But Archelaus was a beast and Rome stripped him of power in the year 9 of the common era and took over the region personally through a series of governors, including Pontius Pilate. So, these are not young men at this point. Antipas reigned 45 years, until 39 CE.
Herodias, who was also the niece of all the sons of Herod the Great, was in her forties at this point and had been married to a Philip (Herod II) who was not the tetrarch Philip and we have no idea how old Salome was. She might have been in her early teens but we do know that she herself later marries her uncle Philip the Tetrarch according to the historian Josephus, who is much to be trusted on his writings during this era. Josephus put this account at 27-28 CE, which makes both he and Yeshua roughly 30/31 years old when lined up with the death of Herod the Great. So, this syncs well with outside accounts. Even if it is entirely confusing. This is a severely inbred family.
Herod Antipas, like his father before him, was desperate to be accepted by the Jews. Herod the Great was an Idumean, a descendant of Esau the brother of the patriarch Jacob and the son of Isaac. His grandfather, Antipas, and all of the Idumeans had been forcibly converted to Judaism during the time of John Hyrcanus, the son of the last of the surviving Hasmonean brothers, who led the Maccabean Revolt. His family became a favorite of the Romans, and they were given rulership over Judea under Julius Caesar. But because of this, the Jews saw them not as true converts but as foreign oppressors, and the way they lived didn’t help them out. They were ruthless, brutal, and lived more by Greco-Roman than by Jewish standards. They murdered one another at a rate that would make Livia blush. Herod the Great tried to win the favor of the Jews by rebuilding the Temple precincts in a glorious fashion. Cesarea Maritima was a glorious port city. The Herodium, Masada, the Cave of the Patriarchs, etc. He truly made Judea a wonder of the world architecturally. He was a bonafide genius. He was also insane. His son Antipas was also a builder, but he did some really stupid stuff. He built Tiberias in honor of the Emperor but built it atop a former graveyard which meant that no Jews would be caught dead there. Wait, that’s not quite right…oh well. So he had to ship in pagans to live there. Not the best PR move for sure. And now, he committed like the grand kahuna of Biblical transgressions—incest. He specifically broke Lev 18:16–
16 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.
And a prophet like John the Baptist cannot let that stand when this man rules over God’s people. Let’s go through this section verse by verse—and I want you to notice a few things which I am not going to go into a lot of detail about. The difference between Herod’s lavish feast with sinners resulting in death for the innocent vs Yeshua’s modest feasting with sinners, resulting in life for the guilty. We are meant to compare the two kings and kingdoms. We’ll probably cover this aspect more when we cover the Gospel of Matthew from the beginning,
14 King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some said, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.”
First word, first comment—“King” Herod. The Greek word is basileus which means ruler and not king. I have no idea why it is translated king when all he was was a tetrarch. It really chaps my hide, but oh well. I mean, the whole reason he was deposed by Rome, in 39 CE, is because he kept insisting that he be called king and Rome got sick of it. Don’t expect me to translate a Bible anytime soon and correct the problem. But anyway, it says “When King Herod heard of it”—heard of what? Well, the last thing we all heard of was the disciples all going out preaching repentance, like John did, anointing people, healing them, and casting out demons. At least six groups of them, plus Yeshua. That would have created quite the drama around the palace. And that drama comes by the way of the rumors that Herod is hearing. The rumors begin with the ludicrous notion that John the Baptist is risen from the dead—obviously people who didn’t know either of them or their history personally because they had both been in the same place at the same time not only in utero but also at Yeshua’s baptism. But Yeshua really had come kinda out of nowhere and John was a pretty big deal, plus a priest and his father had seen an angel in the Holy Place while performing the menorah ceremony. And everyone knew that John never worked any miracles, but a resurrected John was something else entirely. A John that was raised in a new body and had come back from Sheol might have miraculous powers more like Elijah or Elisha, after all.
15 But others said, “He is Elijah.” And others said, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.”
The rumors continued—perhaps Yeshua is Elijah (who was considered to be the sort of patron saint of the poor and needy), who was taken away by the chariots of Heaven, and who knows what on earth happened to him anyway? Others wondered if He was one of the other prophets returned or maybe a new one operating in the same authority. Either could be the translation of that final sentence, as the Greek is not crystal clear. But, unlike the Scribes from Jerusalem, no one is questioning the source of His power and authority—they are all attributing that power to God, who is the source behind John, Elijah, and the prophets. But what no one is saying is that Yeshua might be the Messiah or the Son of God. That’s really important. They see a prophet but disagree on identity, not on His legitimacy as doing the works of God.
16 But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.”
Herod Antipas isn’t at all thinking in terms of God’s power and authority but in terms of his own fears (remember that Antipas was only marginally a Jew and very much Hellenized—heck, his psycho father was a better Jew than he was and that isn’t saying much). When I read this, it reminds me of the scene from Hamlet when his step-father Claudius watches the theater troupe acting out the precise details of his murder of his brother, Hamlet’s father. I mean, what is a raised person capable of, anyway? Can you even kill them again? This is potentially some seriously bad mojo.
And the word for raised is egeiro—this is the same body raised, not reincarnation as an entirely different person. Yeshua and John were second cousins. Their mothers were first cousins. There might have been a strong resemblance between them since Mary’s DNA wasn’t diluted by Joseph’s. Yeshua would look entirely like her side of the family. This probably all added to the confusion. But why on earth would Herod Antipas be so paranoid that these miracles were coming from a risen John? As we will find out, Herod is possibly suffering from the Greco-Roman pagan belief that he is being haunted. And that wasn’t just something Herod believed. When the disciples see Yeshua walking on the water, which we will cover two weeks from now, they believe he is a ghost too. The other possibility is that Herod believes that God has vindicated John by raising him from the dead and gave him powers to boot, effectively negating Herod’s order of execution and upping the ante. That’s actually way scarier because it meant that God would be gunning for him.
17 For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because he had married her.
Now, we begin the sordid soap opera of the demise of John the Baptist at the hands of Herod Antipas, which is also documented by Josephus but the details are slightly different. Again, like the Gerasene demoniac and the incidents with the woman with the issue of blood and the raising of Jairus’s daughter, this is unusual in that it reads with so many intimate details that it sounds very much like it is dictating an eye-witness account. Now remember, we haven’t heard or seen from John since Mark 1:14. All this time, all the ministry and miracles, absolutely nothing. From this account, we don’t know if John was executed right away or if it took weeks or months of a year or more. We have no idea. Herod’s fears are definitely in the present but we have no idea how far back this incident occurred. We do know, from Josephus, that John was imprisoned in the fortress of Macherus, which had a larger and a smaller triclinium, the formal dining rooms which were named after the three kline, the couches that were laid upon in formal Greek symposia (dining parties). This is important because it means that this fortress was set up for the women and men to have separate dining areas, which will make more sense later.
But, Mark 1:14 mentions John’s arrest and now we will get the details of why that happened. It was on behalf of Herodias, his niece/wife/former sister in law. Talk about wearing a lot of hats in a relationship. She was the daughter of one of Herod’s sons by his favorite wife, Mariamne, whom he was tricked into executing for treason, and then he also killed her father and uncle a few years before his own death, when she was eight years old. Hey, you’d be messed up too! Augustus Caesar actually said that he would rather be Herod’s pig than his son.
18 For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”
And John was absolutely correct. When Herodias and Antipas met in Rome and she divorced her husband in order to marry “up”, they broke Lev 18:16–16 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness. It would be scandalous enough to merit a Jerry Springer Show episode here in the US, but in a religious place like Galilee? For a “Jewish” wanna-be king to break the incest laws and dishonor his still-living brother? This was bad even for a member of the Herodian family. And you know all the people grumbled and gossiped about it but call him out publicly? No way. Except that John the Baptist—he did. Yeshua didn’t, because He had a job to do and it was not His time to die. Things had to play out a certain way and He allowed John to do John’s job while He did His. It’s a good lesson to us that we don’t actually have to voice an opinion about absolutely everything all the time but to count the cost and act accordingly. Sometimes it’s someone else’s turn to do the talking and ours to be busy doing something else.
But there was also more going on here according to Josephus. When Herodias divorced her husband/uncle/future brother in law, Herod Antipas divorced his wife, a Nabatean princess. Nabatea included modern-day Jordan and Syria and so this was no small alliance and no small danger when Herod sent his wife packing in favor of an incestuous union—frankly, in more ways than one. Herod had to be afraid of being conquered by Aretas, her father, which did happen in roughly 33 or 34 CE, and Josephus records that this defeat was God’s judgment over Herod’s execution of John, whom the Jews considered to be a holy man.
19 And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not,
And so Herodias is totally miffed. In fact, she has a grudge and wants John dead. And, I mean I have been angry enough to want people dead, in theory, before but I never had the will to carry it out or the authority to do so and so my enemies are pretty safe from harm. But—the text says that she can’t do it. Why?
20 for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.
Let it not be said that Herod Antipas wasn’t a complex kind of dude. So, he imprisoned John, and I don’t want you to think of a jail sort of situation where he had already been found guilty. That wasn’t how things worked in ancient times. You were in jail until your fate was determined and then they either killed you or fined you or enslaved you or whatever. But they didn’t keep you in jail forever back in those days. Your friends and family were usually responsible for paying for your upkeep while you were being remanded, which could take a very long time if the guy in charge is looking for a bribe, as we saw with Felix and Paul in Acts 24.
And Herod didn’t just respect John, he was flat out afraid of him. He had at least enough sense to know that God was with John and so he stowed him away in Macherus to protect him from Herodias. This probably didn’t make for a fun situation at home! Not only that, but evidently he really liked to listen to John, even though he really didn’t get what John was saying. I suppose, given his living situation that he might actually have seriously been clueless as to what a ridiculous, lecherous sinner he was. He enjoyed his preaching but just couldn’t have him do it publicly for fear of an uprising. But, do you hear echoes of Jezebel and Ahab here? He’s coming off as kind of pathetic and she is coming off as very bloodthirsty, which she definitely was. But she had her limits too because if Herod Antipas divorced her, she would have no power whatsoever as who else is going to marry a woman in her forties that that point? And it isn’t like she would be willing to marry someone of lower station and she was running out of relatives. Okay, yeah, that was catty.
21 But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee.
Now, was this actually his birthday or the day celebrating his ascension to the throne? Could actually be either. Birthdays at this point were very new, coming into popularity only for the Caesars and the deified members of their families. Before this point, the day of death was important but the only times a birthday was memorialized is if there had been some celestial or other historical event that was believed to be an omen. In a culture when 30% of babies didn’t survive the first year, they weren’t focused on such things. But, after the death of Julius, Augustus and the Senate had him deified and his birthday memorialized and Tiberius did the same for Augustus, and etc, and etc. Now, would Herod Antipas be so brazen as to celebrate his own birthday? Would he even know what day it was? I don’t think so, personally. I think this was a celebration of the day he came into his tetrarchy, because that was far more important to rulers. Also, it seems borderline blasphemous to celebrate your birthday when, at this point, the birthdays of royal family members were observed as Imperial cult worship days. For him to celebrate his birthday seems foolhardy to me. Putting on airs.
22 For when Herodias’s daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests.
Alright. Much is said about this dance. Mark records this whole scenario in much greater detail than anyone else does but there is still a whole lot of eisegesis (reading into the text) that goes on. First, nothing says her dancing was lewd or lascivious. It only says that she danced and pleased everyone. So, we have to look at this situation. Would a princess know how to dance in a lewd manner? Would a Herodian princess know how to dance in a lewd manner? If a Herodian princess knew how to dance in a lewd manner, would they allow her to do it in public? I honestly don’t know. From an honor/shame standpoint I would say absolutely not. Just look at what Emperor Augustus did to his daughter Julia for lewd behavior—she was exiled thirty years prior to this. He could easily have killed her. But the Herods were awful. And Tiberias was no Augustus, he was a very different and very depraved man pretty close to being replaced by Caligula who, just, we don’t need to talk about that. So, was the Empire so debased at this point that a ruler’s step-daughter/niece (hard to keep track) could dance in a sexual manner for a bunch of drunk courtiers and military men? Well, we cannot rule it out. But we can’t say for certain either.
And the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.” 23 And he vowed to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.”
If you have never noticed how much this story should remind us of Esther, I will tell you now. Herod’s response to Salome (Josephus names her in Ant 18.4) is pretty much word for word what Ahasuerus told Esther at her banquet, right before she had Haman executed. Of course, that’s where the similarities end because Haman totally had it coming.
Here’s where it gets disturbing. If her dance was lewd, is it possible that he was offering to give her her mother’s place? He was already married to his brother’s ex-wife, his own niece—how are we to be shocked if he would proposition his niece’s daughter? It isn’t like they were averse to marrying very young girls, or family members. Or, and based upon her mother’s response, he was just making a grandiose promise in front of his guests with no such grotesque overtones. By all accounts, he was obsessed with Herodias. I believe the latter but these are Herods so you just never know and we can never know for sure. The girl certainly shows no signs of having a clue one way or the other. She evidently hadn’t given this much thought but maybe someone else had…
24 And she went out and said to her mother, “For what should I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.”
I am betting she is very young because (1) she is unmarried and (2) for a Herod, she certainly didn’t already have anything in mind that she wanted. I mean, if the ruler of the Galilee and a very wealthy man asked me what I wanted, I wouldn’t be asking for a lifeline. I’d want my house paid off because, well…because I am boring, actually. But even though she seems to have danced without a notion in the world of any intrigue, her mother immediately knew what to ask for. Remember I told you that the Fortress of Macherus had two triclinia, two dining rooms? That’s why this account says that the girl went out to ask her mother. She went to the women’s dining room and asks and you can just hear a pin drop until Herodias makes her pronouncement and then it’s like the Music Man, pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little, cheap, cheap, cheap, talk a lot, pick a little more. Or that’s the way I like to picture it anyway because it’s more fun.
25 And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”
I’ll give you this—the girl has a flair for the dramatic because that is not what her mom asked for. It’s a feast, so why not ask for his head to be presented as a main course for her mom, eh?
Now, something interesting from Esther Rabbah 4:9 and 4:11, written sometime between 400 and 600 CE by the Babylonian Jews. Long after these events and so maybe they lifted what actually happened to Herod Antipas, since he was hated and believed judged for killing John, who was greatly revered by the Jews. This is what they wrote about Vashti’s fate, but remember this is a Midrash—it is not recording actual history or trying to write new Scripture but filling in the “what if’s” in the Bible stories. Extra-Biblical Jewish writings are incredibly inventive in this way:
4:9 “If it please Your Majesty, let a royal edict be issued by you (Esther 1:19)”: He said to him: “My lord king, you bring forth the word from your mouth and I will gather her head on a plate”. “And let it be written into the laws of Persia and Media, so that it cannot be abrogated”: Rabbi Chanina son of Rabbi Abbahu said: “It is written: “He injures, but He binds up; He wounds, but His hands heal (Job 5:18)”. In the language in which the kingdom was removed from her ancestor, which Samuel said to him: “And has given it to another who is worthier than you (1 Samuel 15:28)”. With the language in which the kingdom was restored to him, see, it is written: “And let Your Majesty bestow her royal state upon another who is more worthy than she”.
4:11 “The proposal was approved by the king and the ministers (Esther 1:21)”: He decreed and he brought her head on a plate.
26 And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her.
Oh boy, drunk men and their rash vows and their pride. It’s Ahasuerus all over again regretting exiling Vashti, which, of course, wasn’t nearly as rash because she was still alive, right? But he values his reputation over this man’s life. A man he is actually scared of because he knows that God is with him. But, he doesn’t want to lose face in front of such a huge crowd and definitely not on his birthday. Exceedingly sorry, but not sorry enough to say he had his fingers crossed the whole time. And that phrase, “exceedingly sorry,” is one we see again when Yeshua is praying in Gethsemane before his arrest, when He says to Peter, James, and John, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.” Herod Antipas was indeed very upset.
27 And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison
If they were feasting in Macherus, where John was imprisoned, this was easily done as it was a military fortress.
28 and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. 29 When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
What strikes me most about this last line is how much more loyal John’s disciples were in his death than Yeshua’s were. None of the Twelve, well, Eleven, went for His body. Only Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus.
So, let’s compare this to the upcoming Passion story of Yeshua, because that is why Mark told the story. According to C. Wolff in his article “Zur Bedeutung Johannes des Taufers im Markusevangeliums” we have the following parallels between John’s passion and Yeshua’s passion. I always knew that year of German in college would come in handy. Although that was thirty years ago so I probably butchered it a bit.
(1) We have an unjust arrest at the hands of corrupt Jewish officials. Herod Antipas was only Jewish in theory, by the narrowest of definitions. The chief priests and the high priestly family, on the other hand, were very Jewish but they were in bed with Rome almost as bad as Herod, but just in a different way.
(2) A death plot against both men. Herodias against John who is otherwise being protected by Herod Antipas, and the chief priests against Yeshua whom we see being sort of half-heartedly protected by both Pontius Pilate and Herod. Being protected by those guys was still horrific as it involved scourging and public humiliation.
(3) The element of fear. Herod is scared of John the Baptist and Pilate/Pilate’s wife are both scared of Yeshua based on things he says and a dream.
(4) Both men were executed due to public pressure. Herod because of his rash vow and Pilate because the Jewish leaders threatened him that he was no friend of Caesar if he left Yeshua alive (that was no small threat, either). Both men caved to the pressure and went along with the executions.
(5) We see further parallels in the burial accounts, where the bodies are retrieved by loyal followers and placed in a tomb.
These stories are tied together because the biblical messengers of God traditionally die in His service. Very few died in their beds, I imagine. It was true before the exile and despite the Matthew 23 claim that the Pharisees and Scribes were boasting that they never would have killed the prophets like their ancestors, we see that nothing has changed. They will kill the Messiah for the exact same reasons that they killed the prophets-rebellion against God and not recognizing His words of warning when they heard them.
But more than this, this is also an ominous foreboding of what will happen to all of the disciples who will be persecuted and/or killed and usually both. This is always on the expected menu for those whom God calls. We need to understand this and not have an expectation that God owes it to us to allow us to die in our beds.
