NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Part II

Verse 8: Herodias rehearsed with her daughter what to ask for as a prize. So she repeated it to King Herod, “Give me the head of John the Baptizer here on this platter.”

Because of his inability to stand for what was right, Herod blundered into a plot. This sensual dance was not done because Salome had the talent or desire just to get applause, but by the ulterior motive planted in her mind by her mother to request the head of John the Baptist as a prize. They knew it would be easy to get Herod distracted by her seductive movements so he would not see the scurrilous design behind the whole scheme. Herodias had to get Herod in the right mood in order to persuade him go against his conscience, even though it would cause him great grief.

This is how Satan plans; this is how opponents of the Christian way plot; this is how those who hate the success of Christianity propose to cause embarrassment by making its leaders ineffective. So never allow yourself to be persuaded to participate in anything, no matter how good or innocent it looks or how entertaining that may trap you into going against your commitment and obedience to Christ and His Word. On this occasion, it was a birthday party that gave the opportunity for a sinister plan to be carried out.

We know that during the time Joseph was in Egyptian confinement, it was another birthday that resulted in retribution, “Three days later it was Pharaoh’s birthday. He gave a party for all his servants. At the party, Pharaoh allowed the wine server and the baker to leave the prison. He freed the wine server and gave him his job back, and once again the wine server put a cup of wine in Pharaoh’s hand. But Pharaoh hanged the baker, and everything happened the way Joseph said it would. But the wine server did not remember to help Joseph. He said nothing about him to Pharaoh”.¹ Some Jewish scholars say: “The Torah’s emphasizing ‘he forgot him,’ leads us to believe that the cup-bearer made a conscious effort to blot out from his memory anything connected to his year of incarceration”.² In fact, this is how one Jewish translator rendered verse 23: “But the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, no, he forgot him.”³

Apparently it was common for potentates to offer unimaginable gifts to those who pleased them, such as we read about Esther, “Then the king asked, ‘What is bothering you Queen Esther? What do you want to ask me? I will give you anything you ask for, even half my kingdom‘”.⁴ We also know that one of the kings of Judah suffered ignominy and death because of such bad parental advice, “Ahaziah also lived the way Ahab’s family lived because his mother encouraged him to do wrong things.”⁵

Asking for a prophet’s demise was not new. Even in Elijah’s day we read, “Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah and said, ‘I swear that by this time tomorrow, you will be just as dead as those prophets. If I don’t succeed, may the gods do the same or worse to me.‘”⁶ Jezebel was not sorry for her threats and paid terribly for her mockery of Elijah. But Herod was distraught by Salome’s request because it forced him to keep his word. King Darius felt the same heartbreak when it looked as though Daniel would suffer a similar fate in the lion’s den, “The king became very sad and upset when he heard this. He decided to save Daniel. He worked until sunset trying to think of a way to save him”.⁷

But in those days, an oath was a sacred vow and no one of strong character ever wanted to break such a promise. But sometimes, making a vow without thinking it through can be very costly and even humiliating. Take Jephthah, for instance, who lived during the time of the Judges. We read: “Jephthah made a promise to the LORD. He said, ‘If you will let me defeat the Ammonites, I will give you the first thing that comes out of my house when I come back from the victory. I will give it to the Lord as a burnt offering’…When Jephthah saw that his daughter was the first thing to come out of his house, he tore his clothes to show his sadness. Then he said, ‘Oh, my daughter! You have ruined me! You have made me very sad! I made a promise to the LORD, and I cannot change it!’”⁸ It also happened to king Saul. We are told: “Saul made a big mistake that day. He made this oath: ‘If any man eats food before evening comes before I finish defeating my enemies, he will be under a curse.’ He made the soldiers promise not to eat. So none of them ate anything.”⁹

But Saul’s son Jonathan didn’t get the word. So we read: “Because of the fighting, the people went into some woods. Then they saw a honeycomb on the ground. The Israelites went up to the honeycomb, but they didn’t eat any of it. They were afraid to break the promise. But Jonathan didn’t know about the oath. He didn’t hear his father make the soldiers promise not to eat. Jonathan had a stick in his hand, so he dipped the end of the stick into the honeycomb and pulled out some honey. He ate the honey and began to feel much better.”¹⁰ But Jonathan only survived because of his courageous fighting and the petition for mercy on his behalf by his fellow warriors.

Solomon had sage advice for those making vows or promises, “Be careful when you make promises to God. Be careful about what you say to Him. Don’t let your feelings cause you to speak too soon.”¹¹ According to church tradition there is a story that circulated about Salome, the daughter of Herodias: “Once, as she walked over a river which was frozen in the winter season, the ice broke, and she fell in, and the pieces of ice cut off her head; the law of retaliation, was righteously executed on her.”¹² Most scholars, however, consider this either fiction or wishful thinking. Now, Matthew records Herod’s regret on making such a silly promise.

Verses 9-10: King Herod was very sad. But he had promised to give the daughter anything she wanted. And the people eating with Herod had heard his promise. So he ordered what she asked to be done. He sent men to the prison, where they cut off John’s head.

This whole story can be seen as a prime example of man’s uninhibited power over others, regardless of their rank or position. One might expect a holy man such as John the Baptist to enjoy immunity from Herod’s power by way of God’s superior might. But you can be assured that John’s death was right on schedule according to God’s timetable. In this case, triumph was realized in tragedy. What would have happened had John the Baptist continued in his ministry for years and years? What if Jesus had lived to a ripe old age and never died on the cross? These things did not come to pass by chance or bad luck, they were planned from before the world was created.

There’s another way to think about this. If someone knew that by killing you they would forever end your existence as an influence and witness against what they were doing, it would well satisfy their rage by cutting your life short. But if they found out that after they killed you, they were really giving you an early release from pain and sorrow to peacefully await the resurrection, after which you would then live for eternity with the God you love, it might make them less enthusiastic about putting you out of your misery. By this, their attempt would end in frustration when they discovered that by letting you live they may prolong a nuisance but end up with more time to persecute you and make you miserable. They would see that by putting God’s children to death they only usher them into eternal life and add to their own misery and shame because now you can’t be touched again. On top of that, a day of retribution is coming when these evil deeds will be repaid in full by the Almighty God.

But Herod was not doing something that had never been done before. In Jeremiah, we find the prophet asking, “‘Why do you argue with me? You have all turned against me.’ Listen to this message from the LORD. ‘I punished you people of Judah, but it did not help. You did not come back when you were punished. With your swords, you killed the prophets who came to you. Like a dangerous lion, you killed the prophets.”¹³

According to scholars, the men Herod sent to execute John the Baptizer were not standard guards or soldiers, they were “executioners.” This was their craft and anyone seeing them coming knew exactly what their end was. Although we do not have the details, John the Baptizer may have responded to the arrival of the executioners much like this story in Roman history: “During the Civil War, a slave hid away his master, who had been forbidden to stay there, and, having put on his rings and dressed himself in his clothes, presented himself to those searching for his master, and, saying that he asked for nothing better than that they should carry out their orders, immediately offered his neck for their swords.”¹⁴

The Jews were accustomed to such executions. We read one story where Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel and Rabbi Ishmael were both condemned to die. One wanted to be first as a sign of respect for the other. Finally, the executioners said: “Throw the tiles. So they threw the tiles and the lot fell to Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel (to die first). Whereupon the executioner took his sword and cut off Rabban Simeon’s head.”¹⁵ To those for whom there is no hope of eternity with God, such actions are a mystery. But to the children of God, their desire to see the One who redeemed them will not make them reluctant to be martyrs and leave this miserable world.

Verse 11: And the men brought John’s head on a tray and gave it to the girl. Then she took the head to her mother, Herodias.

I wonder how Herodias felt looking into the face of John the Baptizer? Was it worth doing such a dastardly deed just to get back at him for speaking out against her unlawful marriage to Herod Antipas? Some people will go to great lengths to get even with someone they feel insulted them. The only problem is, no one can insult you unless you let them. In her case, it wasn’t so much what John the Baptizer said, as it was how low and miserable she felt because of the truth. But John the Baptizer had served the cause and completed his mission, so it was time for him to rest until the resurrection would bring him back to life forever. The fact that John the Baptizer’s followers took the time, after burying him, to find Jesus and tell Him the bad news, shows what respect they had inherited from their prophet for Jesus the Messiah.

It is very obvious that Salome wanted nothing to do with this platter on which John the Baptizer’s head lay oozing blood, so she took it straight to her mother. In the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, there is a portrait of Herodias with the head of St. John the Baptist, painted by Italian artist Francesco del Cairo (1625). The explanation reads: “Herodias was enraged with John the Baptist for preaching against her marriage to Herod, the brother of her first husband. According to the New Testament, she instructed her daughter Salome to ask Herod for the Baptist’s head as a reward for her dancing. A text by Saint Jerome recounts that when Herodias received the severed head, she pierced the Baptist’s tongue with a needle. In this painting, Cairo made the macabre subject even more disturbing through dramatic lighting and the vivid realism with which he portrayed Herodias swooning in ecstasy as she mutilates the tongue that spoke against her.”

The great preacher Chrysostom shares his homiletical treatment of this incident. He writes: “Her [Salome’s] reproach is twofold: first, that she danced, then that she pleased him [Herod] and so pleased him as to obtain even murder for her reward. Do you see how savage he was, how senseless, how foolish? He puts himself under the obligation of an oath while to her he gives full power over her request. But when Herod saw the evil actually ensuing, ‘he was sorry,’ it is said. Yet in the first instance, he had put him [John the Baptizer] in prison. Why then is he sorry? Such is the nature of virtue. Even among the wicked admiration and praises are its due. But alas for her madness! When she also ought to admire, yes, to bow down to him for trying to redress her wrong, she rather even helps to arrange the plot, lays a snare and asks a diabolical favor. But he was afraid ‘for the oath’s sake,’ it is said, ‘and those that sat with him at dinner.’ Why did he not fear that which is far more fearful? Surely if Herod was afraid of having witnesses to perjury, much more should he fear having so many witnesses of a murder so lawless.”¹⁶ Then Matthew tells us:

Verse 12: John’s followers came and got his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus what happened.

This must have been a sad day for the remaining disciples of John the Baptizer. We are told that the supposed skeleton of John the Baptizer was found not too long ago during an excavation of a Bulgarian church ruins. However, the report stated: “The remains include six human bones: a knucklebone from the right hand, a tooth, part of a cranium, a rib, and an ulna, or forearm bone.” I doubt very seriously if Herodias gave back the head of John the Baptizer for a proper burial, so there would be no reason for parts of the skull to be found alongside the other bones. In fact, she may have even had it embalmed and mounted it as a trophy. And after all, Matthew was specific in saying that John’s followers came and got his body. There is no mention of his head.

But what she may not have known was the very One who John the Baptizer was born to announce would soon be on His way, and His own death and resurrection would guarantee that His friend and cousin would rise from the grave to be received in glory, while she and her henchmen would one day stand trial before God as both Jesus and John the Baptizer look on. But such judgment would not be for divine revenge, but because all must one day give an account of their deeds before the great Judge.¹⁷