The Death of John the Baptist... and the Rest of the Story - Lazar Puhalo

Mark 6:14-29

¹⁴ King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known. Some were saying, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”

¹⁵ Others said, “He is Elijah.”

And still others claimed, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago.”

¹⁶ But when Herod heard this, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!”

¹⁷ For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married. ¹⁸ For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” ¹⁹ So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she was not able to, ²⁰ because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled; yet he liked to listen to him.

²¹ Finally, the opportune time came. On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. ²² When the daughter of^[c] Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests.

The king said to the girl, “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.” ²³ And he promised her with an oath, “Whatever you ask, I will give you, up to half my kingdom.”

²⁴ She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?”

“The head of John the Baptist,” she answered.

²⁵ At once, the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”

²⁶ The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. ²⁷ So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, ²⁸ and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother.²⁹ On hearing of this, John’s disciples came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

The Rest of the Story

In this Scripture passage, we get an incomplete story about the conflict between John the Baptist and Herod of Galilee i. We hear only about John the Baptist proclaiming that a marriage between Herod and his brother's wife, Herodias, would be wrong and contrary to the law.

This, however, is only a part of the story.  In the first place, Herodias was his half-sister. Indeed, it was highly improper for Philip to be married to her, also.

 

Perhaps more serious was the fact that Herod was in a treaty marriage with the daughter of King Aretas of Nabatea, who was quite powerful at that time. For Herod to marry Herodias, he would have to find some way to dispose of his current wife, the daughter of King Aretas. This would cause a major conflict between Galilee and Nabatea. Herod's wife realized this and realized that Herod could not marry Herodias while she was Herod's lawful wife. She suspected that Herod would arrange some fatal accident for her in order to remove her from the equation. She, therefore, fled from Galilee and returned to her father's house.

 

As John the Baptist feared, this was going to cause a war and a large amount of bloodshed. These other two factors, and particularly the possibility of a bloody war, all served as motivations for the protests of John the Baptist about the marriage of Herod and Herodias.

 

It turns out that only the intervention of the Roman governor of Syria prevented this war from taking place.

 

This is the rest of the story, and it is much more complex than the mention of it in the Gospels.