Matthew 14:6-12

Aug 10, 2011 05:15 AM completed v 12

<a href="http://bible.cc/matthew/14-6.htm" >6</a>But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod

Guzic's

<ul>

<li>i. This daughter Herodias is described as a girl (Matthew 14:11). This means that she was not a cute little girl; “Girl is a term which can be used of those of marriageable age; she was at least a teenager.” (France)</li>

<li>ii. “The dancing of a mere girl would have been no entertainment to the sensual revelers. The treat lay in the indecency.” (Bruce)</li>

<li>iii. “The dances which these girls danced were suggestive and immoral. For a royal princess to dance in public at all was an amazing thing.” (Barclay)</li>

<li>iv. “In these days mothers too often encourage their daughters in dress which is scarcely decent and introduce them to dances which are not commendable for purity. No good can come of this; it may please the Herods, but it displeases God.” (Spurgeon)</li>

</ul>

<a href="http://clarke.biblecommenter.com/matthew/14.htm">Clarke's Commentary on the Bible</a>

<ul>

<li>Herod's birth-day - Either the day in which he was born, or the day on which he began to reign; for both were termed birth-days. See <a href="http://niv.scripturetext.com/1_samuel/13-1.htm" >1 Samuel 13:1</a>, and <a href="http://bible.cc/hosea/7-5.htm" >Hosea 7:5</a>. The kings of Persia were accustomed to reject no petition that was preferred to them during the entertainment. See Herodotus in Calliope, and <a href="http://bible.cc/esther/5-3.htm" >Esther 5:3</a>.</li>

<li>The daughter - danced - This was Salome, mentioned before. Danced: by a literal rendering of the saltavit of the Vulgate, in my old MS. of the English Bible, the whole of this business seems to be treated with sovereign contempt: for thus says the translator, Shee leped in the myddle.</li>

</ul>

<a href="http://gill.biblecommenter.com/matthew/14.htm">Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible</a>

<ul>

<li>But when Herod's birthday was kept,.... The birthdays of princes, both of their coming into the world, and accession to the throne of government, were kept by the Gentiles; as by the Egyptians, <a href="brain://local/S2OS0OKyAkqALW2pdLHAcg/KAuR0C0mNVi3pCytFg-zuQ/" class="thought-link"> </a><a href="http://bible.cc/genesis/40-20.htm" >Genesis 40:20</a> and by the (n) Persians, and Romans (o), and other nations, but not by the Jews; who reckon these among the feasts of idolaters.</li>

</ul>

<a href="http://vws.biblecommenter.com/matthew/14.htm" >Vincent's Word Studies</a>

<ul>

<li>Birthday (γενεσίοις)</li>

<li>Though some explain it as the anniversary of Herod's accession. The custom of celebrating birthdays by festivities was not approved by the strict Jews; but it is claimed that the Herodian princes adopted the custom. The Roman satirist, Persins, alludes to a festival known as "Herod's Day," and pictures a banquet on that occasion.</li>

</ul>

<a href="http://pnt.biblecommenter.com/matthew/14.htm">People's New Testament</a>

<ul>

<li>The daughter of Herodias. Her name, according to Josephus, was Salome, a daughter by Philip, Herod's brother. She was afterwards married to her uncle Philip, the tetrarch of Iturea (Lu 3:1).</li>

</ul>

<a href="http://bible.cc/matthew/14-7.htm" >7</a>Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask.

<a href="http://bible.cc/matthew/14-8.htm" >8</a>And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger.

Guzik Bible Commentary

<ul>

<li>The request of Herodias shows that the mother had this planned for some time. She knew her husband and she knew the situation, and knew she could get what she wanted this way.</li>

<li>She was shrewd enough to demand that it be doneimmediately, while the guests were still at the party. “That was an essential part of the request. No time must be left for repentance. If not done at once under the influence of wine and the momentary gratification given by the voluptuous dance, it might never be done at all.” (Bruce)</li>

<li> “It would have been bad enough if she herself had sought ways of taking vengeance on the man of God who confronted her with her shame. It was infinitely worse that she used her daughter for her nefarious purposes and made her as great a sinner as herself.” (Barclay)</li>

</ul>

<a href="http://barnes.biblecommenter.com/matthew/14.htm">Barnes' Notes on the Bible</a>

<ul>

<li>In a charger - The original word means a large platter on which food is placed.</li>

<li>We should have supposed that she would have been struck with abhorrence at such a direction from her mother; but she seems to have been gratified.</li>

<li>John, by his faithfulness, had offended the whole family, and here was ample opportunity for an adulterous mother and her dissolute child to gratify their resentment.</li>

<li>It was customary for princes to require the heads of persons ordered for execution to be brought to them. For this there were two reasons:

<ul>

<li>1. To gratify their resentment - to feast their eyes on the proof that their enemy was dead; and,</li>

<li>2. To ascertain the fact that the sentence had been executed.</li>

</ul>

</li>

</ul>

<a href="http://vws.biblecommenter.com/matthew/14.htm" >Vincent's Word Studies</a>

<ul>

<li>Being before instructed (προβιβασθεῖσα)</li>

<li>Wyc., monestid, with warned in explanation. Both wrong. Rev., rightly, being put forward. Compare <a href="http://niv.scripturetext.com/acts/19-33.htm" >Acts 19:33</a>, where the right meaning is, they pushed Alexander forward out of the crowd; and not as A. V., drew out. The correct rendering slightly relieves Salome of the charge of wanton cruelty, and throws it wholly upon Herodias.</li>

<li>She demanded it on the spot, before Herod should have had time to reflect and relent; the more so, as she knew his respect for John (compare was sorry, <a href="http://bible.cc/matthew/14-9.htm" >Matthew 14:9</a>). The circumstances seem to point to Machaerus itself as the scene of the banquet; so that the deed could be quickly done, and the head of the Baptist delivered while the feast was still in progress.</li>

</ul>

<a href="http://pnt.biblecommenter.com/matthew/14.htm" >People's New Testament</a>

<ul>

<li>14:8 Give me John the Baptist's head. Mark tells us that she went to consult her mother before she made her request (Mr 6:24). That vile woman was prepared with an answer. Indeed, she had manipulated the whole affair so as to secure Herod's consent to the murder of John.</li>

</ul>

<a href="http://bible.cc/matthew/14-9.htm" >9</a>And the king was sorry: nevertheless for the oath's sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her.

Guzik Bible Commentary

<ul>

<li>“Like most weak men, Herod feared to be thought weak.” (Plumptre, cited in Carson)</li>

<li>iv. Herod had a terrible end. In order to take his brother’s wife Herodias, Herod put away his first wife, a princess from a neighboring kingdom to the east. Her father was offended and came against Herod with an army, and defeated him in battle. Then his brother Agrippa accused him of treason against Rome and he was banished into the distant Roman province of Gaul. In Gaul Herod and Herodias committed suicide.</li>

</ul>

<a href="http://barnes.biblecommenter.com/matthew/14.htm">Barnes' Notes on the Bible</a>

<ul>

<li>Herod had a high respect for John, and feared him. He knew that he was a holy man, and had "observed him,"<a href="http://bible.cc/mark/6-20.htm" >Mark 6:20</a>. In the margin (Mark) this is "kept him," or "saved him." In fact he had interposed and saved John from being put to death by Herodias, who had had a quarrel with John, and would have killed him but for Herod,<a href="http://bible.cc/mark/6-19.htm" >Mark 6:19</a>. Herod, though a bad man, had a respect and veneration for John as a holy and just man, as wicked people often will have.</li>

<li>Herod, though a wicked man, does not appear to have been insensible to some of the common principles of human nature. Here was a great and most manifest crime proposed - no less than the murder of an acknowledged prophet of the Lord. It was deliberate. It was to gratify the malice of a wicked woman. It was the price of a few moments' entertainment. His conscience, though in feeble and dying accents, checked him. He would have preferred a request not so manifestly wicked, and that would not have involved him in so much difficulty.</li>

<li>For the oath's sake - Herod felt that he was bound by this oath; but he was not. The oath should not have been taken: but, being taken, he could not be bound by it. No oath could justify a man in committing murder. The true principle is, that Herod was bound by a prior obligation - by the law of God - not to commit murder; and no act of his, be it an oath or anything else, could free him from that obligation.</li>

<li>And them which sat with him at meat - This was the strongest reason why Herod murdered John. He had not firmness enough to obey the law of God and to follow the dictates of conscience against the opinions of wicked people.

<ul>

<li>He was afraid of the charge of cowardice and want of spirit; afraid of ridicule and the contempt of the wicked. </li>

</ul>

</li>

<li>It should be added, this is the course of all youthful guilt. Young men are led along by others. They have not firmness enough to follow the teachings of a father and of the law of God. They are afraid of being called mean and cowardly by the wicked; and they often sink low in vice and crime, never to rise again.</li>

<li>At meat - That is, at supper. The word "meat," at the time the Bible was translated, meant provisions of all kinds. It is now restricted to flesh, and does not convey a full idea of the original.</li>

</ul>

<a href="http://bible.cc/matthew/14-10.htm" >10</a>And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison.

<a href="http://gill.biblecommenter.com/matthew/14.htm" >Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible</a>

<ul>

<li>And he sent,.... "An executioner", as in <a href="http://bible.cc/mark/6-27.htm" >Mark 6:27</a> where the Latin word "speculator", or as it is sometimes written "spiculator", is used; and is the name of an officer concerned in executions, and particularly in beheading of persons; and so is used by Latin writers.</li>

<li>And as this word is often used by them (a) for an executioner, so "specula" is often made mention of by them (b), as a sort of punishment by death: and such an officer was sent by Herod, to inflict this punishment upon John; who accordingly executed it, and beheaded John in the prison; that is, of Machoeras, where he lay, without giving him a hearing, or allowing him to speak for himself, or with his friends: and which was done in this private manner, partly for dispatch, and partly on account of the people; who it might have been feared, had the execution been public and known, would have rose and rescued him.</li>

</ul>

<a href="http://wes.biblecommenter.com/matthew/14.htm" >Wesley's Notes</a>

<ul>

<li>14:10 And he sent and beheaded John in the prison, and his head was given to the damsel - How mysterious is the providence, which left the life of so holy a man in such infamous hands! which permitted it to be sacrificed to the malice of an abandoned harlot, the petulancy of a vain girl, and the rashness of a foolish, perhaps drunken prince, who made a prophet's head the reward of a dance! But we are sure the Almighty will repay his servants in another world for what ever they suffer in this</li>

</ul>

<a href="http://bible.cc/matthew/14-11.htm" >11</a>And his head was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

<ul>

<li>What an offering to a woman! Josephus says of Herodias that "she was a woman full of ambition and envy, having a mighty influence on Herod, and able to persuade him to things he was not at all inclined to." This is one of the many proofs that we have that the evangelists drew characters according to truth.</li>

</ul>

<a href="http://gill.biblecommenter.com/matthew/14.htm" >Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible</a>

<ul>

<li>By the executioner that cut it off, to Herod, whilst he and his guests were at table; by which it should seem, that the prison was very near; and it is not improbable, that it was the castle of Macheerus that Herod made this entertainment in:</li>

<li>and she brought it to her mother; who had put her upon it, than which, nothing could be a more agreeable dish to her; and who, as Jerome says (c), because she could not bear truth, that tongue which spoke truth; she plucked out, and pierced it through and through with a needle, as Fulvia did Cicero's: but this triumph over the faithful reprover of her, and Herod's vices, did not last long; for quickly after this, they were stripped of their honours and riches, and deprived of the kingdom, and banished to Lyons in France, where they died (d). A Jewish chronologer says (e), Herod was driven out of the land by Tiberius, and fled to Spain, and died there.</li>

</ul>

<a href="http://pnt.biblecommenter.com/matthew/14.htm" >People's New Testament</a>

<ul>

<li>14:11 She brought it to her mother. The first Elijah had his Jezebel, who sought his life; the second Elijah had his Jezebel, the not less inhuman Herodias, who obtained his life.</li>

</ul>

<a href="http://bible.cc/matthew/14-12.htm" >12</a>And his disciples came, and took up the body, and buried it, and went and told Jesus.

<a href="http://barnes.biblecommenter.com/matthew/14.htm">Barnes' Notes on the Bible</a>

<ul>

<li>3. Their master had been slain by a cruel king. Jesus was engaged in the same cause, and they probably supposed that he was in danger. They therefore came to warn him of it, and he <a href="http://bible.cc/matthew/14-13.htm" >Matthew 14:13</a> sought a place of safety.</li>

</ul>

<a href="http://pnt.biblecommenter.com/matthew/14.htm">People's New Testament</a>

<ul>

<li>His disciples. John's.</li>

</ul>

<a href="http://pnt.biblecommenter.com/matthew/14.htm">Guzic</a>

<ul>

<li>i. “It is not said by the Evangelist that they buried John, but ‘they took up his body, and buried it,’ not him. The real John no man could bury, and Herod soon found that, being dead, he yet spoke.” (Spurgeon)</li>

</ul>