Herodias

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

For Herod had laid hold on John ... - See <a href="http://niv.scripturetext.com/mark/6-17.htm" >Mark 6:17-20</a>; <a href="http://niv.scripturetext.com/luke/3-19.htm" >Luke 3:19-20</a>. This Herodias was a granddaughter of Herod the Great. She was first married to Herod Philip, by whom she had a daughter, Salome, probably the one that danced and pleased Herod. Josephus says that this marriage of Herod Antipas with Herodias took place while he was on a journey to Rome. He stopped at his brother's; fell in love with his wife; agreed to put away his own wife, the daughter of Aretas, King of Petraea; and Herodias agreed to leave her own husband and live with him. They were living, therefore, in adultery; and John, in faithfulness, though at the risk of his life, had reproved them for their crimes. Herod was guilty of two crimes in this act:

Of "adultery," since she was the wife of another man.
Of "incest," since she was a near relation, and such marriages were expressly forbidden, <a href="http://bible.cc/leviticus/18-16.htm" >Leviticus 18:16</a>.

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

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<li>For Herodias' sake - This infamous woman was the daughter of Aristobulus and Bernice, and grand-daughter of Herod the Great. Her first marriage was with Herod Philip, her uncle, by whom she had Salome: some time after, she left her husband, and lived publicly with Herod Antipas, her brother-in-law, who had been before married to the daughter of Aretas, king of Arabia Petraea.</li>

<li>As soon as Aretas understood that Herod had determined to put away his daughter, he prepared to make war on him: the two armies met, and that of Herod was cut to pieces by the Arabians; and this, Josephus says, was supposed to be a judgment of God on him for the murder of John the Baptist. See the account in Josephus, Antiq. lib. xviii. c. 7.</li>

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<h1 class="title" ><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/paley/evidence" >Evidence of Christianity</a></h1>

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<td class="book_navbar_title" >Chapter VI. Conformity of the Facts occasionally…</td>

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<h3 id="iv.vi-p0.1" >CHAPTER VI.</h3>

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III. [p. 20.] <a class="scripRef" id="iv.vi-p10.1" href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/bible/asv.Mark.6.html#Mark.6.17" onclick="return goBible('nt','Mark','6','17','6','17');" onmouseover="popupVerse(this, 'Mark 6:17 - 6:17')" onmouseout="leaveVerse()" name="Mark_6_17_0_0" >Mark vi. 17</a>. “Herod had sent forth, and laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison, for Heredias’ sake, his brother Philip’s wife: for he had married her.” (See also <a class="scripRef" id="iv.vi-p10.2" href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/bible/asv.Matt.14.html#Matt.14.1" onclick="return goBible('nt','Matt','14','1','14','13');" onmouseover="popupVerse(this, 'Matt 14:1 - 14:13')" onmouseout="leaveVerse()" name="Matt_14_1_14_13" >Matt. xiv. 1-13</a>;<a class="scripRef" id="iv.vi-p10.3" href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/bible/asv.Luke.3.html#Luke.3.19" onclick="return goBible('nt','Luke','3','19','3','19');" onmouseover="popupVerse(this, 'Luke 3:19 - 3:19')" onmouseout="leaveVerse()" name="_Luke_3_19_0_0" >Luke iii. 19</a>.)

With this compare Joseph. Antiq. 1. xviii. c. 6, sect. 1: — “He (Herod the tetrareh) made a visit to Herod his brother. — Here, failing in love with Herodias, the wife of the said Herod, he ventured to make her proposals of marriage.”<sup class="Note" id="fna_iv.vi-p11.1" ><a class="Note" href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/paley/evidence.iv.vi.html#fnf_iv.vi-p11.1" >53</a></sup><sup><a class="Note NoteRef" href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/paley/evidence.iv.vi.html#fna_iv.vi-p11.1" >53</a></sup>The affinity of the two accounts is unquestionable; but there is a difference in the name of Herodias’s first husband, which in the evangelist is Philip; in Josephus, Herod. The difficulty, however, will not appear considerable when we recollect how common it was in those times fer the same persons to bear two names. “Simon, which is called Peter; Lebbeus, whose sum me is Thaddeus; Thomas, which is called Didymus; Simeon, who was called Niger; Saul, who was also called Paul.” The solution is rendered likewise easier in the present case by the consideration that Herod the Great had children by seven or eight wives; that Josephus mentions three of his sons under the name of Herod; that it is nevertheless highly probable that the brothers bore some additional name by which they were distinguished from one another. Lardner, vol. ii. p. 897.

Again, <a class="scripRef" id="iv.vi-p12.1" href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/bible/asv.Mark.6.html#Mark.6.22" onclick="return goBible('nt','Mark','6','22','6','22');" onmouseover="popupVerse(this, 'Mark 6:22 - 6:22')" onmouseout="leaveVerse()" name="_Mark_6_22_0_0" >Mark vi. 22</a>. “And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in and danced.”</p>

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<li>With this also compare Joseph. Antiq. 1. xviii. c. 6, sect. 4. “Herodias was married to Herod, son of Herod the Great. They had a daughter, whose name was Salome; after whose birth Herodias, in utter violation of the laws of her country, left her husband, then living, and married Herod the tetrarch of Galilee, her husband’s brother by the father’s side.”</li>

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