A Homicidal Banquet: Mark 6:14-29

By Phil Higley | May 10, 2010

Mark 6:14-29 (ESV)

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.” ¹⁵But others said, “He is Elijah.” And others said, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” ¹⁶But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.” ¹⁷For 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. ¹⁸For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” ¹⁹And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, ²⁰for 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.

²¹But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. ²²For 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.” ²³And he vowed to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.” ²⁴And she went out and said to her mother, “For what should I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.” ²⁵And 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.” ²⁶And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. ²⁷And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison ²⁸and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. ²⁹When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

Introduction

To some readers, this story seems quite an odd place to position the death of John the Baptist within Mark’s gospel account. We will see that the story isn’t odd at all but has been carefully selected and helps to develop Mark’s gospel account. The grotesque and sordid murder of John the Baptists clearly foreshadows the coming passion account of Jesus’ violent and bloody death on the Roman cross. On this point, it is important to note that Mark devotes fourteen verses to the death of John but only three to his ministry. Again, this is important. Here are some brief observations to keep in mind while reading the account: (1) Jesus, like John, will be executed by civil authorities; (2) Herod, like Pilate later, hesitates to execute the person in question but then does so; (3) Herodias, like the chief priest later, finally gets her way through scheming and pressure; (4) the disciples come and bury John, like Joseph of Arimathea is to do for Jesus. In essence the tale here in Mark serves as an ominous warning about the fate of Jesus. The cross is already looming in the background from this point on in the narrative.

A Homicidal Banquet (6:14-29)

The previous story of the sending of the twelve disciples is all the more important in v. 14 because the twelve clearly made a regional impact, so much so that King Herod heard about it. And at this point in the story Herod does not in any way shape or form have a clean conscience. Why? Because he had the greatest prophet, i.e., John the Baptist, executed because of a foolish vow to a young girl. And when Herod hears of Jesus and his proclamation of the kingdom and repentance, the message is uncomfortably close to John’s message of repentance. As a result Herod superstitiously believes that John has come back from the dead in the person of Jesus (v. 16).

The story recalls John the Baptist being arrested by Herod (v. 17), who put him in prison because he had denounced Herod’s adulterous union with Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife (v. 18). The Jewish historian Josephus reports that John was put in prison at Machaerus, the fortress situated in Perea, on the eastern side of the Dead Sea. Mark does not identify the place of John’s imprisonment. Herodias was the daughter of Aristobolos, one of the sons of Herod the Great; so she was a niece of Herod Antipas. This information is important to our story because John’s condemnation of the union is because the Mosaic Law prohibited marriage to one’s brother’s wife while the brother was still alive (see Lev 18:16).

But Josephus emphasizes the political motives behind the action of Herod against John. These were no doubt real. In order to marry Herodias, Herod had to rid himself of the daughter of King Aretas IV, whose kingdom lay just to the east of Perea. The situation there was already sensitive, and John’s preaching had the potential to cause real trouble. Mark, however, emphasizes the moral considerations within the story. Calvin, in his commentary material, comments on this passage in the following way: “We behold in John an illustrious example of that moral courage, which all pious teachers out to possess, not to hesitate to incur the wrath of the great and powerful, as often as it may be found necessary: for he, with whom there is acceptance of persons, does not honestly serve God.” Calvin’s point is basically that John portrays what this moral courage is, even though it’s oftentimes not easy to proclaim. Nevertheless, moral courage is paramount for serving God.

Not surprisingly, in vv. 19-20 we have Herodias not very happy (indeed an understatement) about John’s condemnation of her marriage. In fact she was infuriated by him and literally wanted to murder him. Herodias falsely believed that the only place where her marriage certificate could safely be written was on the back of the death warrant of John. But as the early church father Chryostom remarks: “Herod could have the head cut off of John but he did not cut off the voice!” But we find in the story that John was ironically being protected from her murderous desires by Herod himself. Motivated by fear and a recognition of John’s righteousness and holy character, Herod at one point refused to allow John to be put to death. Herod was awed by the purity of John’s character and feared him as the bad fear the good. This fear, however, was not righteous. Yet like a demented sociopath, we are told that Herod liked to listen to John but that he was perplexed by what John said.

In vv. 21-23, however, Herodias finally got the opportunity she was waiting for. Herod celebrated his birthday with a banquet that he invited the military and political leaders of his tetrachy to. At this festive occasion Herodias’ daughter went before the guest to “dance” (v. 22). Many scholars believe the account suggests that Herodias blatantly used and sent her daughter into the banquet hall to dance as part of her murderous scheme to get rid of John the Baptist. What’s more, the dance was probably a lewd one, which in that culture was out of bounds and beyond the pale. But considering the history of the Herod family, it’s not entirely surprising that Herod (her father figure) would gawk—along with his friends—at his daughter functioning as a sexual object for birthday entertainment. We are told that Herod and his guests were so pleased with her “performance” that he made a vow to her up to half his kingdom. According to many scholars, the words “up to half my kingdom” were probably a kind of proverbial way in that culture of expressing openhanded generosity and were not to be taken literally.

In vv. 24-25 the girl left the banquet hall to seek the advice of her mother. Herodias’ automatic and sick reply portrays the premeditated nature of her homicidal plan. Mark does not mention any surprise on the daughter’s part when her mother made the request. In fact, the daughter added two things: she wanted John’s head “right now” and she wanted it “on a platter” (v. 25).

Here in the story we can imagine Herod saying, “wait wait wait, I was trying to be generous but you want me to cut a righteous man’s head off? You’re clearly being unreasonable and abusing my generosity.” But sadly no; Herod cowardly and foolishly gives in to the demand. Mark ends this shocking and sad story with John’s disciples coming for the body to give it proper burial. Herod no doubt thought that he was now finished with the righteous prophet be both feared and respected. But this was not to be. The ministry of Jesus, as we are told at the beginning of the story, stirred up Herod’s memories of John and his guilty conscience returns to haunt him.

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Notes from:

The Oxford Bible Commentary, Edited by Barton and Muddiman, 2001.

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol 8, Edited by Gaebelein, 1984.

The Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary, Witherington III, 2001.