Mark 6:14-29 — The Death of John the Baptist

I.) The Characters

Herod Antipas (ca. 21 B.C. — post-A.D. 39): tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, answerable to the Emperor Tiberius.

Herodias was a daughter to one of the sons of Herod the Great (A chap named Aristobulus). This Aristobulus had half brothers who would have been Uncles to the she wolf Herodias. Their names were Uncle Herod Philip and Uncle Herod Antipas. Herodias had been married to her half uncle Herod Philip. Herodias then left him for an adulterous relationship with his brother and another half Uncle, Herod Antipas.

This lends new meaning to “keeping it all in the family.”

We should be reminded by this that the more things change the more they stay the same. I suppose we should be pleased that Herod Antipas took his brother’s wife and not his brother’s husband. It would seem that the household of Herod was less twisted then many households in our own culture.

Herodias’ Daughter — Thought by some to be named “Salome.” She is thought to be the daughter of Herodias by Herod Philip and so not the blood daughter of Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas would have been to her both her step-dad and her great-uncle. Obviously, though the text does not state it she has an interest in shutting John the Baptist up as well.

John the Baptist as Herald for Christ — John was the one who came preparing the way for Christ. He was the one who was a model of OT prophet desert dwellers. He was known as a rough man wearing camel hair for clothing and dining on locust and honey. He was the one who came saying “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” He said of Jesus “Behold the lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the World,” thus emphasizing from the beginning the redemptive work that would end in a sacrificial death as substitute for our sins.

II The Background

A.) 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, Genesis 40:20 and by the (n) Persians, and Romans (o), and other nations, but not by the Jews; who reckoned these among the feasts of idolaters.  So, the very fact that this birthday extravaganza was being held is testimony of how afar Herod was from really being concerned with Jewish protocol. Herod was a pretender to the throne.

B.) The Background of the role of Prophet

John the prophet …. long line of prophets

Some thought John the Baptist to be Elijah (6:15a). This might make some sense since Elijah was another prophet who collided with another weak king named Ahab as manipulated by another murderous wife named Jezebel (1 Kings 18–21). So, John’s actions here calling out Herod would have looked familiar to those who knew their History.

Whether John the Baptist or Elijah part of the prophetic function throughout God’s revelation has been to hold up God’s standard before those think themselves above God’s standard. Whether it is Moses with Pharaoh or whether it was Nathan with King David or whether it was Micaiah with Ahab or whether it was Amos as speaking before the rich and powerful women who he styled “Cows of Bashan,” God’s mouthpieces have almost universally courted trouble by speaking God’s standard to those who have forgotten themselves to be but mortals.

So John is a flashback of what once was but He is also promissory of Christ who is to come. Christ Himself would speak God’s standard to those in Power and the same resentment that killed John would be part of the mix in the murder of the Lord Christ.

We should especially note here the work of the Prophet in what has been styled by some as “the common realm.” John the Baptist, in this rebuke of Herod is poking his nose in political business …. a business that many Reformed clergy and Seminary professors argue today is none of our business. Many modern Reformed clergy argue that John the Baptist belonged to a different age then the one ushered in by Christ. John the Baptist, they argue, belongs to the Old Testament but we live in a new age where men of God are not to speak to the common realm. These modern Reformed Seminary professors and clergy argue this way with only the slimmest of evidence and by conjecture built upon conjecture. They insist that men of God today should not speak to the common realm because with the arrival of Jesus we have the hyphenization of reality as between the Church realm and the common realm. With the new and better covenant, as brought in by the Lord Christ, the explicit Lordship of God is split in twain so that God in Christ only rules in the common realm via Natural Law. So part of the new and better covenant is the reality that God’s singular revelatory hegemony over all of life, as found in the old and worse covenant, is eclipsed so that now God’s revelatory word and rule is now only for the Church realm in the new and better covenant. All common realm issues are not to receive a “thus saith the Lord,” from God’s spokesman or God’s Church.

Of course all this is balderdash and a completely unique and innovative way of reading the Scripture. Repeatedly in the New Testament we find Paul disagreeing with the powers that be. From his refusal of the proper authority’s demand to skulk away quietly after wrongly being beaten, to his defense against the powers that be on Mars Hills, to his work in Ephesus that led to common realm riots and book burning St. Paul was repeatedly involved in the common realm.

What we see in the work of God’s spokesman, John the Baptist, is that Christianity applies to all of life. The Christian, as prophet, priest, and king, under sovereign God, brings all of God’s word to bear on all of God’s world. There is no area cordoned off area where a “thus saith the Lord” as given by God’s spokesman from God’s Holy desk, is not potentially applicable.

C.) The Dance

Very possibly a lascivious and sexually suggestive dance.

Salome’s dance was a particularly popular subject during the Renaissance and Baroque periods and her popularity continued well into the 19th century. I don’t know how old Salome was when she danced before Herod, but artists tend to portray her as a sultry, confident (young) woman. To most of art history, Salome is the sole, conniving figure behind John’s death.

III.) The Occasion

The occasion for this is John’s work in upholding God’s law. Torah in Leviticus clearly taught against Herod’s behavior,

^{Lev. 18:16} You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.

^{Lev. 20:21} If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing. He has uncovered his brother’s nakedness. They shall be childless.

Obviously John’s preaching hit home (6:17). Herodias was exposed as the trollop she was and her memory required the silence of the one who was making known what she preferred to be unknown.

Interesting, that regardless the century, speaking out against improper sleeping arrangements always seems to be a flash point. There is something about upholding God’s standards in terms of sleeping arrangements that will  earn enmity in an accelerated fashion. Pagans want to sleep with who they want to sleep with … God’s standards be damned and pagans will damn whoever stands for God’s standards on sleeping arrangements.

We should note here before we move on that while we can admire John for championing God’s truth before Herod and Herodias we must concede that speaking God’s standard to the rich and powerful often does not end well from a merely temporal perspective. John is another example of one who obeyed God and was persecuted for obeying God. Not all who obey God end up with what we would style as temporal blessings hunting them down. Many who obey God, by holding up God’s standards are, as Hebrews tells,  “tortured, and have chains and imprisonment. Many have been sawn in two and were slain with the sword. If it were true for Apostles

God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.

How much more true might it be for we who are far far less than Apostles?

IV.) The Purpose

The purpose is hinted at in the way Mark arranges his material. Mark, known for his pithy and straight to the point story-telling ability gives us his longest narrative of his Gospel. I believe this is so not only because it is giving us John the Baptist as one who stands as the apogee (climax) of OT prophets in his role of holding up God’s standard but I think Mark also spends time here because in John’s story we find the foreshadowing of the story of the Lord Christ.

Scratch the surface of this narrative of John the Baptist and you will find the narrative of the Lord Christ.

Right out of the gate Mark tells us in this account of John the Baptist’s death that there is confusion over just who Jesus is. Indeed, that confusion over who Jesus might be sets the table for telling the account of the death of John the Baptist. Interestingly enough Mark will use this same confusion over who Jesus might be in chapter 8:27-29 as the table setter for Christ’s words about His coming death and resurrection.

In Herod’s work with John, we see foreshadowed the coming work of Pilate with Jesus (1:1-15; 9:9-13; 11:27-33). So, Herod here is to Pilate as John is to Jesus later.

1.) Both Herod and later Pilate are nominally in charge but in the end their authority is eclipsed by events.  Yet, of course, both remain responsible.

2.) Like Herod here with John, Pilate will later be “amazed” (6:20; 15:5) by circumstances surrounding an innocent prisoner (6:17, 20; 15:1, 14a).

3.) Both Herod here and Pilate later are swept up in events that fast spin out of their control (6:21-25; 15:6-13).

4.) Both Herod here and Pilate later are unable to back down after being publicly outmaneuvered (6:26-27; 15:15).

5.) Like Jesus, John is passive in his final hours (6:14-19; 15:1-39).

6.) Both John and Jesus face with integrity their moment of truth (6:21: hemeras eukairou, “an opportunity came”; 12:2: to kairo, “the season came”).

7.) Both Jesus and John are executed by hideous capital punishment (6:27-28; 15:24-27), dying to placate those they offended (6:19, 25; 15:10-14).

8.) Both Jesus and John will die a shameful death. John’s shameful death is found in it coming at the instigation of a woman. In ancient history to be executed or to die by a woman’s design was a mark of shame. Jesus shameful death is being pinned on a Cross.

So, you take all these parallels in the story telling of Mark’s account of John’s death, and you place this death tale as sandwiched (intercalation) between accounts that are placarding the power and victory of the Kingdom of God in Mark’s Gospel and what you have is a theology of the Cross sandwiched between a theology of glory. The Kingdom is rolling forward. Preceding this account we are looking at many demons being cast out. Many are healed (Mark 6:13). Subsequent to this account of John’s death there is there is the feeding of 5000 and Jesus mastering the elements by waling on the sea. The Kingdom has come.

And yet Mark sticks this account in between the outrageous success of the coming Kingdom of God in order to remind us that there is about the Kingdom of God not only exaltation but also humiliation. The Cross awaits the Lord Christ.

Consequently there is an ability to preach the Cross from this passage. John the Baptist’s death adumbrates the death of Christ in many ways. Or course John the Baptist’s death is not redemptive, but it does point us to the death of Christ which is redemptive. John the Baptist’s death points to the death of Christ which is propitiatory, and reconciles. John the Baptist death points to the death of Christ which is substitutionary and works the work of reconciliation of God to man.

Everywhere through the Gospels there is the shadow of the Cross and that is no less true here in this account of John the Baptist’s death.