Herod
was the one who had John the Baptist arrested and bound in prisonon account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married. John had said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” Herodias harbored a grudge against him and wanted to kill him.
Mark
6:17-29
The
contrasts between John and his cousin, Jesus, are remarkable.
John
wears a camelhair shirt, eats locusts and requires his disciples to fast and
abstain from wine. John’s disciples
pointedly ask why Jesus’s disciples eat and drink so freely (Lk 5:33). Jesus himself, we are told, drinks so copiously
he is considered a drunkard by some. John’s stridency
finally gets him killed in a pretty silly dispute. He criticizes the Roman-installed governor, Herod,
for marrying his sister-in-law and she arranges his execution. Jesus carefully avoids entanglements with the
Roman occupiers and actually winds up pointing to some Roman centurions as examples
of righteous Gentiles.
Photo: Herodias by Juan de Flandes (1496)
