The Forerunner Is Rejected By The Civil Authorities And Put To Death (14:3-12).
A warning of what lies ahead for Jesus in the future is now introduced. For John, His forerunner has been put to death by Herod the Tetrarch in a most shameful way, and suspicion is now falling on Jesus because, as a result of His ‘mighty works', He is being seen as John risen from the dead and thus manifesting heavenly powers. Herod's view was probably that he had come back to haunt him. For he was superstitiously afraid. There is an irony here in that Herod believes in ‘the resurrection' but from a totally false viewpoint. Instead of it being man's friend it is seen as his enemy, as God's way of getting back at man. Such is the blindness of man.
So what Jesus stands for is now being opposed by the powers that be. These words of Herod are an indication of how far he was from really knowing what was going on in the country that he ruled. His ruling was all done by hearsay and speculation and ‘report', as so often with such monarchs. And the sense of his opposition is such that Jesus will withdraw from the vicinity (Matthew 14:13), recognising the dangers inherent in the situation, for His hour had not yet come. (Among Jesus' disciples were those from Herod's household (Luke 8:2) who probably received news of what was happening at court).
While the prime purpose of the narrative here is to explain why Jesus is wary of Herod, the detailed account that follows indicates that Matthew has also another further message to get over, which is why he describes it in some detail. When Matthew goes into detail we can be sure that he always has a purpose for it, and here he is bringing out that this is an ‘evil and adulterous generation' (Matthew 12:39; Matthew 16:4). For he brings out here that at all levels of Palestinian society there is disobedience, spiritual blindness, adultery, lasciviousness, rebellion against God's known will and a hatred of the prophets, and that Israel's society was controlled, not by men who read and loved God's word (Deuteronomy 17:19-20), but by those who were swayed only by a love of the world and its pleasures. If the Scribes and Pharisees revealed the spiritual destitution of Israel, Herod and his court revealed its total corruption The story sums up Israel. Easy divorce (contrast Matthew 5:27-32; Matthew 19:3-12), murder (contrast Matthew 5:21-26), ‘lawlessness' (it is not lawful) and retribution on the godly (contrast Matthew 5:10-12; and see Matthew 22:33-41; Matthew 23:34-36), casual oaths (contrast Matthew 5:33-37), an eye for an eye (see Matthew 5:38-42); and pure heartlessness (contrast Matthew 5:43-48). Here was an example of ‘the kingly rule of earth' set over against what we have seen of the Kingly Rule of Heaven.
Josephus tells us that Herod's fear of John had partly arisen from his fear that John would start an insurrection against men whom he saw as evil, (Herod's views of John may well have been influenced by what he knew from his spies about the teachings of the community at Qumran with its expectations of one day rising up and crushing the ungodly). And he may have seen as central to this purpose John's continual public accusation of him as doing ‘what was not lawful'. Such a charge of ‘lawlessness' was usually a preliminary to retributive action. Thus the picture of John's attitude against Herod here ties in with Josephus' view of him that Herod (who would tend to think politically) saw him as a possible reactionary and revolutionary.
Note On Herod The Tetrarch.
Herod the Tetrarch was a son of Herod the Great, and after his father's death was made tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea, and was popularly though inaccurately termed ‘king'. Herod was previously married and his first wife was the daughter of Aretas, king of the Nabateans, and he divorced her in order to marry Herodias who was his half-brother Philip's wife. This in itself was politically explosive causing a deep rift and warfare with the Nabateans, which resulted in his defeat, from which he was only saved by the intervention of Rome. Philip (not the tetrarch) was a son of Herod the Great and Mariamne II and thus his half-brother. Thus to marry his divorced wife was to break Jewish Law (Leviticus 18:16; Leviticus 20:21). But Herodias was an adventuress, and happily divorced her husband in order to gain the great prize of being married to a tetrarch. She was in fact the daughter of Herod's half brother Aristobulus, and was totally unscrupulous. It was in the end her ever increasing desire for status that led to Herod losing his tetrarchy and being banished to Gaul. But it was then that she revealed that even she was not all bad. When the emperor was prepared to exempt her from the banishment, she chose rather to endure it with her husband.
End of note.
Analysis.
a For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him (Matthew 14:3 a).
b And put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, for John said to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her” (Matthew 14:3-4).
c And when he would have put him to death, he feared the populace, because they counted him as a prophet (Matthew 14:5).
d But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced among the people gathered (‘in the midst'), and pleased Herod (Matthew 14:6).
e Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatever she should ask (Matthew 14:7).
d And she, being put forward by her mother, says, “Give me here on a large dish the head of John the Baptist” (Matthew 14:8).
c And the king was grieved, but for the sake of his oaths, and of those who sat at meat with him, (he was afraid of them) he commanded it to be given, and he sent and beheaded John in the prison (Matthew 14:9-10).
b And his head was brought on a large dish, and given to the damsel, and she brought it to her mother,
a And his disciples came, and took up the corpse, and buried him, and they went and told Jesus (Matthew 14:11-12).
Note that in ‘a' Herod lays hold of John and binds him, and in the parallel John's disciples lay hold of his body and bury him. In ‘b' Herod puts John in prison for Herodias' sake, and in the parallel John's head, cut off for her sake, is given to Herodias. In ‘c' Herod wanted to put John to death but feared the people, and in the parallel he puts him to death because he fears his contemporaries. In ‘d' Herod is seduced by Salome's dancing, and in the parallel she asks for the head of John on a dish (continuing the party atmosphere) in response. In ‘e' is the foolish oath made by a drunken Herod, a proof of his unworthiness.