John the Baptist's
Public Ministry (12):
John's
Imprisonment (
Mark 6:17-20) by
Rev. Angus Stewart
I. How Did It Come About?
II. How Was It Viewed by
Herodias and
Herod?
III. What Were Its
Effects on
Jesus Christ?
Quotes on
Herod's Sin of
Adultery
John Calvin: "The atrocious character of the deed was in itself sufficiently detestable and infamous: for not only did he keep in his own house another man's wife, whom he had torn away from lawful wedlock, but the person on whom he had committed this outrage was his own brother
... the disgrace of a pretended marriage" (
Comm. on Mark 6:17-29).
Albert Barnes: "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 [Antipas].
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: 1st. Of adultery, since she was the wife of another man. 2d. Of incest, since she was a near relation, and such marriages were expressly forbidden,
Lev. 18:16" (Comm. on
Matthew 14:
3-5).
J.
Feather: "And now the way was open for the guilty pair to be married, if we dare call their adulterous and incestuous union by such a high and holy name. So they live together—Herod, whose divorced wife is still alive; and Herodias, his sister-in-law and niece, whose husband is also still alive" (
The Last of the
Prophets—John the Baptist, p. 125).
F. B. Meyer: "We need not dwell on all the terrible details of that disgraceful sin. But every circumstance which could deepen its infamy was present. Herod's wife, the daughter of Aretas, king of
Arabia, was still living; as was
Philip, the husband of Herodias. The liaison commenced at Rome, when Herod was the guest of his brother Philip, while apparently engaged on a mission of holy devotion to the religious interests of the
Jewish nation ... [John] arraigned the guilty pair before God; and, laying his axe at the root of the tree, calling on Herod's conscience, long gagged and silent, to take part in the impeachment—he said, in effect: 'I summon you before the bar of God, and in the pure light which streams from His holy
Oracle, your consciences being witness against you, you know perfectly well that it is not right for you to be living as you are living.
Thou shalt not commit adultery'" (John the Baptist, p.
111).
Abraham Kuyper: "She [i.e., Herodias] was married, and Herod was married, but she had rejected her husband, and Herod his wife, in order that they two could live together in adultery. Her real husband was Philip ... Of course, Herod's own wife, a princess of Arabia, constituted an obstacle in the way of this illegitimate marriage. But Herodias skillfully persuaded Herod to divorce her, and to let her, Herodias, reign as queen instead.
Things happened in exactly that way. Herod rejected his own wife" (
Women of the
New Testament, p. 56).
Alfred Edersheim: "John's open declaration of the unlawfulness of Herod's marriage [to Herodias] as ... incestuous and adulterous ... part of his [i.e., John's]
Divine calling not only to have denounced, but apparently directly confronted Herod on his adulterous marriage" (
The Life and Times of
Jesus the
Messiah, vol. 1, pp. 658,
666).
R. C. H
. Lenski: "Herod's crime was a public outrage. [Herodias] had first married her own father's brother and then ran away and lived with the half-brother of her husband, who was also her half-uncle and already had a legal wife. Two marriages were disrupted, and the new union was not a marriage. It was plain adultery and within the forbidden degrees of consanguinity ... No wonder John raised his voice in spite of Herod's being the ruler" (Comm. on Mark 6:18).
William Hendriksen: "this incestuous and adulterous relationship [of Herod and Herodias] ... such a marriage was incestuous. Was it not also adulterous (Rom. 7:2-3)?" (Mark, pp. 236-237).
Andrew Cornes: "It is not possible to contract a true marriage—a marriage in God's eyes—while your divorced partner is still living. It is only possible to commit adultery. This is because the first marriage still exists. It may be for this reason that
Matthew continues to call Herodias 'Philip's wife' after she has divorced Philip and been remarried to Herod Antipas (
Matt. 14:3f// Mark 6:17f, cf.
Luke 3:19)
... You may be able to break the legal ties, you may be able to live apart, but you cannot destroy the marriage; your unity with your partner still exists in God's eyes; the marriage bond can only be broken by death" (
Divorce and Remarriage, p.
214).
- published: 24 Feb 2013
- views: 146