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MARRIAGE, MURDER, MADNESS & MARTYRDOM

a dancer's reward

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It stood on a lonely ridge, and was said to be one of the grimmest and unassailable fortresses in the world. Even its name said it all - Machaerus Castle - meaning the Black Castle. It was in this bleak, desolate place that the last act of John the Baptist’s life was played out. This is not a children’s story!
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Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, was a nasty piece of work - a chip of the old block you might say. His father was a man who married frequently and murdered his children with even more frequency. When thinking about the Herods, the song ‘I am my own grandpa" comes to mind. First, Herod the Great, father of Herod Antipas, married Doris, by whom he had a son Antipater, whom he murdered. Then he married Mariamne, by whom he had two sons named Alexander and Aristobulus, whom he also murdered. Herodias, the villainess of our story, who asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter, was the daughter of Aristobulus. Herod the Great then married another by the name of Mariamne, and to whom had a son named Herod Philip who married the above named Herodias who was the daughter of his half-brother Aristobulus. Philip and Herodias had a daughter named Salome, who was the daughter of his half-brother and therefore his niece. Salome is the girl who danced for Herod Antipas who was her uncle, half-brother to her father. Hope you got that?
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Next, Herod the Great married Malthake, by whom he had two more sons, Archelaus and Herod Antipas who is the Herod of our story today. Now this is where it gets confusing, well, ok, gets more confusing. The Herod Philip who originally married Herodias, and is the father of the said sultry Salome. Well, his half-brother Herod Antipas visited him in Rome, and seduced his wife and persuaded her, Herodias, to leave her husband and come and marry him. Just a recap, we need to note who Herodias was - she was the daughter of Herod’s Antipas’ half-brother, Aristobulus, and therefore his niece, and she was the wife of another half-brother, Herod Philip, and therefore his sister-in-law.
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But wait, it gets better. Well, maybe more confusing! To complete the picture, Herod the Great, father of Herod Antipas, Herod Philip, Archelaus, Aristobulus, Alexander, Antipater, (these three all murdered by their father) married yet again. This time he and married Cleopatra of Jerusalem - (not THE Cleopatra), and had another son, Philip the Tetrarch who married the said sultry Salome who was one and the same time the daughter of Herod Philip, his half-brother, and the daughter of Herodias, who was herself the daughter of Aristoblus, another half-brother, so this same aforesaid and sultry Salome was therefore at one and the same time not only his niece, but also his grand niece. If we keep going eventually somebody is going to be their own grandpa! Hope you got that?

M. LUKE 1:1-80 -----BACKGROUND TO THE BAPTIST’S BEHEADING
M. MARK 1:9-13 ----JOHN BAPTIZED JESUS IN THE RIVER JORDAN
T. LUKE 3:1-20 ----JOHN’S PREACHING PUTS HIM IN PRISON
W. LUKE 7:18-35 --JESUS AND JOHN THE BAPTIST
T. MARK 6:14-29 --JOHN THE BAPTIST BEHEADED.