ACC ~ Matthew 14 v1 - 12

OVERVIEW:

After King Herod’s death the Romans divided his kingdom into a tetrarchy, and one part of the tetrarchy went to his son, who was called Herod the tetrarch (THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA). Herod imagined that John had risen from the dead after he had been beheaded and was acting in the person of Jesus, the continuation of Elijah’s spirit (ORIGEN). Thinking that the Baptist had risen from the dead, Herod began to be afraid of him, as though John had become all the more powerful (THEODORE OF HERACLEA). Herod’s fantasies reveal a combination of conflicting emotions: vanity and fear (CHRYSOSTOM). While fear is able to restrain the power to sin, it is unable to remove the will to sin. Hence it makes those whom it has restrained from crime all the more eager to return to crime (PETER CHRYSOLOGUS). John preferred to incur the king’s anger rather than ignore God’s commandments (JEROME). Virtue is undesirable to those who are immoral; integrity is a hardship for those who are corrupt; mercy is intolerable to those who are cruel (PETER CHRYSOLOGUS).

Herod is said to be afraid due to his oath and guests, but he should have been far more afraid of that which is more fearful (CHRYSOSTOM). The house is converted into an arena, the table changes into a stall at the amphitheater, the birthday guests turn into spectators, the food ripens into carnage, the wine transforms into blood, the birthday mutates into a funeral (PETER CHRYSOLOGUS). Herod’s former willingness is incompatible with his present unwillingness, and the annoyance he now feels is contrary to the elation he felt before (HILARY OF POITIERS). Now that the time of the law is over and buried with John, his disciples (JEROME) announce to the Lord these events as they leave the law and come to the gospel (HILARY OF POITIERS).

14:1 | Herod Hears of Jesus’ Works

HEROD THE TETRARCH

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Herod the king is one person, Herod the tetrarch, his son, is another. After King Herod’s death the Romans divided his kingdom into a tetrarchy, and one part of the tetrarchy went to his son. This is the man who beheaded the Forerunner and who, for this reason, received his due punishment not long afterward. [1] FRAGMENT 77. [2]

[1] Herod Antipas was deposed by Emperor Caligula and sent into exile in Gaul.

[2] MKGK 123-24.

14:2 | John’s Powers at Work

THE ANALOGY OF THE REAPPEARANCE OF ELIJAH

ORIGEN: The Jews had different opinions about the resurrection. Some of them were false. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead or in the existence of angels. They believed those things that were written about them were only to be interpreted figuratively but had no reality in point of fact. [1] Other Jewish views of the resurrection were true, such as were taught by the Pharisees about the resurrection of the dead—that they rise.

We must now therefore inquire about the opinion regarding the soul, which was mistakenly held by Herod and some from among the people. It ran something like this: John, who a little earlier had been slain by him, had risen from the dead after he had been beheaded. This person who had risen was the same person under a different name, one now called Jesus. Herod imagined that Jesus possessed the same powers that formerly worked in John. If the powers that worked in John had passed over to Jesus, Jesus was thus thought by some to actually be John the Baptist.

The return of Elijah fueled this idea. Here is the line of argument. It was the spirit and power of Elijah that had returned in John. “This is Elijah who is to come.” [2] The spirit in Elijah possessed the power to go into John. So Herod thought that the powers John worked in baptism and teaching had a miraculous effect in Jesus, even though John did not do miracles. It may be said that something of this kind was the underlying thought of those who said that Elijah had appeared in Jesus or that one of the old prophets had risen. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 10.20. [3]

[1] Origen means that the Sadducees, not believing in the existence of angels, interpreted allegorically the passages of the Pentateuch (the only Scriptures that they accepted) in which angels are mentioned.

[2] Mt 11:14. In the time of Christ it was a common belief among the Jews that Elijah would return to earth to announce the coming of the Messiah before the end of the world.

[3] GCS 40:26-28; ANF 9:427.

THINKING THE BAPTIST HAD RISEN

THEODORE OF HERACLEA: Thinking that the Baptist had risen from the dead, Herod began to be afraid of him, as though John had become all the more powerful. He was alarmed lest John should employ against him even more of his caustic freedom of speech, which was a terror to him, frustrating him by revealing his crooked deeds. FRAGMENT 93. [1]

[1] MKGK 82.

THE IMAGINATIONS OF VANITY AND FEAR

CHRYSOSTOM: Do you see the intensity of his fear? Herod did not dare speak of it openly, but he still speaks apprehensively to his own servants. Yet this whole opinion was absurd. It savored of the jittery soldier. Even though many were thought to have risen from the dead, no one had done anything like what was imagined of John. Herod’s words seem to me to be the language both of vanity and of fear. For such is the nature of unreasonable souls; they often accept a mixture of opposite passions. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 48.2. [1]

[1] PG 58:488; NPNF 1 10:297.

14:3 | Herod Had Imprisoned John

JOHN’S ADMONITION

HILARY OF POITIERS: We have frequently advised that all diligence must be applied to the reading of the Gospels, for in the narration of the different events one may arrive at a deeper understanding. There is indeed an order to the narration of all the works, but the underlying cause behind the effects of the narrated events is preestablished, as with Herod and John.

John, as we frequently noted, preferred the form of the law, because the law foretold Christ and John proceeded from the law, announcing Christ from the law. Herod, on the other hand, was the prince of the people, and the prince of the people embraces the name and interests of his subjects. John accordingly advised Herod not to take to himself his brother’s wife. There were and there are two peoples: one people of the circumcision and the other of the Gentiles. But the law admonished Israel not to ally itself with the works of the Gentiles and with infidelity. Infidelity is associated with the Gentiles, as if by a bond of conjugal love. Because of the truth of this stern admonition by John, he was confined in prison like the law. ON MATTHEW 14.3, 7. [1]

[1] SC 258:12, 16-18.

14:4 | John’s Rebuke of Herod

IT IS NOT LAWFUL FOR YOU TO HAVE HER

JEROME: Ancient history tells us that Philip the son of Herod the Great (under whom the Lord fled into Egypt), the brother of that Herod under whom Christ suffered, took as his wife Herodias the daughter of King Phetrai. Later his father-in-law, after a rivalry between him and his son-in-law, took his daughter and, to the great chagrin of the first husband, Herod his enemy united with her in marriage. As to just who this Philip was, Luke the Evangelist notes clearly, “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberias Caesar, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis.” [1]

Therefore John the Baptist, who had come in the spirit and power of Elijah, with the same authority whereby the latter had rebuked Ahab and Jezebel, upbraided Herod and Herodias because they had entered into an unlawful marriage. He did so because it is not lawful to take the wife of one’s own living brother. John preferred to incur the king’s anger rather than, through fawning, be unmindful of God’s commandments. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 2.14.4. [2]

[1] Lk 3:1.

[2] CCL 77:117.

INTEGRITY IS A HARDSHIP FOR THE CORRUPT

PETER CHRYSOLOGUS: John aroused Herod by his moral admonitions, not by any formal accusation. He wanted to correct, not to suppress. Herod, however, preferred to suppress rather than be reconciled. To those who are held captive, the freedom of the one innocent of wrongdoing becomes hateful. Virtue is undesirable to those who are immoral; holiness is abhorrent to those who are impious; chastity is an enemy to those who are impure; integrity is a hardship for those who are corrupt; frugality runs counter to those who are self-indulgent; mercy is intolerable to those who are cruel, as is loving-kindness to those who are pitiless and justice to those who are unjust. The Evangelist indicates this when he says, “John said to him, ‘It is not lawful for you to have the wife of your brother Philip.’ ” This is where John runs into trouble. He who admonishes those who are evil gives offense. He who repudiates wrongdoers runs into trouble. John was saying what was proper of the law, what was proper of justice, what was proper of salvation and what was proper certainly not of hatred but of love. And look at the reward he received from the ungodly for his loving concern! SERMONS 127.6-7. [1]

[1] CCL 24b:784-85.

14:5 | Herod Feared the People

TURNING FROM JUSTICE

PETER CHRYSOLOGUS: “And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people.” That person readily turns away from justice who, in matters at issue, fears not God but people. Such fear can restrain the power to sin but is unable to remove the will to sin. Hence, those whom it has restrained from crime, it makes all the more eager to return to crime. It is only the fear of God that can set minds straight, repel criminal actions, preserve innocence and give steadfast power. But let us focus on the passionate intensity of blessed John. SERMONS 127.7. [1]

[1] CCL 24b:785.

14:6 | Herod’s Birthday

THE DAUGHTER OF HERODIAS DANCED

HILARY OF POITIERS: On Herod’s birthday—that is, amid the delights of corporeal things—the daughter of Herodias danced. With every enticing movement she made, she exuded sensual pleasure as though from the infidelity that arose through all the joys of Israel. The people gave themselves over to this. All were corrupted by an oath. Through sin and the pleasures of the world, the Israelites sold the gifts of eternal life. The girl requested of her mother—who herself had a knack for infidelity—that the head of John, symbolizing the glory of the law, be brought to her. For the law had exposed incestuous Israel with the authority of the divine commandments. ON MATTHEW 14.7. [1]

[1] SC 258:18-20.

THE DANCE

PETER CHRYSOLOGUS: You have heard, brothers, that sensual pleasure may give birth to great cruelty. “And his head was brought on a platter.” [1] The house is converted into an arena, the table changes into a stall at the amphitheater, the birthday guests turn into spectators, the feast grows into a furor, the food ripens into carnage, the wine transforms into blood, the birthday changes into a funeral, sunrise evolves into sunset, the banquet is altered into a bloody killing, and musical instruments perform the tragedy of the ages. A creature enters the room, not a girl; a lynx, not a maiden, moves to the music. She has the mane of an animal, not hair, sprouting up from the crown of her head. She spreads out her limbs with twists and turns; she steadily grows in ferocity. She becomes cunning in cruelty, not in body. And this extraordinarily wild animal lets out a growl. She gnashes her teeth. She does not take up a sword but produces one. “Prompted by her mother,” the Evangelist says, and taking an arrow from her mother’s heart, this uncanny creature, with contempt for the prize of John’s body, slithers through the hall to have his head cut off. SERMONS 127.9. [2]

[1] Mt 14:11.

[2] CCL 24b:786-87.

14:7-9 | Herod’s Oath

NOW HE IS SORRY

HILARY OF POITIERS: Shortly before, Herod indicated that he wanted to kill John. He hesitated for fear of the people, because they considered him to be a prophet. But now, upon the request for John’s death, since Herod was bound formally by the ritual of an oath, how is it that he suddenly becomes sorry? His former willingness is incompatible with his present unwillingness, and the annoyance he now feels is contrary to what he felt before. Previously there was an orderly sequence to what transpired, but now the situation has gotten out of hand. Sensual pleasure springing up from infidelity has seized the glory of the law. But the people, aware of the good things in the law, wink at the pleasurable circumstances not without misgivings as to their own peril. They know it is inappropriate for them to turn away from the glory of the commandments. Yet four factors cause them to give in to sin: an oath, fear of the leaders, the allurements of pleasure and a bad example. ON MATTHEW 14.8. [1]

[1] SC 258:18-20.

BECAUSE OF HIS OATHS AND HIS GUESTS

JEROME: It is customary in the Scriptures for the historian to narrate the opinion of many, as it was held by them at the time. Even as Joseph is called the father of Jesus by Mary herself, Herod now is said to be exceedingly sad because his guests thought that he was. An artful deceiver and a skilled assassin, he preferred to show a sad face when his mind registered joy. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 2.14.9. [1]

[1] CCL 77:118.

14:10-11 | John’s Execution

JOHN BEHEADED

CHRYSOSTOM: And she being instructed beforehand by her mother, said, “Give me here John the Baptist’s head on a platter.”

Her reproach is twofold: first, that she danced, then that she pleased him and so pleased him as to obtain even murder for her reward.

Do you see how savage he was, how senseless, how foolish? He puts himself under the obligation of an oath while to her he gives full power over her request.

But when Herod saw the evil actually ensuing, “he was sorry,” it is said. Yet in the first instance he had put him in prison. Why then is he sorry? Such is the nature of virtue. Even among the wicked admiration and praises are its due. But alas for her madness! When she also ought to admire, yes, to bow down to him for trying to redress her wrong, she rather even helps to arrange the plot, lays a snare and asks a diabolical favor.

But he was afraid “for the oath’s sake,” it is said, “and those that sat with him at dinner.” Why did he not fear that which is far more fearful? Surely if Herod was afraid of having witnesses to perjury, much more should he fear having so many witnesses of a murder so lawless. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 48.4. [1]

[1] PG 58:489; NPNF 1 10:298.

14:12 | John’s Disciples Go to Jesus

THE LAW IS BURIED WITH JOHN

HILARY OF POITIERS: Amid the other enjoyments of the profligate company, the head of John is brought on a platter. Thus the pleasures of the body and worldly extravagance reach the point where the girl carries the head to her mother. And so shameful Israel surrenders the glory of the law to the pleasure and infidelity of its Herodian household, who were formerly Gentiles. Now that the time of the law is over and buried with John, his disciples announce to the Lord the events that transpired, as they leave the law and come to the Gospels. ON MATTHEW 14.8. [1]

[1] SC 258:20.

HIS DISCIPLES CAME

JEROME: Josephus relates that in a certain town of Arabia John’s head had been cut off. [1] As to the words that follow, “and his disciples came and took the body,” we presume these people are the disciples of both John and the Savior. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 2.14.12. [2]

[1] Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 18.5.

[2] CCL 77:119.