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Today we’ll look at a young woman who doesn’t even get her
name mentioned in the bible. Her story – or rather one story from her life – is
told in 2 of the 4 gospels (and alluded to in one other). We have very few
details about her so we cannot speak authoritatively on her life – but we can
explore some of the issues and implications of her story.
She is Salome, and though her name is not given in the
gospels we know it from extra-biblical sources. (There is a Salome mentioned in
the gospels, but this is not her story) Salome’s family was as messed up as any
you’d find on daytime television today. Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage,
Adultery, Incest, Lust, Jealousy, Murder, and Revenge are all key words in
Salome’s family.
Her mother was Herodias. Herodias was the granddaughter of
Herod the great (the Herod who slaughtered the innocents in Bethlehem in an
attempt to kill the infant Jesus). Salome’s father was named Phillip. But
Herodias had divorced Phillip to marry his half-brother, Herod Antipas.\
Herod Antipas had also divorced his wife in order to marry
his sister in law, Herodias. Herodias was also his niece as her father,
Aristobulus, was Herod’s half-brother. Herod Antipas married Herodias, his
niece and sister in law. Herod Antipas was the son of Herod the great, and was
the Herod who mocked Jesus during his trial before the crucifixion.
John the Baptizer had often spoken out against Herod’s
marriage to his niece and sister-in-law, Herodias, because it was an illicit
marriage. “It is unlawful for you to have her,” he told Herod.
Herod’s first wife (the daughter of a king from Arabia) was
still alive; Herodias’ husband Phillip was also still alive. According to the
laws of the Jews, both were committing adultery, and also incest.
-Leviticus 18:16 “‘Do
not have sexual relations with your brother's wife; that would dishonor your
brother.
-Leviticus 20:21 “‘If
a man marries his brother's wife, it is an act of impurity; he has dishonored
his brother. They will be childless.
Because of his boldness in speaking against Herod Antipas
and Herodias, Herod seized John and had him arrested and imprisoned in the
fortress- palace Machaerus on the coast of the Dead Sea, which had been built
by Herod the great as a defense against the Moabites and Arabs (according to
Jewish historian, Josephus).
Herodias wanted John dead. She hated him. She hated that he
dared to speak out against her. She carried a grudge against him and wanted him
executed, but she could not because Herod wouldn’t allow it – though he also
wanted John dead.
Matthew tells us that Herod feared that the common people,
the followers of John would riot if he had John killed. Mark tells us that
Herod kept John in safe custody because he liked to listen to John’s preaching
– even though it left him confused and perplexed. Herod was afraid of John and
knew that he was a good and holy man. Herod was a complexly fearful man. He
feared losing his control as Tetrarch (a local ruler - not really a King). He
feared that Rome would remove his title. He feared a riot by the followers of
John. He feared an attack from Arabia by the king whose daughter he had
divorced and sent away. He feared his wife, Herodias.
And he feared the word of God as delivered by John the
Baptizer. He wanted to hear it, but also didn’t want to. He knew it was right
and true, but also feared it because he did not want to change anything in his
life. So he kept John imprisoned, not intending to harm him.
Herodias, however, had not forgotten her grudge against the
prophet. She waited for her chance to avenger herself on John the Baptizer.Her chance finally came when Herod Antipas held a birthday
banquet to which he’d invited the principal leaders, authorities, and
commanders of Galilee. This was a late afternoon / early evening meal that
would last for several hours. The long celebration banquet was concluded with
what was called a comissatio.
The comissatio was a
post-banquet social drinking bout for the men often involving risqué
entertainment – usually dancers and or prostitutes.As the dinner concluded and the men became drunker and
drunker, Herodias sent her daughter in to dance for Herod and his guests.
Salome was a young woman; the men were grossly intoxicated. Her dance was a
seductive alluring dance to entice the men, specifically to entice Herod
Antipas.
Entertaining at a commissatio was only for lewd
servant women or actresses and prostitutes – not members of one’s own family,
and not for descendants of royalty. Herodias, however, was intent on executing
John the Baptist and was willing to shame and degrade her own daughter in order
to achieve her wicked goal.
Herod Antipas, it seems, was enticed by this dance. He was
allured and his lusts inflamed. So much so that after the dance was over he
said to her, “Ask me for anything: I’ll give it to you! … Ask me for anything
and it’s yours by Heaven, even if it’s half my kingdom.” Herod swore to give
her anything; even up to half his kingdom (though he was not a king and had no
kingdom to give away, Rome was in control…)
Prompted by her mother, Salome asked for the head of John
the Baptist to be brought in on a platter. She was lead and instructed by her
mother to ask for this gory prize.
Herod was trapped. He had promised, he had sworn to give her
whatever she asked for. He had spoken an oath in front of witnesses. The spoken
word had power, and rather than look weak and vulnerable in front of his
guests, Herod agreed to her request. He sent a soldier from his personal guard
to execute the sentence on John. When he returned, the soldier carried John’s
head on a platter. He gave it to Salome who in turn gave it to Herodias.
This was child pornography. Herodias used and abused Salome
to get revenge on John the Baptizer. Herod and his guests used and abused her
to satisfy their drunken lusts. Salome was manipulated like a tool by her
mother and seen as an object, a pedophilic fantasy by her uncle/step-father and
his guests. The end result was not just the death of John the Baptist, but also
the death of Salome’s innocence.
Salome has been an attractive person for writers, composers,
and painters. There have been a large number of paintings, movies, operas,
plays, and novels about her. And for the most part her character is described
as an insatiable virgin who wants to destroy men through sex and sin. Instead
of the guilt being on Herodias and the manipulator and pornographer or on Herod
Antipas as the voyeur and pervert – Salome has been tagged as a Femme Fatale, a beautiful woman who
desires to seduce and entrap men and to destroy them by leading them to sin and
death.
Salome, as described in the very brief gospel narratives
however, was an unprotected young woman. Her family, the ones who should have
been protecting her, and shielding her instead used her to further their own
evil plans and abused her innocence. Preachers and commentators and artists
have focused on woman’s wiles, and the seductive danger that they are to men,
rather than on protecting the innocent.
The world is still putting young women into this mold. From
Barbie dolls to Britney Spears young girls see that in order to fit in they
need to be sexy and flirtatious. Pornography continues to degrade and exploit
women. There are some who argue that the women in these magazines and films are
willing participants – even so, they are willingly participating in their own
exploitation, not realizing that they could be so much more.
Salome represents not the femme fatale who wants to destroy men, but the young and innocent
manipulated by those who should have protected her. She is the face of the
children victimized by child pornographers; she is the face of women who grow
up believing that they need to use sex to get what they want. Salome is the
symbol of a whole generation of young girls and young women who have been
taught that they are only a construction of parts to pleasure men’s fantasies.
We need to rescue these Salomes from the manipulative
Herodias of this world, from those who would use them to further their own
ambitions. We need to rescue these young Salomes from the Herod Antipas’ of
this world who are content to see them merely as sexual fantasies.
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