Albert Barnes Commentary Matthew 14

MATTHEW CHAPTER 14

Herod the tetrarch. See also Mark 6:14-16; Luke 9:7–9. This was a son of Herod the Great. Herod the Great died probably in the first year after the birth of Christ, and left his kingdom to his three sons, of whom this Herod Antipas was one. He ruled over Galilee and Perea. See Barnes on Matthew 2:16.

The title tetrarch literally denotes one who rules over a fourth part of any country. In a remote signification, it means one who rules over a third, or even a half of a nation.

Heard of the fame of Jesus. Jesus had then been engaged in the work of the ministry for a considerable time, and it may seem remarkable that he had not heard of him before. Herod might have, however, been absent on some expedition to a remote part of the country. It is to be remembered, also, that he was a man of much dissoluteness of morals; and that he paid little attention to the affairs of the people. He might have heard of Jesus before, but it had not arrested his attention. He did not think it a matter worthy of much regard.

This is John the Baptist. Herod feared John. His conscience struck him for his crimes. He remembered that he had wickedly put him to death. He knew him to be a distinguished prophet; and he concluded that no one else was capable of working such miracles except he who had been distinguished in his life, and who had again risen from the dead and entered the dominions of his murderer.

The alarm in his court, it seems, was general. Herod's conscience told him that this was John. Others thought that it might be the expected Elijah, or one of the old prophets (Mark 6:15).

For Herod had laid hold on John. 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 who danced and pleased Herod.

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:

1. Of adultery, as she was the wife of another man;
2. Of incest, as she was a near relation, and such marriages were expressly forbidden (Leviticus 18:16).

But when Herod's birthday was kept. Kings were accustomed to observe the day of their birth with much pomp, and commonly also by giving a feast to their principal nobility . Mark adds that this birthday was kept by making a supper for his lords, high captains, and chief estates in Galilee; that is, for the chief men in office. High captains means, in the original, commanders of thousands, or of a division of a thousand men.

The daughter of Herodias. That is, Salome, her daughter by her former husband. This was a violation of all the rules of modesty and propriety. One great principle of all eastern nations is to keep their females from public view. For this purpose, they are confined in a particular part of the house, called the harem (see the discussion on Matthew 9:2).

If they appear in public, it is always with a veil so closely drawn that their faces cannot be seen. No modest woman would have appeared in this manner before the court; and it is probable, therefore, that she partook of the dissolute principles of her mother. It is also probable that the dance was one well known in Greece, the lascivious and wanton dance of the Ionics.