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| The Dancing of Herodias. The Keeping of Oaths.
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22. The Dancing
of Herodias. The Keeping of Oaths.
Wherefore John, endued with prophetic boldness and not
terrified at the royal dignity of Herod, nor through fear of death
keeping silence in regard to so flagrant a sin, filled with a divine
spirit said to Herod, “It is not lawful for thee to have her; for
it is not lawful for thee to have the wife of thy brother.”
For Herod having laid hold on John bound him and put him in prison, not
daring to slay him outright and to take away the prophetic word from
the people; but the wife of the king of Trachonitis—which is a
kind of evil opinion and wicked teaching—gave birth to a daughter
of the same name, whose movements, seemingly harmonious, pleasing
Herod, who was fond of matters connected with birthdays, came the cause
of there being no longer a prophetic head among the people. And
up to this point I think that the movements of the people of the Jews,
which seem to be according to the law, were nothing else than the
movements of the daughter of Herodias; but the dancing of Herodias was
opposed to that holy dancing with which those who have not danced will
be reproached when they hear the words, “We piped unto you, and
ye did not dance.”5317
And on
birthdays, when the lawless word reigns over them, they dance so that
their movements please that word. Some one of those before us has
observed what is written in Genesis about the birthday of Pharaoh, and
has told that the worthless man who
loves things connected with birth keeps birthday festivals; and we,
taking this suggestion from him, find in no Scripture that a birthday
was kept by a righteous man. For Herod was more unjust than that
famous Pharaoh; for by the latter on his birthday feast a chief baker
is killed;5318
but by the former,
John, “than whom no one greater hath risen among those born of
women,”5319
in regard to whom
the Saviour says, “But for what purpose did ye go out? To
see a prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a
prophet.”5320
But thanks be
unto God, that, even if the grace of prophecy was taken from the
people, a grace greater than all that was poured forth among the
Gentiles by our Saviour Jesus Christ, who became “free among the
dead;”5321
for “though
He were crucified through weakness, yet He liveth through the power of
God.”5322
Consider also
the word in which pure and impure meats are inquired into; but prophecy
is despised when it is brought forward in a charger instead of
meat. But the Jews have not the head of prophecy, inasmuch as
they disown the crown of all prophecy, Christ Jesus; and the prophet is
beheaded, because of an oath in a case where the duty was rather to
break the oath than to keep the oath; for the charge of rashness in
taking an oath and of breaking it because of the rashness is not the
same in guilt as the death of a prophet. And not on this account
alone is he beheaded, but because “of those who sat at meat with
him,” who preferred that the prophet should be killed rather than
live. And they recline at the same table and also feast along
with the evil word which reigns over the Jews, who make merry over his
birth. At times you may make a graceful application of the
passage to those who swear rashly and wish to hold fast oaths which are
taken with a view to unlawful deeds, by saying that not every keeping
of oaths is seemly, just as the keeping of the oath of Herod was
not. And mark, further, that not openly but secretly and in
prison does Herod put John to death. For even the present word of
the Jews does not openly deny the prophecies, but virtually and in
secret denies them, and is convicted of disbelieving them. For as
“if they believed Moses they would have believed
Jesus,”5323
so if they had
believed the prophets they would have received Him who had been the
subject of prophecy. But disbelieving Him they also disbelieve
them, and cut off and confine in prison the prophetic word, and hold it
dead and divided, and in no way wholesome, since they do not understand
it. But we have the whole Jesus, the prophecy concerning Him
being fulfilled which said, “A bone shall not be
broken.”5324
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