Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First, the Nazarenes despise Jesus as He preaches, as though He were merely their own townsman and the carpenter's son. Second, at verse 7, He sends the Apostles out two by two to preach, giving them power to heal diseases and cast out demons. Third, at verse 14, Herod, having heard of the miracles of Jesus, suspects that John the Baptist, whom he had slain, has risen again in Jesus: on which occasion the murder of John is recounted. Fourth, at verse 30, the Apostles return to Christ, reporting what they had done. Christ then feeds five thousand men with five loaves. Fifth, at verse 48, He comes to the disciples walking upon the sea, calms the storm, and heals many by the touch of the hem of His garment.
Vulgate Text: Mark 6:1-56
1. And going forth from there, He went into His own country, and His disciples followed Him; 2. and when the sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue; and many, hearing Him, marvelled at His doctrine, saying: Whence has this man these things? and what is the wisdom that is given to Him? and such mighty works as are wrought by His hands? 3. Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joseph, and Jude, and Simon? are not also His sisters here with us? And they were scandalized at Him. 4. And Jesus said to them: A prophet is not without honor, save in His own country, and in His own house, and in His own kindred. 5. And He could work no miracle there, save that He healed a few sick, laying His hands upon them; 6. and He marvelled because of their unbelief, and went about the villages round about, teaching. 7. And He called the twelve, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits. 8. And He charged them that they should take nothing for the way, but a staff only; no scrip, no bread, nor money in their purse, 9. but to be shod with sandals, and not to put on two tunics. 10. And He said to them: Wheresoever you shall enter into a house, there abide till you depart from that place; 11. and whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, going forth from thence, shake off the dust from your feet for a testimony to them. 12. And going forth they preached that men should do penance; 13. and they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many sick, and healed them. 14. And king Herod heard (for His name was made manifest), and he said: That John the Baptist is risen again from the dead, and therefore mighty works show themselves forth in Him. 15. And others said: It is Elijah. But others said: It is a prophet, as one of the prophets. 16. Which Herod hearing, said: John whom I beheaded, he is risen again from the dead. 17. For Herod himself had sent and apprehended John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, the wife of Philip his brother, because he had married her. 18. For John said to Herod: It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. 19. Now Herodias laid snares for him, and was desirous to put him to death, and could not. 20. For Herod feared John, knowing him to be a just and holy man; and he kept him, and when he heard him, did many things, and he heard him willingly. 21. And when a convenient day was come, Herod made a supper for his birthday, for the princes, and tribunes, and chief men of Galilee. 22. And when the daughter of the same Herodias had come in, and had danced, and pleased Herod and them that were at table with him, the king said to the maid: Ask of me what you will, and I will give it to you; 23. and he swore to her: Whatsoever you shall ask I will give you, though it be the half of my kingdom. 24. Who when she had gone out, said to her mother: What shall I ask? And she said: The head of John the Baptist. 25. And coming in immediately with haste to the king, she asked, saying: I will that forthwith you give me in a dish the head of John the Baptist. 26. And the king was struck sad: yet because of his oath, and because of them that were with him at table, he would not displease her; 27. but sending an executioner, he commanded that his head should be brought in a dish. And he beheaded him in the prison, 28. and brought his head in a dish, and gave it to the damsel, and the damsel gave it to her mother. 29. Which, when his disciples had heard, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb. 30. And the Apostles coming together to Jesus, related to Him all they had done and had taught. 31. And He said to them: Come apart into a desert place, and rest a little. For there were many coming and going; and they had not so much as time to eat. 32. And going up into a ship, they went into a desert place apart. 33. And they saw them going away, and many knew it; and they ran on foot out of all the cities, and arrived there before them. 34. And Jesus going out saw a great multitude, and had compassion on them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd, and He began to teach them many things. 35. And when the hour was now far spent, His disciples came to Him, saying: This is a desert place, and the hour is now passed: 36. send them away, that going into the next villages and towns, they may buy themselves food to eat. 37. And He answering, said to them: Give them something to eat yourselves. And they said to Him: Let us go and buy bread for two hundred pennyworth, and we will give them to eat. 38. And He said to them: How many loaves have you? go and see. And when they had found out, they said: Five, and two fishes. 39. And He commanded them to make them all sit down by companies upon the green grass. 40. And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by fifties. 41. And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, looking up to heaven, He blessed, and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fishes He divided among them all. 42. And they all ate, and were filled. 43. And they took up the leavings, twelve baskets full of fragments, and of the fishes. 44. And they that ate were five thousand men. 45. And immediately He obliged His disciples to go up into the ship, that they might go before Him over the water to Bethsaida, while He dismissed the people. 46. And when He had dismissed them, He went up to the mountain to pray. 47. And when it was late, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and He alone on the land. 48. And seeing them laboring in rowing (for the wind was against them), and about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking upon the sea, and He would have passed by them. 49. But they, seeing Him walking upon the sea, thought it was a ghost, and they cried out. 50. For they all saw Him, and were troubled. And immediately He spoke with them, and said to them: Have a good heart, it is I, fear not. 51. And He went up to them into the ship, and the wind ceased. And they were far more astonished within themselves: 52. for they understood not concerning the loaves; for their heart was blinded. 53. And when they had crossed over, they came into the land of Genesareth, and set to the shore. 54. And when they had gone out of the ship, immediately they knew Him; 55. and running through that whole country, they began to carry about in beds those that were sick, where they heard He was. 56. And whithersoever He entered, into towns or into villages or cities, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought Him that they might touch but the hem of His garment: and as many as touched Him were made whole.
Verse 1: And Going Forth From There
1. AND GOING FORTH FROM THERE (that is, from the city of Capernaum, where He had raised the daughter of Jairus), HE WENT INTO HIS OWN COUNTRY. — That is, into Nazareth, where Christ had not indeed been born, but had been brought up, and where His brothers and sisters — that is, His kinsmen and kinswomen — dwelt, as is plain from verse 3. So Bede.
Verse 2: They Marvelled at His Doctrine
2. THEY MARVELLED AT HIS DOCTRINE. — That is, they marvelled at His doctrine, so holy, lofty, and divine, and so efficacious: inasmuch as Christ was confirming it by so many miracles. This is a Hebraism. For the Hebrews use the particle beth of contact, whether bodily or mental, in place of the accusative, so as to say: I touch in the hand, that is, I touch the hand; I believe in God, that is, I believe God; I marvel in wisdom, that is, I marvel at wisdom.
Verse 5: And He Could Not Do There Any Mighty Work
5. AND HE COULD NOT DO THERE ANY MIGHTY WORK (miracle). — "He could not," that is, He would not, because He judged it unbecoming that the holy thing should be given to dogs, or that He should thrust His miracles upon His unbelieving and ungrateful fellow citizens. In the same way "to be unable" is taken for "to be unwilling" in Genesis 37:4, and John 7:7. So we commonly say: I cannot bring myself to bestow this favor on that unworthy man; I cannot, that is, I can only with difficulty, because I am unwilling, and my will resists. For, as Victor of Antioch says here, for the obtaining of healing two things must coincide: namely, the faith of those who need the cure, and the power of Him who is to heal them. If one of these is lacking, the benefit of healing will not easily be had. Therefore, in order that a miracle may fittingly come to pass, two things are required: power in the one performing it, and faith in the one receiving it. When either of these is wanting, it is said that the miracle cannot be done. Thus Theophylact and Euthymius.
Verse 6: And He Marvelled Because of Their Unbelief
6. AND HE MARVELLED BECAUSE OF THEIR UNBELIEF. — This saying seems to conflict with Luke 4:22, which reads: "And all bore Him witness, and marvelled at the words of grace which proceeded out of His mouth." I answer that the Nazarenes were indeed astonished that Jesus, being the son of a carpenter known to them and their neighbor, was nevertheless so wise, eloquent, and effective in preaching; but that these same people were unbelievers with respect to His doctrine and His person — that is, they refused to believe that He was the Messiah or the Christ. That this is so is clear from what Luke adds afterwards.
Verse 13: And They Anointed Many Sick With Oil
13. AND THEY ANOINTED MANY SICK WITH OIL, AND HEALED THEM. — Some think that this anointing is the same as that which St. James speaks of in his epistle, chapter 5, verse 14 — namely, the sacrament of Extreme Unction. So Bede, Theophylact, Lyra, Dionysius the Carthusian, Francis Lucas, and others, who hold that the sacrament of Extreme Unction had already been instituted by Christ, and that the Apostles administered it here to the sick by Christ's command, even though they had not yet been ordained priests by Him.
But the opposite view appears to be truer. First, because only a priest is the minister of the sacrament of Extreme Unction; yet the Apostles were not yet priests, for it was at the Last Supper that Christ made them priests, saying: "Do this in remembrance of Me."
Second, because the Apostles here anointed any and every sick person — hence also those who were not baptized and not dying. But Extreme Unction is conferred only upon those who are baptized and at the point of death.
Third, all those who were here anointed by the Apostles were healed; but this does not happen in Extreme Unction, which is primarily directed to the health and strengthening of the soul.
Fourth, because the Council of Trent (session 14) says that the sacrament of Extreme Unction is indeed hinted at in Mark, but was commended to the faithful and promulgated by the Apostle James, the brother of the Lord. This anointing therefore was a type and, as it were, a prelude to the institution of the sacrament of Extreme Unction, not the Sacrament itself. This anointing, then, was miraculous — that is, a gift of miracles given to the Apostles for a time, so that by it they might confirm their preaching concerning Christ; it was not a sacrament destined to endure forever. In the same way St. Genevieve and many holy hermits used to heal the sick by sending them oil blessed by themselves, as is plain from the Lives of the Fathers.
Victor of Antioch gives the reason why they used oil rather than wine, saying: "Oil among other things alleviates the distress of labors, feeds light, and produces cheerfulness." The oil, therefore, which is used in the sacred anointing signifies God's mercy, the healing of sickness, and the enlightenment of the heart. The same is maintained by Theophylact and Euthymius. In the same way the baptism of John was not a Sacrament, but a type and prelude of the sacrament of Baptism soon to be instituted by Christ. So the commentators generally.
Verse 16: John, Whom I Beheaded, Is Risen Again
16. WHICH HEROD HEARING, SAID: JOHN, WHOM I BEHEADED, IS RISEN AGAIN FROM THE DEAD. — That is, when Jesus was working so many miracles — as if he were saying: The soul of John has passed into Jesus, and therefore there, rising again as it were, and made more divine, it works in Him so many and such astonishing things. Luke (9:7) says that Herod at first was in doubt; but afterward, because of the general and widespread reputation of Jesus' many miracles, he believed that John had risen again in Jesus, as Mark says here and Matthew in chapter 14. So St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius, St. Augustine, and others. For at that time the doctrine of Pythagoras concerning μετεμψύχωσις — that is, metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls from one body into another — was in vogue. Whence Pythagoras himself used to say of his own person:
"I myself remember that, in the time of the Trojan war, / I was Euphorbus the son of Panthous, in whose breast / Once the heavy spear of the younger son of Atreus was fixed from the front" —
namely, Menelaus, who was the brother of King Agamemnon and the son of Atreus. A thing altogether prodigious and unheard of is what St. Athanasius — the first bishop of Saragossa, appointed by the Apostle St. James — hands down concerning St. Peter, the first bishop of Braga and his fellow disciple: namely, that this Peter is the same person as Samuel, the son of Uriah. For when Uriah the Prophet was slain by Joakim, king of Judah, about the time of the Babylonian captivity (as Jeremiah testifies in chapter 26, verse 20), he left a son Samuel, who, coming into Spain with other Jews, died and was buried there. Six hundred years after his burial, St. James, coming into Spain, raised him from the tomb, named him Peter, and made him the first bishop of Braga; and he afterward obtained the laurel of martyrdom for the faith of Christ. So reports blessed Caledonius, bishop of Braga, who died in the year of Christ 260. See Francis Bivar commenting on the Chronicle of Lucius Dexter, under the year of Christ 37, number 2, commentary 1.
What wonder, then, if Herod thought that John, whom he had lately slain, had risen again in Christ? Observe here how holy John the Baptist was, and how great a reputation for sanctity he had, since Herod on the strength of common report judged that he had risen again in Christ — and therefore that John was the Messiah or Christ — and so feared him whom he had already killed, lest rising again he should avenge his own death. Whence St. Chrysostom on Matthew 14: "A great thing, he says, is virtue: for Herod fears even a dead man." For, as Rabanus says in the same place: "It is the opinion of all that the power of the Saints will be greater when they have risen again." So too Bede.
Verse 17: For Herod Himself Sent and Apprehended John
17. FOR HEROD HIMSELF SENT (his attendants), AND APPREHENDED JOHN, AND BOUND HIM IN PRISON FOR THE SAKE OF HERODIAS, THE WIFE OF PHILIP HIS BROTHER, BECAUSE HE HAD MARRIED HER. — This Herod is not the first, or the Great — the one whose native place and surname was Ascalon, under whom Christ was born, and who slew the infants at Bethlehem — but his son, surnamed Antipas, who mocked Christ clothed in a white garment and sent Him back, after mocking Him, to Pilate. For this is he who imprisoned and killed John the Baptist.
You will say: Herod Antipas was only a tetrarch; for so Matthew calls him in chapter 14, verse 1. How then does Mark here, at verse 14, call him king? I answer: Mark calls him king because he was in his own tetrarchy the supreme ruler, such as a king is in his kingdom; hence he took to himself the title of king, and it was attributed to him by others, even by St. Matthew himself in chapter 14, verse 9.
IN PRISON. — Josephus adds that John was imprisoned in the citadel of Machaerus, which is situated on the borders of Galilee and Arabia, and that he was beheaded there. St. John, therefore, ennobled this prison. For, as Philo says in his book On Joseph, the place was not so much a prison as a training school of discipline. Seneca, in the Consolation to Albina, says: "Socrates entered prison and took away the disgrace from the place itself; for it could not look like a prison in which Socrates was." Whence St. Cyprian, in book IV, epistle 1 to the Martyrs (in the old edition), says: "O blessed prison, which your presence has illumined! O darkness more shining than the very sun, where God's temples have been set up!" The same, in book III, epistle 25, On the Chains of the Martyrs, says: "These are ornaments, not chains: and they do not bind the feet of Christians to shame, but glorify them for a crown." Therefore St. Ambrose, On Joseph, chapter 5, says: "Let not the innocent be disturbed when they are assailed with false accusations: God visits His own even in prison, and so there is more help there where there is more danger. But what wonder if God visits those imprisoned, who counted Himself shut up in prison with His own? 'I was in prison,' He says, 'and you did not come to Me'" (Matthew 25:44).
FOR THE SAKE OF HERODIAS. — This Herodias was the daughter of Aristobulus, brother of Herod Antipas; Antipas therefore married her, who was his own niece through his brother. So Josephus. Herodias was therefore the sister of Herod Agrippa — the one who killed James and in his turn was struck down by an angel (Acts 12). Hence Rufinus errs, and St. Jerome, Eusebius, and Bede who follow him, when they say that she was the daughter of Aretas, king of the Arabs: they confuse the first wife of Herod, who was the daughter of Aretas, with the second, who was Herodias. For Herod repudiated the daughter of Aretas in order to marry Herodias, on which account Aretas made war on him and destroyed his army to the last man, as Josephus testifies (Antiquities, book 18, chapter 7). Josephus adds: "Among the Jews there was the opinion that Herod's army was destroyed by a just vengeance of the Deity, on account of John the Baptist, a holy man whom Herod had killed."
THE WIFE OF HIS BROTHER. — You will say: Josephus in Antiquities, book 18, chapters 6, 7, and 9, says that she had been the wife of another Herod, who was the brother of Philip and Herod Antipas. I answer: Josephus errs on this point, as he does on many others — unless we say that Herodias was first married to Herod Antipas. Josephus also errs in the same passage when he says that John was killed, not on account of Herodias, but because Herod feared lest some sedition should arise through the people's flocking to him.
Commentators disagree as to whether Herodias married Herod while her husband Philip was still alive, or only after his death. For it is not concealed that either case would have been unlawful and a sin of incest, and also of adultery if Philip was still alive. For Leviticus 18:16 forbids a brother to marry his brother's wife if the brother has left offspring by her — as Philip had left this dancing girl as his daughter, whom Josephus calls Salome.
But I say that Herod took Herodias while Philip was still alive and against his will, and therefore sinned in a threefold manner: first, by adultery; second, by incest; third, by rape (carrying her off by force). This is proved, first, because Josephus asserts it expressly in Antiquities, book 18, chapter 7. Second, because he married her around the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar; for it was then that John began to preach, as is clear from Luke 3:1. But Philip died in the 20th year of Tiberius, as Josephus affirms in Antiquities, book 18, chapter 6, where he also commends him for modesty and justice. Third, because the Fathers throughout accuse Herod of adultery, in that he took the wife of his brother while that brother was still alive — a brother who was, indeed, meek: for Herod abused his gentleness.
Verse 20: For Herod Feared John
20. FOR HEROD FEARED JOHN, KNOWING HIM TO BE A JUST AND HOLY MAN. — At first, therefore, Herodias alone wished to kill John, inasmuch as he was the one who rebuked her adultery and incest, while Herod himself dissented — as Mark here and Luke 9 signify. But afterwards Herodias persuaded her husband Herod of the same thing, and that easily, because Herod — as Josephus testifies in Antiquities, book 19, chapter 7 — was of a malignant disposition, ill-natured and prone to cruelty, and bore an enmity toward John because of his frequent rebukes. For John was "the voice of one crying in the wilderness" (Isaiah 40:3; Matthew 3:3). "For Herodias feared," says Bede, "lest at some time Herod should come to his senses at John's rebuke, dissolve the marriage, and restore Herodias, once taken away, to his brother Philip."
Verse 22: And When the Daughter of the Same Herodias Had Danced
22. AND WHEN THE DAUGHTER OF THE SAME HERODIAS (by her former husband Philip) HAD COME IN, AND HAD DANCED, AND PLEASED HEROD. — That dancing girls were formerly employed at banquets among the Jews for the sake of luxury is clear from Josephus, Antiquities, book 12, chapter 4. The same holds true of Greek dancing girls, as is clear from Xenophon in the Symposium, and from Lucian in his Dialogue On Dancing Girls, where by many examples and by the opinions of the philosophers he teaches that dancing skillfully set to musical measures softens even a manly and harsh spirit, and bends it at will. Truly Ecclesiasticus 9 says: "Be not continually with a dancing woman, and do not listen to her, lest perhaps you perish by her power." Truly Remigius, on Matthew 14, says: "The shameless mother reared a shameless daughter, teaching her not modesty but dancing. Nor is Herod less to be blamed, who suffered the royal hall to be made a theater by a woman."
Verse 25: Give Me the Head of John the Baptist
25. I WILL THAT YOU GIVE ME FORTHWITH IN A DISH THE HEAD OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. — You will say: John the Baptist therefore is not a martyr, because Herod killed him not on account of the faith, nor on account of his rebuke of his own adultery, but in order to please the dancing girl and to make good his promise to her. I answer: I deny the consequence. For, first, this girl asked for John's head at the instigation of her mother Herodias, who wished in this way to remove John from the scene, as the one who had censured her adultery. Herodias therefore, as the moral cause, herself killed John, by driving Herod to behead him, and in this way made him a martyr. Second, Herod consented to her; for, knowing the wicked mind of his wife, he obeyed her and put John to death. Third, Herod too wished to kill John, as Matthew plainly says (14:5); but out of fear of the people, who applauded John as a holy man, he did not dare to do it. Finally, many probably suppose that all these things were done by collusion and by prearrangement — that is, that Herod had suggested to Herodias that she send in her dancing daughter at the supper and have her ask for John's head: for in this way he would have an honorable opportunity and excuse for killing John by reason of his oath, and for this cause Herod is called a "fox" by Christ (Luke 13:32). St. John was therefore a victim of chastity, since he fell a martyr for her — just as were St. Paul, St. Matthew, St. Clement, St. Lambert, and many others.
Furthermore, a loftier cause of the untimely death of St. John — namely, on the part of God and according to His hidden counsel — is assigned by St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 20: "Who," he says, "was the forerunner of Jesus? John, as the voice of the discourse, and as the lamp of the light, before whom He leapt forth both in virtue, and was sent down to the lower regions by Herod's fury, that there also He might foretell the One soon to come." The same Nazianzen, in Oration 39, teaches that St. John by the prophetic spirit foreknew this his martyrdom. For he says: "I ought to be baptized by You" (O Christ). Add: and for You. For he had it fully ascertained that he would be baptized by martyrdom. For he knew that it would come to pass that, just as after Herod Pilate would rage, so also he himself, his life having been ended first, would be followed by Christ.
Verse 26: And the King Was Struck Sad
26. AND THE KING WAS STRUCK SAD. — That is, he feigned himself to be sad, say St. Hilary and St. Jerome on Matthew 14, because in truth he wished to kill John, as Matthew says. Whence the Gloss on Matthew 14 says: "Such was Herod's sorrow as Pharaoh's repentance." And the Interlinear Gloss says: "The hypocrite wore sorrow on his face, while he rejoiced in his mind."
More simply, St. Chrysostom, Euthymius, and Theophylact hold that Herod truly was saddened, as Matthew and Mark report. For although he wanted John killed, nevertheless he grieved at so cruel and for himself so disgraceful a slaying of him — namely, that he was killing so great a Prophet to please a dancing girl.
ON ACCOUNT OF HIS OATH. — As the pretext for John's death, Herod put forward the oath he had made to the girl. For although he knew that in this particular case — namely, because of the girl's so unworthy, unjust, and sacrilegious request — the oath did not bind him, still he thought it royal not to retract it in the presence of his noblemen, according to the saying: "The word of a king is itself a king." So speaks this worldly man.
Whence St. Augustine, in his Sermon 116 (in the new edition), says: "The girl dances, the mother rages, and amidst the delights and lewdness of the banqueters a rash oath is taken, and what is sworn impiously is fulfilled impiously." For, as St. Isidore says: "In evil promises one must break one's word: that is an impious promise which is fulfilled by a crime." And St. Jerome says: "Under the pretext of piety he was impious, while he excused his crime by an oath."
Verse 27: But Sending an Executioner
27. BUT SENDING AN EXECUTIONER. — That is, a headsman. For executioners were soldiers, and men of the praetorian guard carrying javelins. Whence they were called "spiculatores" (javelin-men), as Calepinus says. But our own Jacob Gretser, in book I, On the Cross, chapter 25, on the authority of Suidas and Julius Firmicus, holds that executioners should rather be called "speculatores" (for in the Greek it is σπεκουλάτωρα, a word which is altogether Latin and the same as speculator) — in Greek θρίπας [thripas] — because their function was to look out for the plots and deeds of enemies, to surround and guard princes like bodyguards, and to execute those condemned by them. So also Francis Lucas here, and Lipsius on Tacitus, Brisson, and some others, who assert that Suetonius and Tacitus call an executioner speculator; but none of them cites any passage, nor have I been able to find any in which the word speculator is used by Latin or Greek writers for an executioner, except this one of Mark in the Greek. So then, the spiculator in Latin is the same as σπεκουλάτωρ in Greek: for the Greeks, changing the vowel i to e (as the Italians often do), for spiculator said speculator, as the Lexicographer thinks.
HE COMMANDED THAT HIS HEAD SHOULD BE BROUGHT IN A DISH. — So that the barbarian might season the banquet with cruelty and this horrid spectacle. Bede adds: He wishes all his guests to be sharers of his crime, so that in the luxurious banquet bloody dishes should be served up. Furthermore, St. Gregory (Moralia, book III, chapter 4) says: "God presses down His own in the lowest things, because He sees how He will reward them in the highest: what will they suffer whom God rejects, if here He torments those whom He loves?"
AND HE BEHEADED HIM IN THE PRISON. — That is, the executioner sent by Herod for this purpose. Whence the Greek and the Syriac read: "who, when he had gone, beheaded him."
St. John therefore has many laurels: first, that of a doctor; second, of a virgin; third, of a martyr; fourth, of a prophet; fifth, of a hermit; sixth, of an apostle; seventh, of the forerunner, the pointer-out, and the baptizer of Christ. Truly, St. Augustine, Sermon 36, On the Saints, says: "John loses his life for the sake of righteousness, but gains glory; for in full and perfect freedom he chose to endure unjust things rather than not speak just things."
You will ask, at what time was St. John killed? First, Abulensis says it cannot be determined; so he himself (on Matthew 14, verse 4). Second, Bede — and following him Baronius at the year of Christ 33, number 8; Maldonatus; Barradius (and St. Augustine in De Consensu Evangelistarum, book II, chapter 45, appears to agree) — hold that John was killed about Passover, namely, in the 33rd year of Christ's age, then currently running. They prove it from this, that Matthew (14:13) says that Christ, when He had heard of John's death, withdrew into the desert, where He fed five thousand men; and that this happened around Passover (John 6:4).
Third, very probably our Salian, in the Annals, volume 6, at the end, at the year of Christ 32, number 20, holds that John was killed at the end of the 32nd year of Christ's age — namely, in December. He proves it first because Nicephorus (book I, chapter 19, at the end) says that John was killed when he was in the 32nd year of his age and a half — that is, when Christ was completing the 32nd year of His age. For John was born on the 24th of June, and was half a year, or six months, older than Christ, who was born on the 25th of December of the same year.
Second, because, although Christ's withdrawal into the desert — of which Matthew speaks in chapter 14 — took place around Passover, yet the death of John considerably preceded this withdrawal. For Christ withdrew not so much on account of the death of John as because the fame of His miracles was now growing widespread, so that many supposed John to have risen again in Him, as Theophylact and Jansen plainly state. And this happened a good while after John's death, so that John appears to have been killed in December, while Christ's withdrawal was made in March, at the following Passover. For the intervening period is demanded by the miracles which Christ performed after John's death, and likewise by the fame of them being spread everywhere, so that from this Herod suspected John to have revived in Jesus. When Jesus heard of this, fearing that Herod would kill Him too, He withdrew into the desert.
Finally, some fittingly suppose that John was killed on the 29th of August; for on this day the Church celebrates the feast of the beheading of the Baptist — although Baronius, following Bede, judges in his Martyrology that on that day the Church is rather commemorating the finding of the head of St. John the Baptist.
Verse 28: And He Brought His Head in a Dish
28. AND HE BROUGHT HIS HEAD IN A DISH, AND GAVE IT TO THE DAMSEL, AND THE DAMSEL GAVE IT TO HER MOTHER. — The shamefulness of this homicide — indeed, of this sacrilege — is set out at length by St. Chrysostom in Homily 49 on Matthew; by St. Augustine in Sermon 36, On the Saints, and Sermon 116 (in the new edition); and by St. Ambrose in book III, On Virgins, near the beginning, where among other things he says: "The reward of the dancing girl is the death of a Prophet, etc. This dish was owed to cruelty, that a ferocity not sated with its feast might feed on it." And soon after: "Behold the eyes, in death itself the witnesses of your crime, turning away from the sight of the delicacies. The eyes are closed not so much by the necessity of death as by horror of the luxury. That golden mouth, now bloodless, whose sentence you could not bear — it is silent, and still it is feared."
Jerome, in his treatise against Rufinus, hands down that Herodias heaped insults upon the severed head, and with her hairpin pierced that most holy tongue, speaking thus: "Do not glory too much, if you have done what scorpions do, and what the cantharides have done: these same things both Fulvia did to Cicero, and Herodias to John. Because they could not bear to hear the truth, they transfixed with a hairpin the tongue that spoke truly." So says St. Jerome at the end of the Apology against Rufinus.
On that account the just vengeance of God raged upon them all. For Herod was defeated by Aretas, then driven into exile together with Herodias to Lyons, and was stripped of his tetrarchy and of all his goods by Gaius Caligula the Emperor — this being brought about and pressed by his accuser Agrippa, the brother of Herodias, as Josephus narrates in Antiquities, book 18, chapter 10. Moreover, the dancing daughter had her head cut off by the ice, and in the very ice she danced.
Hear Nicephorus, book I, chapter 20: "She had to go somewhere in the winter season, and a river had to be crossed, which, being bound fast by the ice and solidly joined, she was walking over on foot. But the ice broke, and this not without the will of God, and she was suddenly plunged in up to her neck. With the lower parts of her body wantonly dancing and moving softly, she danced — not on the ground, but in the waves. But her wicked head, frozen together by the cold and the ice, then pierced with wounds, and severed from the rest of her body, not by iron but by the sharp edges of the ice, exhibited a deadly dance in the ice itself; and, this spectacle being presented to all, it recalled to those watching the memory of the things she had done."
Hear also Lucius Dexter in the Chronicle, at the year of Christ 34: "Herod Antipas, together with Herodias his incestuous concubine, was driven out of all Judaea, and first went into exile in Gaul, then at Ilerda in Spain, and there he miserably died. But Herodias, dancing over the river Sicoris at Ilerda, which had frozen over, fell in and perished miserably by drowning."
Verse 29: They Laid It in a Tomb
29. THEY LAID IT IN A TOMB. — St. Jerome, in the passage already cited, hands down that the body of St. John was buried in Sebaste, which was formerly called Samaria, where likewise the Prophets Elisha and Obadiah lie buried. Furthermore, so great miracles was St. John working in Sebaste that Julian the Apostate ordered his body to be burnt; but Christians secretly stole away his relics.
On the discovery of the head of St. John see the Ecclesiastical History, book XI, chapter 28, and Baronius, and others. There is also, among the works of St. Cyprian, a treatise On the Discovery of the Head of St. John. Finally, Sozomen, in book VII, chapter 24, narrates that the Emperor Theodosius, setting out on his war against the tyrant Eugenius, went to the temple of St. John and there besought him for victory; whereupon a demon went out of the temple crying: "You will conquer me; you will overthrow my army" — and so it came to pass.