14:1,2
Herod the tetrarch was Herod Antipas, one of the sons of Herod the Great. After Herod the Great died his kingdom was divided in four parts, and Herod the tetrarch ruled one of these parts. The various Herods were not good guys, being prone to violence and corruption of various sorts. We will shortly read how Herod had John the Baptist killed. There have been, are, and always will be tyrants of various sorts. Ranging from the mega tyrants like Hitler, Stalin and Mao Tse Tung, to lesser ones like Mugabe, and local tyrants.They have power of a sort, and do much evil with it, usually costing many lives and making many others miserable. This is what tyrants do, but they are also weak figures, ruled by paranoia, guilt and fear, and we see this in the story related here. Herod had had John the Baptist killed (which was an act of weakness). Herod knew that that had been a wrong thing to do, so when he hears about Jesus he thinks John the Baptist had risen from the dead! In effect, he believed he was being haunted.
14:3-5
Herodias was a granddaughter of Herod the Great. Herodias had married her uncle, Herod Philip (a lot of evil people were called Herod at the time, fortunately it is not a Biblical name that has caught on!) who lived in Rome. Herod Antipas (the Herod who is in the events here) had persuaded Herodias to leave her husband. This was forbidden under the Law (Lev 18:16). John had declared to Herod that what he was doing was wrong. John was truly speaking “truth to power”. So Herod had him thrown into prison.
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