The event, indeed, proved that John was to Herod what Elijah had been to Ahab, and a prison was deemed too light a punishment for his boldness in asserting God's law before the face of a king and a queen. Noth- ing but the death of the Baptist would satisfy the re- sentment of Herodias. Though foiled once, she contin- ued to watch her opportunity, which jjt length arrived. A court festival was kept in honor of the king's birth- day. After supper the daughter of Herodias came in and danced before the company, and so charmed was the king by her grace that he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she should ask. Salome, prompt- ed by her abandoned mother, demanded the head of John the Baptist. The promise had been given in the hearing of his distinguished guests, and so Herod, though loth to be made the instrument of so bloody a work, gave instructions to an officer of his guard, who went and executed John in the jirison, and his head was brought to feast the ej'es of the adulteress whose sins he had denounced. See Herodias. According to the Scripture account, the daughter of Herodias ob- tained the Baptist's head at the entertainment, without delay. How could this be when jMachierus lay at a dis- tance from Jerusalem '? The feast seems to have been made at ]\Iachierus, which, besides being a stronghold, was also a palace, built by Herod the Great, and here Antipas appears to have been spending some time with his paramour Herodias.
4. Thus was John added to that glorious army of martyrs who have suffered for righteousness' sake. His death seems to have occurred just before the third Pass- over, in the course of the Lord's ministry, A.D. 28. Herod undoubtedly looked upon him as some extraor- dinary person, for no sooner did he hear of the miracles of Jesus than, though a Sadducee himself, and, as such, a disbeliever in the resurrection, he ascribed tliem to John, whom he supposed to have risen from the dead. See Herod Antipas. Holy Scripture tells us that the body of the Baptist was laid in the tomb by his disci- ples, and ecclesiastical history records the honors which successive generations paid to his memorj'. He is men- tioned in the Koran, with much honor, under the name of Ja/ija (see Hottinger, Hisforia Orientalis, p. 144-149, Tigur. 1660 ; Herbelot, Bihlioth. Or. ii, 283 sq.).
The brief history of John's life is marked throughout with the characteristic graces of self-denial, humilitj', and holy courage. So great, indeed, was his abstinence that worldlj' men considered him possessed. "John
came neither eating nor drinking, and they said he hath a devil." His humility was such that he had again and again to disavow the character and decline tlie honors which an admiring multitude almost forced upon him. To their questions he answered plainly he was not the Christ, nor the Elijah of whom they were think- ing, nor one of their old prophets. He was no one — a voice merely— the voice of God calling his people to re- pentance in preparation for the coming of him whose shoe-latchet he was not worthy to unloose. For his boldness in speaking truth, he went a willing victim to prison and to death. — Smith ; Kitto.
Resembling, though John did, in so many things the Elijah of former days, the exit of the one from his field of labor was remarkable for its humiliating circum- stances, as the other for its singidar glory — the one dy- ing as a felon by the hand of the executioner, the other, v.'ithout tasting at all of death, ascending to heaven in a chariot of tire. But in John's case it could not be otherwise; the forerunner, no more than the disciple, could be above his Master; and especially in the treat- ment of the one must the followers of Jesus be prepared for what was going to be accomphshed in the other. After John's death, and growing out of it, a whole series of special actions and discourses were directed to this end by our Lord. The manner of John's death, there- fore, is on no account to be regarded as throwing a de- preciatory reflection on his position and ministry. He Avas, as Christ himself testified, '■ a burning and "a shin- ing light" (John v, 35), and he fulfilled his arduous course in a truly noble and valiant spirit. — Fairbaim.
5. For the literature connected with this subject, see, besides the treatises noticed above, Hase, Lchen Jesu (4th ed. Leipzig, 1854), p. 82, 86, 149 ; Tolbeding. Index Programmatum, p. 20 sq., 23, 125; Walch, Bihliotheca Theologica, iii, 402 ; Witsii Exerc. de Joanne Bapi. (in his Miscell. Sacra, ii, 867) ; Leopold, Johannes der Tau- fer (Hannov. 1825); Usteri, Nachrirhten von Johannes dem Tavfer (in the Studien und Kriiiken, 1829, iii, 439) ; Yon Eohden, Johannes der Tavfer (Liibeck, 1838); Ne- ander, Leh. Jesu (Hamb. 1837), p. 49 ; Keim, LeL Jcsu, i, 469-523 ; Hausrath, Leben Jesu, p. 316-340. The eccle- siastical traditions touching John may be found in the A eta Sancf. iv, 687-846 ; and, in a compendious form, in Tillemont, Memoires, i, 82-108, 482-595. Other treat- ises of a more special character, in addition to those above cited, are : Hottinger, Pent as dissert. Bibl.*chro-^ nol. (Traj. a. E. 1723) p. 143 sq.; Deyling, Observationes' sacr. iii, 251 sq. ; Ammo-i, Pr. de doctrina et morte Jo. Bapt. (Erlangen, 1809) ; liau, Pr. de Joan. Bupt. in rem Chi-ist. stud lis (Frlang. 1785), ii, 4; Abegg, Orat. de Jo, Bapt. (Heidelb. 1820) ; Bax, Specim. de Jo. Bapt. (L. B. 1821) ; Sttiii, Ueb. Gesch. Lehre v. Schicksale Jnh. d. T. (in Keil's Analect. iv, i, 37 sq.); Wessenberg, Johannes der Vorldiifer vns. Ilerrn (Constanz, 1821); MUller, />, de Jo. Bapt. (Helmst. 1733) ; Asp. Obs. Phil. hist, de Jo. Bapt. (Upsala, 1733); Lisco, Biblische Beitr . iiber J. d. Tdiifer (Berlin, 1826) ; Eckhard, Josephus de Jo. Bapt. testatus (Eisen. 1785) ; Harcnberg, Be cibo Jo. Bap)t. (in Otia Gund. sacra, Traj. ad R. 1740, p. 1 sq.) ; Amnele, .4 mictus et rictus J. Bapt. (Upsal. 1755) ; StoUberg, id. (Vitemb. 1673) ; Caqazov, De ciiltu Jo. B.Antiquat. Chr. (Rome, 1755) ; Huth, Num. Jo. B. Maria et discip. Chr. fuerint baptizati (Erlangen, 1759) ; Blatt, A Dissert, on John^s Message to our Saviour (London, 1789); Zeiger- mann, Co7nm. de consil. quo Jo. discip. ad Jesvm ahlega- rerit (Nuremb. 1813) ; Frank, Joh. d. Taufer (Eisleben, 1841); Kromayer, De baptisme Christi (Lips. 1680).